Economics for the Curious: Inside the Minds of 12 Nobel Laureates

200 Pages·2014·1.371 MB·English

by  Robert M. Solow, Janice Murray (eds.)

Economics for the Curious
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ECONOMICS
FOR THE
CURIOUS
Inside the Minds
of 12 Nobel Laureates
Edited by
ROBERT M. SOLOW AND
JANICE MURRAY
© Foundation Lindau Nobelprizewinners Meeting at Lake Constance 2014
© for the Laureates’ portraits – Peter Badge/typos 1 in cooperation with the
Foundation Lindau Nobelprizewinners Meetings at Lake Constance
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-38358-7
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saff ron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Th e authors have asserted their rights to be identifi ed as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fift h Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-48058-6 ISBN 978-1-137-38359-4 (eBook)
DOI10.1057/9781137383594
Th is book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
This book is dedicated to Professor Wolfgang Schürer,
who started it all
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Depressions are Diff erent 7
Paul R. Krugman
2 Rethinking Economics: A Classical
Perspective 19
Vernon L. Smith
3 Employment and Unemployment 33
Peter A. Diamond
4 Unemployment During and Aft er the Great
Recession 43
Dale T. Mortensen
5 Long-Term Trends and Structural Changes
in the Global Economy 61
A. Michael Spence
6 On Policy Consistency 77
Finn E. Kydland
7 Natural Resources and Sustainability 97
Robert M. Solow
viii CONTENTS
8 Research Studies Approaching Cooperative
Games with New Methods 109
John F. Nash Jr.
9 Interdisciplinary Social Science:
Th e Transaction Cost Economics Project 123
Oliver E. Williamson
10 Financing Retirement 141
William F. Sharpe
11 How Should We Elect Our Leaders? 159
Eric S. Maskin
12 Standards for State-Building Interventions 171
Roger B. Myerson
Appendix A: List of Nobel Laureates 189
Appendix B: Th e Lindau Meetings 193
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Any book’s production, from genesis to completion, needs
and benefits from the involvement of many people. We wish
to recognize those who gave much-needed support: Nikolaus
Turner and Wolfgang Huang at the Lindau Nobel Laureates
Meetings; Andreas Böhm; copy-editor Elizabeth Stone; and
David Bull at Palgrave. We are especially grateful to Peter
Badge for the p ortraits of the Laureates, and to Chris Richmo nd
for preparing the biographies.
John G. Froemming of Jones Day, in Washington, DC and
New York, was so generous with his time in providing legal
counsel. Peter Baker at Palgrave graciously and patiently shep-
herded us through the process.
Last but not least, without financial support from the Foun-
dation Lindau Nobelprizewinners Meetings at Lake Constance,
and the inspiration and devotion to education of Wolfgang
Schürer, this book would never have reached fruition.