Economists and White House Decisions

[Symposium: Economists as Policy Advocates]

By Stuart E. Eizenstat

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

While I served in the White House, [as Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs and Policy and Executive Director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff from 1977-81], Ph.D. economists occupied the positions of Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Co...

Economists and the Media

[Symposium: Economists as Policy Advocates]

By Michael Weinstein

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

When my colleagues at The New York Times use the word "academic," they intend no compliment; they mean irrelevant. And when my former colleagues in the academy describe someone's work as "journalistic," they invariably mean shallow. One way to frame discu...

Organizational Capabilities and the Economic History of the Industrial Enterprise

By Alfred D. Chandler

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

In my book Scale and Scope (1990), I focused on the history of the modern industrial firm from the 1880s, when such firms first appeared, through World War II. I did so by comparing the fortunes of more than 600 enterprises—the 200 largest industria...

Market Socialism: A Case for Rejuvenation

By Pranab Bardhan and John E. Roemer

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

In this paper, we will outline a feasible economic mechanism of "competitive socialism." Our claim is that competitive markets are necessary to achieve an efficient and vigorous economy, but that full-scale private ownership is not necessary for the succe...

Distortionary Taxes and the Provision of Public Goods

By Charles L. Ballard and Don Fullerton

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

Economists have long been concerned with finding an efficient level of public expenditure. The classic statement of the problem was given by Paul Samuelson (1954). An optimal level of expenditure is where the sum of the marginal rates of substitution betw...

Predatory versus Productive Government: The Case of U.S. Agricultural Policies

By Gordon C. Rausser

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

This essay will argue that agricultural policy in the United States has led to both the enhancement of efficiency through "productive policies" and the transfer of wealth and income to special interests through redistributive or "predatory policies." Thes...

How Costly Is Protectionism?

By Robert C. Feenstra

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

How costly is protectionism? This paper begins from a U.S. perspective, examining the costs to both the U.S. and other countries from U.S. protectionism. It emphasizes that substantial costs are imposed on foreign countries by U.S. protectionism. These co...

Distinguished Fellow: In Honor of Victor Fuchs

By Joseph P. Newhouse

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

Victor Fuchs is a towering figure. His contributions to economics have spanned nearly 35 years. As his career has progressed, he has increasingly come to write on subjects of broad interest in a style that is accessible to noneconomists, thereby magnifyin...

Retrospectives: The Lost Art of Economics

By David Colander

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

Economists generally divide economics into two distinct categories—positive and normative—but how applied economics fits within these categories is unclear. This paper argues that applied economics belongs in neither normative nor positive eco...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Bernard Saffran

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

Correspondence: The Source of Animal Spirits

By D. E. Moggridge

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

Correspondence and response regarding: The Source of Animal Spirits

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

Front Matter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1992

A Note from the President-Elect

By Zvi Griliches

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1992

A few months ago, Congress overruled the peer review process of the National Science Foundation. A congressional aide looked over the list of NSF grants, decided that 31 of them had titles unworthy of funding, and a conference committee voted on May 21 to...

Product Markets and 1992: Full Integration, Large Gains?

[Symposium: Europe in 1992]

By Harry Flam

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1992

The goal of the '"1992" program is to complete by January 1, 1993, what the European Community set out to do in 1957: create a common market with a free flow of goods, services, labor, and capital. If the program is completed, the twelve member countries ...

Economic and Monetary Union in Europe

[Symposium: Europe in 1992]

By Charles R. Bean

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1992

The European Council's Maastricht Agreement maps out a precise route to monetary union and the eventual introduction of a common currency. My discussion begins with a look at the general arguments for and against monetary union. I shall then discuss the p...

Common Knowledge

[Symposium: Common Knowledge]

By John Geanakoplos

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1992

An event is common knowledge among a group of agents if each one knows it, if each one knows that the others know it, if each one knows that each one knows that the others know it, and so on. Thus, common knowledge is the limit of a potentially infinite c...

Knowledge and Equilibrium in Games

[Symposium: Common Knowledge]

By Adam Brandenburger

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1992

This paper describes an approach to noncooperative game theory that aims to capture considerations that exercise the minds of real-world strategists. The most commonly used tool of noncooperative game theory is the Nash equilibrium. This raises the questi...

Rationality in Extensive-Form Games

[Symposium: Common Knowledge]

By Philip J. Reny

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1992

Let us adopt the classical point of view that a theory of games is a description of "rational" behavior. Consequently, equipped with a book entitled "Theory of Games," any individual in any strategic situation need only consult the book to make a "rationa...

An Interpretation of Recent Research on Exchange Rate Target Zones

By Lars E. O. Svensson

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1992

How do exchange rate bands work compared to completely fixed rates (between realignments); or, more precisely, what are the dynamics of exchange rates, interest rates, and central bank interventions within exchange rate bands? Does the difference between ...