Suchergebnisse

The conventional view of the sustainability of social development is based on the works of the Roman Club, particularly the book "The Limits to Growth" by Donella Meadows and her colleagues (1972). In their opinion, the human population and economy are depleting the wealth of the Earth and pollutants and wastes are burdening the environment. However, the concern that mineral resources will be depleted is unsubstantiated. Environmental economics argues that a higher number of people and a higher income make resources scarcer on a short-term basis. For investors and entrepreneurs, higher prices represent an opportunity and an incentive to search for solutions. Many of them will not succeed in this search and they will bear the costs on their own. However, in a free society, the solutions are eventually found. And in the long run, we are better off thanks to the new discoveries than if the original problems had never occurred. Adapted from the source document.

The paper poses the question whether the economics of science could be the key to economic methodology. First, the sociology of science, which tries to put science in social context, is described. Then, the economic approach to science, inspired by Tullock, Stigler and Becker, is explained. We point out the problem of circle, according to which putting science in context does not imply relativism as concerns the truth. This conclusion underlines the Popperian message of the paper. Adapted from the source document.

The paper is concerned with the economic theory of George Stigler. First part outlines the life of George Stigler. Second part examines his dissertation "Production and Distribution Theories" (1941). Third part discusses his textbook "The Theory of Price" (1946). Fourth part is devoted to his "Essays in the History of Economics" (1965). Fifth part analyzes the work "The Organization of Industry" (1968). Sixth part explains "The Theory of Economic Regulation" (1971). Seventh part discusses Stigler's book "The Citizen and the State" (1975). Eighth part presents his autobiography "Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist" (1988). Stigler has become famous thanks to articles "Economics of Information" (1961) and "Theory of Economic Regulation" (1971), which says that interest groups and other political participants will use the regulatory and coercive powers of government to shape laws and regulations in a way that is beneficial to them. Adapted from the source document.