Suchergebnisse

De engelske kornlovene 1815–1846 ble initiert for å beskytte grunneiernes kommersielle inntekter; matkrisen i Frankrike i 1770 for å øke overskuddet på kongens jord; hungersnøden i Bengal i 1770 for å øke East India Companys profitt. Eksemplene indikerer hvordan fattigdom og sult i perioden 1750–1850 kunne skyldes kommersielt maktmisbruk som skadet allmennheten, samtidig som grunneiere og næringslivsinteresser tjente på det. Essayet understreker hvordan progressive økonomer på den tiden foreslo å bruke frihandel for å temme det kommersielle maktmisbruket. Venstresiden agiterte for marked heller enn monopol. Høyresiden agiterte for privilegier heller enn konkurranse.
Abstract in English:Market, Power, and Countervailing Forces – in the Time of Adam Smith, Henry Hunt, and Henry GeorgeThe English Corn Laws, 1815–1846, were initiated to protect landowners' commercial rents; the 1770 food crisis in France to raise the surplus on the King's land; the 1770 famine in Bengal to raise the profits of the East India Company. These examples indicate how poverty and starvation in the period 1750–1850 could be caused by commercial power abuse, harming the public but benefiting landowners and commercial interests. The essay emphasizes how progressive economists at the time recommended free trade to tame the commercial abuse. The left agitated for markets rather than monopoly. The right agitated for privileges rather than competition.

Around the world, journalists uncover corruption, abuse of power, and financial misdealing – often at the risk of serious consequences or under financial constraints. These are also important issues in economic research. Economists address similar problems from a different perspective, and offer logical explanations for the factors that enable a risk of corruption, its harmful impact on society, and why governments fail to enforce their anti-corruption laws. Below we discuss some of the problems of corruption and how investigative journalism contributes to controlling it. We are interested in what the disciplines of journalism and economics can learn from each other. The more authoritarian leaders weaken integrity standards in governance, the more financial secrecy providers facilitate grand scale crime; and the more barriers there are for journalists who seek to disclose misdealing, the more important it is to join forces across countries and across disciplines. ; publishedVersion

Abstract: Around the world, journalists uncover corruption, abuse of power, and financial misdealing – often at the risk of serious consequences or under financial constraints. These are also important issues in economic research. Economists address similar problems from a different perspective, and offer logical explanations for the factors that enable a risk of corruption, its harmful impact on society, and why governments fail to enforce their anti-corruption laws. Below we discuss some of the problems of corruption and how investigative journalism contributes to controlling it. We are interested in what the disciplines of journalism and economics can learn from each other. The more authoritarian leaders weaken integrity standards in governance, the more financial secrecy providers facilitate grand scale crime; and the more barriers there are for journalists who seek to disclose misdealing, the more important it is to join forces across countries and across disciplines.

The Nordic Economic Policy Review is published by the Nordic Council of Ministers. This year's issue is part of the Danish presidency programme for the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2015. The review addresses policy issues in a way that is useful for in-formed non-specialists as well as for professional economists. All articles are commissioned from leading professional economists and are subject to peer review prior to publication. The review appears once a year. It is published electronically on the website of the Nordic Council of Ministers: www.norden.org/en. On that website, you can also order paper copies of the Review (enter the name of the Review in the search field, and you will find all the information you need).