Science for environmental policy

The European union has a new news service called Science for Environment Policy. The site is devoted to the dissemination of research results relevant to environmental policy to policy makers as well as to the wider public. A good read.

4th International Meeting on Experimental and Behavioral Economics

4th International Meeting on Experimental and Behavioral  Economicsin Alicante, Spain from 27. March 2008 to 29. March 2008.
Deadline for paper submission: 31. January 2008

JEL classification(s): C, D

Further information at: http://www.uv.es/lineex/imebe/

Textbooks and competing economics narratives

The Informed Reader on the Wall Street Journal points out to two recent contributions on the debate of which kind of economics narrative should be taught in textbooks.

Stefan Theil on Foreign Policy in the article Europe’s Philosophy of Failure argues: “In France and Germany, students are being forced to undergo a dangerous indoctrination. Taught that economic principles such as capitalism, free markets, and entrepreneurship are savage, unhealthy, and immoral, these children are raised on a diet of prejudice and bias. Rooting it out may determine whether Europe’s economies prosper or continue to be left behind. “

On Adbusters Gilles Raveaud also complains about indoctrination but of a opposite kind. In Economic Indoctrination he warns the reader: “You might not have heard of N. Gregory Mankiw. The Harvard economics professor and former adviser to George W. Bush is one of the most gifted economists of our generation. He is also one of the most effective and talented propagandists of our times. His target: young economics students. His field of operation: the world’s universities. His weapon: the best selling textbook in the world. ” and adds “Mankiw’s text … oversimplifies economic theory and leaves out the ways in which markets can degrade human well-being, undermine societies, and threaten the planet.“

Crooked Timber criticizes Theils’s contribution: “I don’t have any experience whatsoever in the French educational system. It may quite possibly be that ‘countless’ French students who want to get into Sciences-Po ‘memorize’ a set of texts describing capitalism as “brutal,” “savage,” “neoliberal,” and “American.” It equally may be that Mr. Thiel is engaging in a bit of cherry-picking. The precise relationship between the particular texts that Mr. Thiel dwells on in most loving detail, and the actual official curricula in France and Germany is sometimes rather harder to discern from the piece than it should be.”  Several interesting comments follow the post.

Pointer to the Informed Reader by Grew Mankiw.

Barack Obama, behavioral economics, and libertarian paternalism

Behavioral economics is entering the US presidential elections. David Leonhardt reports on the New Your Times in Democrats: More Than Health Care:

“Senator Obama’s ideas, on the other hand, draw heavily on behavioral economics, a left-leaning academic movement that has challenged traditional neoclassical economics over the last few decades. Behavioral economists consider an abiding faith in rationality to be wishful thinking. To Mr. Obama, a simpler program — one less likely to confuse people — is often a smarter program.“

and Mr. Obama would “require companies to deduct money automatically from their employees’ paychecks and place it in a savings account the employee owned. Employees could opt out of the program. But if they did nothing, they would end up saving money. It’s an idea that comes directly from academic research showing that savings rates have jumped when individual companies have adopted such plans.”

Free Exchange criticizes Mr. Obama’s libertarian paternalism (and libertarian paternalism in general) in Obama’s new-school paternalism. While economists Mario Rizzo’s and Richard Thaler’s debate on libertarian paternalism in Should Policies Nudge PeopleTo Make Certain Choices (on the Wall Street Journal Econoblog) and Richard Thaler  and Russ Robert  discuss libertarian paternalism on EconTalk.

The Nobel to an environmental economist?

David Warsh at Economicprincipals suggests is high time for an Environmental economist to win the Nobel prize. I couldn’t agree more. Pointer by Tim Harford at the Undercover economist.

Impact factor ranking of journals in environmental and resource economics

A paper forthcoming in Scientometrics by Sandra Rousseau compares the impact factor ranking of journals in environmental and resource economics with the ranking emerging from an online survey of environmental and resource economists. Pointer by Environmental Economics blog.

Survey of economics bloggers

Aaron Schiff published the results of his survey of economics bloggers: an interesting reading if you want to know more about who is blogging about economics and why.

European Pollutant Emission Register and market value of listed firms

New information on firms’ polluting emissions appears to have a significant impact on their market value. This is the result found in the article Analysis of the effectiveness of the first European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) by Cañón-de-Francia et al published online 31 December 2007 on Ecological Economics (article in press). The study uses data of firms listed in the European Pollutant Emission Register. It confirms results from most previous studies, that find a significant impact on firms’ market value of environmental information disclosure. Most previous studies however, use data of firms listed in the US Toxic Release Inventory. Link to the abstract

Reference

Analysis of the effectiveness of the first European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER) , Ecological Economics, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 31 December 2007 by Joaquín Cañón-de-Francia, Concepción Garcés-Ayerbe and Marisa Ramírez-Alesón