Monthly Archives: January 2023

Economists as superheroes

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Erik Angner’s new book out this month (Jan 2023) is called How Economics Can Save The World: SImple Ideas to Solve Our Biggest Problems. Economists as superheroes – lovely image, especially given the often-negative press we get. The book is a very nice example of the genre of applying economic concepts and research to practical questions, distinguished from others (including my own offerings) by its author’s expertise in behavioural economics. Many people will know his outstanding textbook A Course In Behavioural Economics.

After an introductory chapter about the character of economics and why it doesn’t deserve its bad press – including why the term ‘dismal science’ is a badge of honour. For those who don’t know the story, Thomas Carlyle coined the phrase because economists of the day were prominent anti-slavery campaigners, whereas he was very pro-slavery. The moral compass of the economists was underpinned by the subject’s ‘analytical egalitarianism’: all utility functions are equal.

The chapters cover subjects ranging from the elimination of poverty and tackling climate change to using empirical evidence to improve your parenting (“the fact that an activity has traditionally been considered women’s work does not make it any less economic”), practical tips for changing socially obnoxious behaviours or norms, how to avoid the pitfall of overconfidence (“Overconfidence is resistance to information”), and how to get rich with sensible saving and investment tips. For example, to establish a new social norm there are four principles of change: the new norm has to be common knowledge, so communication is essential; people need a reason to change – is the new behaviour good for them?; people need to know they are not being morally judged or punished for switching; and trendsetters or first movers are needed.

I was particularly pleased to see there is a chapter on the work of Elinor Ostrom, ‘How to Build Community’. Mainstream economics still pays too little attention to her insights about the collective organisation of resource use and allocation. (She features in my book Markets, State and People.) I also particularly appreciate the way the book underlines the fact that economics is not and cannot be value-free yet nevertheless provides tools for using evidence to support or challenge decisions and actions.

How Economics Can Save the World is a very nicely written book, managing to incorporate a huge amount of economic research, and with a wide range of examples. As well as being of interest to the general reader, it would make a good, motivating companion to a behavioural economics course.

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DIY history for autocrats

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Wishing a Happy New Year to all readers of this blog – thank you for reading.

It has been a depressing 2022 and the omens for 2023 don’t look great. I’m not completely convinced about the polycrisis notion, but for somebody in the UK the impact of events (the war), the cyclical downturn and the structural weaknesses of our economy and society (where to start?) make for a bleak start to the year.

So how better to begin my reading, amid the relaxing mayhem and death of detective fiction (and a quick re-read of The Wealth of Nations to decide whether I have anything to say in an upcoming Adam Smith workshop), than Katie Stallard’s Dancing on Bones? A journalist, the author has reported for years from Russia, China and North Korea. The book was published just as Russia invaded Ukraine, so doesn’t reflect the most recent events, but it starts in Ukraine in 2014, with the initial invasion of Crimea. The book is a reflection on how these autocrats – Xi , Putin and the Kims – use history (I should write ‘history’) to cement their hold on power. In particular, it describes how in each case history has been rewritten into myth, with a specific conflict turned into a regime founding story. I hadn’t known that the USSR used not to make such a big deal of World War 2, that China’s memorial days were even more recently introduced, or indeed that the successive Kims simply invented the account of the Korean war that is taught to all North Korean subjects from kindergarten on.

It is a bit disconcerting to read of the events of 1989 told as distant history – I’m old enough to have super-clear memories of watching the TV reports from East Germany, from Prague, from Romania in late 1989, and in one of my jobs immersed myself in the detail of perestroika to interpret the USSR economy.

The most engaging parts of the book are those told from direct experience, the reportage, not surprisingly. Even so, I learned things I hadn’t known – especially about N Korea – and it’s very well written. It’s a good complement to the excellent Strongmen by Ruth Ben-Ghiat (I haven’t read Gideon Rachman’s The Age of the Strongman). Let’s hope 2023 turns into a bad year for autocrats.

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