Are We Consuming Too Much?

By Kenneth Arrow, Partha Dasgupta, Lawrence Goulder, Gretchen Daily, Paul Ehrlich, Geoffrey Heal, Simon Levin, Karl-Göran Mäler, Stephen Schneider, David Starrett, and Brian Walker

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2004

This paper articulates and applies frameworks for examining whether consumption is excessive. We consider two criteria for the possible excessiveness (or insufficiency) of current consumption. One is an intertemporal utility-maximization criterion: actual...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Bernard Saffran

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2004

Comments

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2004

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2004

The European Union: A Politically Incorrect View

[Symposium: The Transformation of Europe]

By Alberto Alesina and Roberto Perotti

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2004

In this paper, we present our view of the recent evolution of European integration. We first briefly describe the main features of the institution and decision making process in the European Union, with particular attention to the debate between federalis...

Why are European Countries Diverging in their Unemployment Experience?

[Symposium: The Transformation of Europe]

By Gilles Saint-Paul

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2004

During the nineties, unemployment fell in a number of European countries while it remained high in others. This Paper discusses potential causes for that evolution in light of recent economic research, emphasizing obstacles to reform due to political cons...

The Muddles over Outsourcing

By Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya, and T.N. Srinivasan

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2004

Critics have muddled the public debate over offshore outsourcing by using the term interchangeably to refer to altogether different phenomena such as on-line purchase of services, direct foreign investment and, sometimes, all imports. We argue that clarit...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Bernard Saffran

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2004

Notes

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2004

What is Economic Sociology and Should any Economists Care?

[Symposium: Sociology and Economics]

By Robert Gibbons

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005

Identity and the Economics of Organizations

[Symposium: Sociology and Economics]

By George A. Akerlof and Rachel E. Kranton

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005

The economics of organizations is replete with the pitfalls of monetary rewards and punishments to motivate workers. If economic incentives do not work, what does? This paper proposes that workers' self-image as jobholders, coupled with their ideal as to ...

The Impact of Social Structure on Economic Outcomes

[Symposium: Sociology and Economics]

By Mark Granovetter

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005

Ecologies of Organizations: Diversity and Identity

[Symposium: Sociology and Economics]

By Michael T. Hannan

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005

Autopsy on an Empire: Understanding Mortality in Russia and the Former Soviet Union

[Symposium: The Economy of Russia]

By Elizabeth Brainerd and David M. Cutler

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005

Male life expectancy at birth fell by over six years in Russia between 1989 and 1994. Many other countries of the former Soviet Union saw similar declines, and female life expectancy fell as well. Using cross-country and Russian household survey data, we ...

The Role of Oligarchs in Russian Capitalism

[Symposium: The Economy of Russia]

By Sergei Guriev and Andrei Rachinsky

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005

Using a unique dataset, we describe the degree of ownership concentration in Russian economy and its role in shaping economic and political institutions in Russia. In particular, we find that Russian "oligarchs" do control a substantial part of the econom...

A Normal Country: Russia After Communism

[Symposium: The Economy of Russia]

By Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005

During the 1990s, Russia underwent an extraordinary transformation from a communist dictatorship to a multi-party democracy, from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, and from a belligerent adversary of the West to a cooperative partner. Yet a...

The Making of an Economist Redux

By David Colander

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005

This paper reports the findings of a survey and interviews with graduate students at seven top-ranking graduate economics programs. It finds that over the last 15 years graduate economics programs have become more empirical, less mathematical and less the...

Child Labor in the Global Economy

By Eric V. Edmonds and Nina Pavcnik

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005

Few issues in developing countries draw as much popular attention as child labor. This paper begins by quantifying the extent and main characteristics of child labor. It then considers the evidence on a range of issues about child labor. Fundamentally, ch...

Data Watch: The American Time Use Survey

By Daniel S. Hamermesh, Harley Frazis, and Jay Stewart

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005

We discuss the new American Time Use Survey (ATUS), an on-going household survey of roughly 1,200 Americans per month (1,800 per month in the first year, 2003) that collects time diaries as well as demographic interview information from respondents who ha...

Recommendations for Further Reading

By Bernard Saffran

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Winter 2005