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Description:
A group for discussing the work of heterdox economist Samuel Bowles, starting with his book _Microeconomics_.
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Sam Bowles talk TODAY at Harvard on morals and incentives
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For those in the area, Samuel Bowles is giving a talk today at Harvard. Talk by Sam Bowles Tuesday, October 19 from 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. 1305 William James Hall 33 Kirkland Street "Why do economic incentives (sometimes) crowd out pro social motives?" Samuel Bowles, Santa Fe Institute Psychologists have long known, and economists recently documented in... more »
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CONCLUSION: Governing economies, with markets, states, and communities
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[And now, the final chapter...] Chicago communities with low turnover are much more effective at enforcing community norms against crime. Japanese fishing cooperatives with synchronized schedules allow their members to pool resources and share income. In general, strong communities with multifaceted... more »
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Ch. 13: The evolution of altruism
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Where once there were "empires, city states, federations of cities, networks of landlords, religious orders, leagues of pirates, warrior bands, and many other forms of governance" (Charles Tilly) by World War I, only the nation-state remained. Why? Because nation-states are the form of governance most conducive to collecting taxes and taxes... more »
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Ch. 12: Chance, Action, Innovation: Mechanisms of institutional change
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[only 18 weeks late!] When Cortes visited Mexico in 1519, he described a society much like any other: markets in the center of the city, a courthouse with a dozen judges, police enforcing the use of honest weights and measures, chiefs, beggars, temples, and orderly government. Talcott Parsons suggested that such basic societal elements naturally evolved many... more »
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Ch. 11: Summary
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How do institutions change? We can think of institutions as equilibrium outcomes of some underlying game. Change can happen within groups, where a whole group tips from one institution to another, or between groups, where a group with a different institution outperforms and replaces other groups. Institutional change often involves six factors: (1) conflicting... more »
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Chapter 10: Summary
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In the early part of the last century, a large number of plywood firms were worker-owned cooperatives. Workers bought shares in the company to join and sold them when they left. The cooperatives were quite successful, more productive than conventional firms, paid much better, and lowered everyone's wages rather than lay people off. Why didn't... more »
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Bowles on the cover of the _Santa Fe Reporter_
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I'm back from my fieldwork and ready to tackle Bowles again, only to find our hero is the cover story of this week's _Santa Fe Reporter_: [link] ...(As you can see, it's a bit Santa Fe-focused...) I'm also rereading Bowles and GIntis' classic _Schooling in Capitalist... more »
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delay
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I haven't done Bowles this week or last week because I'm in DC dong
fieldwork. The same probably goes for next week too.
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Ch. 9: Credit constraints
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Farmers in the South could plant cotton or corn. After the Civil War, the relative amount of cotton planted increased 50%, even as the relative price for cotton went down. Estimates find the average farm could have made 29% more had they planted cotton. Why didn't they? The former slaves had to live on credit and credit was only extended to... more »
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