Benjamin Beranek
I am a Teaching Associate at the School of Economics in the University of Nottingham. I research inequality aversion across cultures in the Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics.
Location Nottingham, UK
Activity
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@HowellWilliams Thanks for the correction regarding the 38th parallel. I've updated the article accordingly.
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Good points Isobel. I think that's one reason the East/West Germany (and to a lesser extend North/South Korea) cases are useful. In those cases, history, geography, and "culture" are held constant for the most part.
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Great discussion Robert and Simon. It will be interesting to get your take on the Growth and Development parts of the Deng Xiaoping section in Week 3. There's some good discussion of these issues there.
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I once heard a talk by Martin Wolf of the Financial Times where he said that the British Government budget is so utterly complicated that there are only a handful of people in the world who truly understand it and none of them are politicians. In many ways, specialised civil servants are perhaps the only ones who truly understand it. By the time a politician...
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In general I agree with your points Vesna, but I'm wondering what you will make of the section below on David Ricardo and Comparative Advantage. Specialization and exchange have provided the foundations for globalisation which, while not without its flaws, has done much to raise people around the world out of poverty.
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Good points Yiqing. I think you're right about the role of the third policy, but it must be hard for elected leaders to insist on the necessary, but painful policy of Schumpeterian Creative Destruction. In the long run this is probably necessary, but it is often the case the politicians will feel the pressure to soften the blow by using the other policy tools...
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Good points Robert. I'll be curious to get your take on the upcoming article: "Does Manufacturing Matter?" Alexander Hamilton has some interesting views on the role of manufacturing and his report gives his take.
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You make a good point here Carolyn. Not all Keynesian policy is the same too. It is thought that big, long term investments in infrastructure, education, and research and development are more optimal than spending money in a less targeted way.
I think this was perhaps a missed opportunity in that a lot of President Obama's Keynesian Policy was not as large...
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Good comments James. I think the main idea of monetarism is just making sure that there is plenty of money in the economy, primarily through banks. One natural response to a financial crisis is for people to hoard there cash which perhaps makes sense for an individual but can make a bad situation worse if all individuals do it.
Monetarism is a policy that...
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Good comments David. I'm wondering if a lot of this is related to the shift of pension obligations from within companies and corporations themselves out into pension funds primarily invested in the financial markets.
When one pension fund needs a certain level of return as a certain risk level, they create a demand for financial products. When all of our...
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Interesting comment. I'm intrigued to know why you think Iceland will be immune from future crises. Do you think it's because of their experience in the last crisis?
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Great comments Sally. Many theories in macroeconomics operate on the assumption of something called the representative household. They say that on aggregate all households will behave in a similar (usually rational) way.
I think our lived experience shows us that in fact there is a variety of different types of households some of which behave rationally...
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Good comment Tony. You'll be interested to know that newer economic theory is incorporating some of the insights of psychology into economics. Several of the recent noble laureates in economics (Thaler, Ostrom, and Smith) have had careers where they study whether humans actually behave as theory suggests or elsewise. Some of their big insights have resulted...
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The psychologist Shane Frederick developed what is known as the cognitive reflection test which distinguishes between two types of thinking: "System 1" thinking and "System 2" thinking. In "System 1" thinking, people take decisions quickly and without reflection. It is like one's gut reaction to a situation. "System 2" thinking is characterised by greater...
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Benjamin Beranek replied to Hafsah Kazi
Good points. It is interesting to think what will happen as experts continue to have their credibility challenged. One hopes that we, as a society, can continue to have a shared set of facts even if our interpretations of and responses to those facts vary according to our beliefs.
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Benjamin Beranek replied to J.M. Magro
Great discussion! I'll be interested in what you make of the President Franklin D Roosevelt section in Week Two and the Margaret Thatcher section in Week Three. There is some discussion of Keynesian Management and Monetarism which to some of these concerns.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
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Benjamin Beranek replied to Tony Hinkley
Thanks for your comments Tony. You're right in that we will primarily be looking at the interaction of historical events and economic theory, but we hope that we also have something to say that is relevant to today as well.
As I've mentioned above, some of your concerns are addressed in The Meiji Emperor section. Dr. Roberto Bonfatti's video and the article...
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Benjamin Beranek replied to John Gossage
Interesting comments John. Like John Silvester above, I'll be keen to get your thoughts on the The Meiji Emperor section. Dr. Roberto Bonfatti's video and the article "Industrialization and Growth in Long-Run Historical Perspective" address some of the concerns you've mentioned here. Excited for the discussions to come.
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Benjamin Beranek replied to John Silvester
Great comments John. It will be interested in getting your thoughts on the The Meiji Emperor section. Dr. Roberto Bonfatti's video and the article "Industrialization and Growth in Long-Run Historical Perspective" address some of these very concerns. I'll look forward to your thoughts!
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Benjamin Beranek replied to Sylvie RENOUX
Good observation Sylvie. We'll look a bit later in the course about some of those externalities and discuss ways economic models can better account for them. Excited to get your thoughts.
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Really interesting comment Veenitha. I'm reminded of the most recent US government shutdown. One US Senator - Senator Rand Paul - was demanding a vote on an amendment before he would remove a procedural barrier to the vote. He know the his amendment would fail, but he nonetheless persisted and as a result the US government shut down for a few hours. Many would...
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Hello Barbara, you're right in that the lines are straight. What we mean by upward (downward) sloping is that the straight line has a positive (negative) slope. Hope that helps!
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Thanks for the comment Adam. You write that bailing out the banks ensures that it will happen again. What alternative policy response would you recommend?
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Good points Susan. It's interesting to think through. Keynes referred to this as "Animal Spirits" and said:
"Even apart from the instability due to speculation, there is the instability due to the characteristic of human nature that a large proportion of our positive activities depend on spontaneous optimism rather than mathematical expectations,...
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Welcome to the course, Traheka. Where are you from?
I imagine that many people feel the same way!
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Benjamin Beranek replied to Phil Kennaugh
Great comments Phil... I think you'll be pleased to learn that we will be covering comparative advantage in the Sir Robert Peel and Free Trade activity. Hopefully the course will continue to raise questions and offer you different points of view on these and other issues.
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Benjamin Beranek replied to Peter Kobryn
While that might seem to be the case at present, what implications might that have for the future?
For example, if the normative style promises change or restoration, what happens when those promises aren't delivered upon? Do you think that style is like a pendulum swinging back and forth from the extremes?
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Benjamin Beranek replied to Julia Walker
Good points Julia. I think one of the most appropriate criticisms of economists is the way which our theories are great at explaining the previous crisis, but never quite able to predict the next one. In many ways economics is a retrospective discipline that acts like prospective one.
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Benjamin Beranek replied to Susan Houghton
Unintended consequences abound in the field of economics. While it's difficult to fully account for all possible outcomes of economic policy, we ought to expect our politicians and economists to pay attention to these possibilities.
I'll be interested to hear what you think about the Activity 1.5, Terrible Twins: Experiments in Economic Policy. While not a...
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Benjamin Beranek replied to Barry Anderton
Good point Barry. Your point of view sounds a lot like Thatcher's housewife economics and the principle of thrift. I'll be interested in hearing what you make of the section of the course that discusses her.
Another portion of the course you might find interesting is the section on President Franklin D Roosevelt and Keynesian economics. The ideas...
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Benjamin Beranek replied to Steve Senior
Great point Steve. It's unfortunate that assumptions are not more explicitly stated. It would be a good outcome if we challenged our economists and politicians to be more explicit about their assumptions.
At the end of the day, there is nothing wrong with assumptions so long as they are acknowledged and their implications are understood. Its only when they...
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Hello Terry, it is our intention that this is the first a few runs of this course so know that you'll likely have a second chance to complete it. I would suggest you giving it a go this time. I believe you will be able to access the activities for all weeks from the start. So, while I would generally not do so, I would recommend in your case trying to work...
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Benjamin Beranek made a comment
Welcome to the Politics of Economics and the Economics of Politicians everyone! We're very excited that you have joined the course and look forward to hearing your thoughts as we progress our way through all this exciting material.
Sir Vince Cable and the academics from the School of Economics at the University of Nottingham have prepared some great content...
