Although economists have long treated social justice and ethics as beyond its disciplinary boundaries, standard theories provide inadequate explanations of human deprivations and inequalities. With gender inequality pervasive in societies around the world, better understandings of women’s economic lives could lead to a more illuminating, useful and accountable economics. Scholarship on gender has been particularly hampered by theories that insufficiently acknowledge how power relations and social norms influence women’s access to economic resources, health, education, and political agency. How can philosophical tools and theories inform the work of economists seeking to address gender inequality? More generally, how might greater sensitivity to concerns of ethics and justice enable more comprehensive economic analyses that better contribute to the struggle for a gender-just world? And how can advances in feminist economics inform philosophical theories of justice, ethics, and epistemology? Papers may draw from a wide range of philosophical and economic ideas and scholarship in addressing issues relating to gender, economics, human deprivations, capabilities, and justice.
Program [PDF] | Book of abstracts [PDF]
The Winter Workshop is supported by
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Speakers
- Diana Strassmann (Rice University)
- Alison Jaggar (University of Colorado, Boulder)
- Fabienne Peter (University of Warwick)
- Ingrid Robeyns (Radbound Universiteit Nijmegen)
- Stephanie Seguino (University of Vermont)
Contributed papers
- Meryl Altman and Kerry Pannell (DePauw University, USA)
- Mohamed Behnassi (Ibn Zohr University, Morocco & North-South Social Sciences Research Centre)
- Günseli Berik (University of Utah, USA)
- David de la Croix and Marie Vander Donckt (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
- Shakuntala Das (University of Missouri – Kansas City)
- Zahra Karimi (Mazandaran University, Iran)
- Lynda Lange (University of Toronto, Canada)
- Yumiko Yamamoto (UNDP, Asia-Pacific Regional Centre in Colombo RCC)
Conference Venue
Escuelas Pias
Calle Tribulete 14
The conference will take place in the Escuelas Pias, a former religious school and orphanage dating from the XVIII century, later destroyed in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. The building has been recently reconstructed and is now used by the Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia for tutoring part of their students in Madrid. UNED, the Spanish Open University, is the biggest university in the country with about 180.000 students, many of them abroad.
Lunches and the conference dinner will be served at the very trendy cafe inside Escuelas Pias: Gaudeamus
How to get there
The easiest way is to take the metro to Lavapies (Line 3) and walk to Calle Tribulete (a 100 meters away)
Escuelas Pias is in walking distance from Sol (15 minutes) or Atocha (20 min). It’s in the very centric and multicultural district of Lavapies.
This is the approximate situation of the venue in a general map of the city:
Registration
Registration in the workshop is free, but if you want to join the participants in the conference lunch on Sept. 11, you have to book a seat and pay a 30 EUR menu. Send an e-mail with your contact details before Sept. 1 to David Teira {dteira [at] fsof.uned.es}
INEM 2008
Notice that this event takes place jointly with the International Network for Economic 2008 Conference (Madrid, 12-13 September)
El Simposio bianual que la SIAME realiza periódicamente, en el 2008 tendrá lugar en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid durante el 10 y el 11 de septiembre.
La celebración del simposio de SIAME coincidirá con el Winter Workshop on Ethics Justice and Gender (11 de septiembre) y el congreso de la International Network for Economic Method (12-13 de septiembre).
Programa [PDF]
Aims and scope
Since 1998 the Urrutia Elejalde has annually organized a Summer School on frontier topics between philosophy, economics and other social sciences, bringing together scholars from all these fields to explore them. The aim of this year Summer School is to introduce participants to the vast research that is taking place in the area of social norms. From philosophy and psychology to evolutionary game theory and experimental economics, recent work on social norms is shedding light on why and under what circumstances people engage in pro-social behavior, and how norms may emerge, stabilize or decay.
Program [PDF] | Contributed papers + Posters [PDF]
Speakers
- Jason Alexander (LSE)
- Daniel Andler (Paris IV-ENS)
- Cristina Bicchieri (UPenn)
- Jordi Brandts (UAB)
- Pablo Brañas (Ugr)
- Cristiano Castelfranchi (ISTC- CNR)
- Jason Dana (UPenn)
- Jon Elster (Columbia+College de France)
- Herbert Gintis (Santa Fe Institute)
- Francesco Guala (Exeter)
- Dan Sperber (CNRS)
- Edna Ullmann-Margalit (The Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem)
Contributed papers
- Ilaria Castelli
- Julia Cordero Coma
- Brice Corgnet
- Giussepe Danese
- Benoît Dubreuil
- Marco Faillo
- Brian Gunia
- Donna Harris
- Rebekka A. Klein
- Erin Krupka
- Azi Lev-On
- Angela Milano
- Ryan Muldoon
- Stefania Ottone
- Giacomo Sillari
- Alessandra Smerili
- Christian Traxler
- Erte Xiao
Lectures
Aims and scope
In a general way, the problem of macroeconomics —really, of all applied economics— is to go from non-experimental observations of the past behavior of the economy to inferences about the future behavior of the economy under alternative assumptions about the way policy is conducted. In terms of models, then, we want a model that fits historical data and that can be simulated to give reliable estimates of the effects of various policies on future behavior. But what data? And what do we mean by fit? And when can we expect that particular simulations will be reliable?” Robert E. Lucas, Models of Business Cycles (1987).
The Urrutia Elejalde Foundation wants to celebrate its tenth anniversary taking up a methodological issue that has been dormant for way too long. A part of the profession has embraced the methodology described in the quotation above and routinely uses explicit economic models to make quantitative statements about the economy and to evaluate the welfare consequences of economic policies. Yet the hard methodological questions that Robert E. Lucas asks in the last lines of the quotation have remained conspicuously unanswered in the twenty odd years that have elapsed since they were formulated.
The purpose of the X Summer School is to take up this methodological challenge and to provide some answers to these and to other related questions. We would like to continue the conversation started ten years ago in the Winter 1996 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives where Kydland and Prescott (1996), Sims (1996) and Hansen and Heckman (1996) discussed the design and uses of macroeconomic models. A large body of literature has been published since then and we would like to take a look at it from some distance. Which articles come closest to the best standards? How have those standards evolved? The contributions need not take the form of completed papers. More informal material such as the one required to give a forty minute lecture that will stimulate an ensuing discussion is also acceptable.
Final Program [PDF]
Speakers
- F. Kydland (U. of California at Santa Barbara)
- P. Jung (U. of Amsterdam) and K. Kuester (European Central Bank)
- C. Winter (European U. Institute)
- S. Schmitt- Grohe (Duke U.) and M. Uribe (Duke U.)
- M. Darracq-Paries (European Central Bank) and S. Moyen (U. d’Evry Val d’Essonne)
- T. Cooley (New York U.)
- C. Meghir (U. College of London)
- L. Christiano (Northwestern U.)
- R. Motto (European Central Bank) and M. Rostagno (European Central Bank)
- P. Rabanal (La Caixa)
- J.C. Conesa (U. Autonoma de Barcelona)
- S. Kitao (New York U.) and D. Krueger (Goethe U.)
- J. Díaz-Giménez (U. Carlos III de Madrid) and J. Díaz- Saavedra (U. de Granada)
- J.V. Ríos-Rull (U. of Pennsylvania)
- C. Sims (Princeton University)
- M. del Negro (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta) and F. Schorfheide (U. of Pennsylvania)
- J. Fernández-Villaverde (U. of Pennsylvania) and J.F. Rubio-Ramírez (Duke U.)
Papers
- Stéphane Adjemian, Matthieu Darracq Pariès & Stéphane Moyen, Optimal Monetary Policy in an Estimated DSGE for the Euro Area [PDF]
- Juan Carlos Conesa, Sagiri Kitao, Dirk Krueger, Taxing Capital? Not a Bad Idea After All! [PDF]
- Marco Del Negro & Frank Schorfheide, Monetary Policy Analysis with Potentially Misspecified Models [PDF]
- Javier Díaz-Giménez & Julián Díaz-Saavedra, Delaying Retirement in Spain [PDF]
- Jesús Fernández-Villaverde & Juan F. Rubio-Ramírez, Estimating Macroeconomic Models: A Likelihood Approach [PDF]
- Philip Jung & Keith Kuester, The Cost of Unemployment Fluctuations Revisited [PDF]
- Stephanie Schmitt-Grohé Martín Uribe, Optimal Inflation Stabilization in a Medium-Scale Macroeconomic Model [PDF]
- Pau Rabanal, Inflation Differentials in a Currency Union: A DSGE Perspective [PDF]
- Christoph Winter, Explaining Earnings Persistence: Does College Education Matter? (Available upon request)
Registration
The organization offers a number of grants to cover registration fees and/or accommodation expenses. Applications should include a short C.V. and, in the case of graduate students, a letter of recommendation by at least one professor. Notice that it is not necessary to present a paper in order to apply for a grant.
Is copyright a good idea? How about patents? From an economic perspective, it is copies of works that matter, and not abstract ideas. Copies of works are property in the ordinary sense, and are protected by ordinary laws against theft. Patents and copyright, then, do not grant property rights, but rather a monopoly over all copies of the original work.
On the one hand, it is important to recognize that creating a new commodity or production process, a new book or a new medicine, requires producing a large indivisible unit, and because of this indivisibility, the ordinary functioning of the market may not provide adequate incentives. There is a large fixed cost, and a small marginal cost of making copies: if copies are sold at the marginal cost, the fixed cost will never be recouped. On the other hand, it is important to recognize that the creator has a “first mover” advantage in profiting from his creation, that capacity is limited and imitation is never costlessly. The creator is the only owner of the first copy: he/she has opportunities to profit before imitation takes place.
There is a conflict here, due to a profoundly different conceptualization of property, and of how the economic system works or should work with respect to innovation and creativity. But there is also a different assessment of the available data: do we obtain more useful medicines with a patent regime than without? How about books and software when copyright is available? What’s the historical evidence? What’s the cross-country and cross-regimes evidence? A consensus is far from being reached; in the meanwhile laws are passed, cases are brought to court, judges rule, international treaties are written, and the intellectual debate rages on.
Is this conflict resolvable by rational discourse and empirical evidence? Are there only mutually incompatible models, or is there a middle ground both sides can accept? Are we facing theft, when someone rejects patents or copyright, or is it instead just economic competition at work?
Philosophical, legal and economic traditions conflict with each other, asserting on the one extreme that “intellectual property” is a well defined concept and right, and on the other that “intellectual property” is a nonsense. By the same token, some see patents and copyright as an exercise in rent-seeking and monopoly power, while other deem either of them, or both, a necessary tool for economic progress. In the quadrangle so delimited new arguments are being advanced to face the challenges of a digital and globalized world. We are sailing new waters, and we need a new map.
The goal of the conference is to provide a forum for furthering our understanding of some of these issues.
- 1. Patents, how they work in theory and in practice
- 2. Copyright, how it works in theory and in practice
- 3. Intellectual Property: is this a useful concept, from a legal, philosophical and economic point of view?
Poster [PDF] | Final schedule [PDF]
Speakers
- M. Boldrin
- E.Bustos & R. Feltrero
- D.K. Levine
- S. Liebowitz
- R. Marimon
- R. Stallman
- E. Valauskas
Contributed papers
- Francisco Alcalá & Miguel González-Maestre
- Soma Dey
- Erika Färnstrand Damsgaard
- G. Llanes & S. Trento
- Giovanni B. Ramello
- Susan A. Russell
Abstracts
M. Boldrin & D.K. Levine, Is Property Theft? The Case of Intellectual Property
E. Bustos & R. Feltrero, Do we need epistemological reasons to justify copyrighted scientific on-line journals?
The economical organization of scientific publishing has been historically justified by epistemological reasons. Scientific journals contributed to the activities of production, communication and distribution of information and knowledge. To compensate for the investment to organize peer review activities and to publish and distribute the magazines, editors used, and still use nowdays for e-journals, copyright and other benefits from Intellectual Property laws. The widespread use of computational tools for scientific writing and publishing implies an important increase in the variety of possibilities for the collective production of information and scientific knowledge. New on-line magazines provide new possibilities and, also, change the economical requirements of scientific publishing. Therefore, the traditional arguments applied to justify commercial copyrighted editions have to be revisited. New ways of scientific publishing mediated by computers and Internet have become a topic of ethical, practical and economical concern that, we propose, should be primarily regarded as epistemological. For that purpose we deploy the notion of epistemic site as a tool for assessing the epistemological consequences of the use of computers and Information Technologies on the activities of production, communication and distribution of scientific information and knowledge. This concept includes a variety of evaluative parameters and principles that are useful to articulate epistemic, and also economic and moral, concerns about computational resources for scientific publishing. The controversy between open access e-journals and commercial e-journals will be the chosen case study to be evaluated within these epistemological principles.
S. Liebowitz, How much monopoly in the copyright “monopoly” [PDF]
Copyright is thought to provide an incentive for authors to create new works. This benefit, however, is also thought to come at the expense of a monopoly deadweight loss since copyright appears to provide a monopoly to the copyright owner. Copyright, by definition, balances in some manner the value of the new works against monopoly deadweight losses although it is unclear whether the balance is anywhere near optimal. This paper empirically examines the book publishing industry to determine the impact of copyright on the prices of books to determine whether and to what extent the price under copyright contains a monopoly component. The empirical work is not complete but the price differential does not appear to be that much higher than the royalties that are likely paid to the authors of these books. This implies that the majority of any monopoly profits from copyright tends to go to the authors, not the publishers. Thus the deadweight loss, if any, beyond that going to the monopoly talent of authors, seems very small. This information is crucial to the current debate over the efficient form of intellectual property protection.
R. Marimón, Competition, Innovation and Growth with Limited Commitment [PDF]
We study how barriers to competition—such as, restrictions to business start-up and strict enforcement of covenants or IPR—affect the investment in knowledge capital when contracts are not enforceable. These barriers lower the competition for knowledge capital and reduce the incentive to accumulate knowledge. We show in a dynamic general equilibrium model that this mechanism has the potential to account for significant cross-country income inequality.
R. Stallman, “Intellectual property” = confusion. Whatever you say “about it” is wrong [HTML]
E. Valauskas, Notions of Copyright in an Open Access Journal: First Monday’s Perspectives [PDF]
F. Alcalá & M. González, Artistic Creation and Intellectual Property [PDF]
We analyze artistic markets considering three key distinctive features that have been overlooked by the standard analysis on IP and that make the production of artistic ideas different from the production of technological ideas. These features are the dynamic link between the current number of young artists and future high-quality artistic creation, Rosen’s superstars phenomenon, and the role played by promotion costs. Introducing them into an overlapping-generations model brings about a new perspective on the consequences for artistic creation of changes in the copyright term, progress in communication technologies favoring market concentration by stars, and the enlargement of markets. The conventional result that longer copyrights stimulate artistic creation only holds as a particular case; namely, when the talent for artistic creation is not specialized.
E. F. Damsgaard, Patent Scope and Technology Choice
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of an increase in patent scope on investments in R&D and on the rate of innovation. Patent scope affects incentives for innovation via the research strategies firms choose; a broad patent scope on the state-of-the-art technology can induce entrant firms to choose to do research on alternative technologies to avoid patent infringement. If the alternative technologies have a lower probability of success, this reduces incentives for investment in R&D by entrant firms and the probability that they innovate. On the other hand, the allocation of total R&D across projects is improved, since there is less wasteful duplication of R&D investments. This paper presents a model where the trade-off induced by patent scope can be analyzed. The model predicts that an increase in patent scope can increase the probability of innovation, and consequently the negative effects of R&D duplication can be large enough to warrant a broad patent scope. This holds if the incumbent’s increase in profits from innovating is large, or if the patented technology has a small advantage relative to alternative technologies. Otherwise, the probability of innovation decreases. However, when the model is extended to allow for Stackelberg competition or license agreements, the benefit of a broad patent scope to a large extent disappears. Hence, the effects of an increase in patent scope depend on industry characteristics and unless several conditions are met, an increase in patent scope reduces innovation.
S. Dey, Are Patents Discouraging Innovation? [PDF]
The strengthening of the U.S. patent regime in the early eighties was followed by a sharp increase in patenting but did not change the R&D expenditure significantly in some industries in the U.S. This “patent paradox” is prominently observed in complex industries, like the semiconductor industry. In this paper I develop a model of invention and product development to examine the effects of a patent regime change on the patenting and R&D decisions of firms in complex industries. Firms in these industries have a greater need to access a large number of ideas to successfully develop an end product. I consider two different environment — one without licensing and one with licensing. While a stronger patent regime leads to higher patenting and R&D activities in both environments, the strategic complementarity between patenting and R&D is relatively weaker in the presence of licensing. A stronger patent regime change that creates incentives for firms to increase patenting activity, therefore, may not lead to a similar increase in R&D activity
G. Llanes & S. Trento, Anticommons and patent pools in sequential innovation
We develop a model of sequential innovation in which an innovator uses n inputs in research to perform an innovation. We show
that the effect of an increase in the complexity of the innovation on the probability that the innovation is performed depends on whether the research inputs are complements or substitutes. The probability of innovation is suboptimal even when there is a large number of inputs. Patent Pools enhance welfare when the inputs are complements and decrease it when the inputs are substitutes. Finally, we show that for the likely case of perfectly complementary inputs, the strength of patent policy should decrease as technologies become more complex.
G. B. Ramello, Access to vs. Exclusion from Knowledge: Intellectual Property, Efficiency and Social Justice
The main rationale for intellectual property relies on the thesis of the incentive to create. Creators and inventors are economic agents attracted by the returns they expect from their effort. This depiction is practical, but does not give due weight to the complexity of knowledge production. This work does not contest the potential benefit of the opportunity for creators and inventors to reap some profit from their work. Rather, it considers the idiosyncratic nature of knowledge, which is simultaneously input, output and productive technology, and is closely linked to the social dimension. This provides further insight into the production process and suggests a significantly different framework for policy. More specifically, because of the increasing returns governing creative technology, the efficiency criterion used to guide the economic choice calls for weak intellectual property rights, thus preserving wide access to knowledge. A stronger appropriation regime would significantly impair the total outcome of the creative processes. Interestingly, this appears to apply equally from a social justice perspective, perhaps in an effortless solution to the age-old trade-off between economic efficiency and social justice.
S. A. Russell, The Superstar Phenomenon: A Legal and Economic Analysis of Copyright Law in the Role of Incentives
This paper will examine the economic rationale at the base of the superstar phenomenon. An application of copyright law will be analyzed in the role of incentives in order to determine the effects on the superstar phenomenon. Exceptions, limits and alternatives in copyright law will be considered with regard to the superstar phenomenon in order to determine whether the limits, exceptions and alternatives balance the superstar phenomenon. It is hoped that the research and analysis conducted in this paper will shed some light on the direction the law should reasonably move.
Winter Workshop Venue
Some basic travel information follows, in case it were of any use. There are all possible sorts of lodgings in Madrid. Our recommendation would be to look for a room in the areas of Moncloa or Gran Via. Moncloa is quite close to the conference venue: either a 10 minutes walk by the Parque del Oeste or a quick bus ride (A line, stopping by the Puente de los franceses). We enclose a map with three red stars: the one on your right signals Moncloa metro station and the A line bus stop, which is right in front of it. The closest stop to UNED is signalled by the little red star, whereas the big one on your left signals the building which hosts the conference. In case you wanted to walk, cross the Parque del Oeste and follow the Avenida
If you opt for Gran via (which may be convenient if you want to enjoy Madrid nightlife), there are lots of hotels and pensions. You might come to UNED using the bus line #46, which goes along the Gran Via and has a stop at UNED (Senda del rey street). It has three stops in Gran Vía and one in the Plaza de España and Paseo de la Florida which have a nearby metro station: respectively, Gran Vía or Callao, Plaza de España or Principe Pío. The stops are announced in the bus on an electronic screen.
If you want to look for a hostel in another area, you might find more about Madrid public transport system at: http://www.ctm-madrid.es/ You may buy a 10 trip metro ticket (6,40 euros), which is also valid for buses. There is a metro line from Barajas airport to the center of Madrid. Taxis are usually reliable, but some drivers may not know the conference venue: if they don’t recognize the street, let them know that it is right beside the Consejo Superior de Deportes. A ride from Gran Via to UNED will cost about 6 euros.
Click here for a picture of the conference venue building together with another map.
Introducción a la propiedad industrial
27 de noviembre de 2006
Presentación del curso. Juan Carlos García-Bermejo (UAM)
La protección de la innovación en españa: vía nacional. Ley 11/1986 de patentes
MÓDULO 1: (27 de noviembre de 2006) ¿Qué es una invención? ¿Qué es una invención patentable? Excepciones a la patentabilidad. El derecho de prioridad. Las patentes como objeto de derecho de propiedad. Las invenciones laborales. · Raquel Sampedro (OEPM)
MÓDULO 2: (29 de noviembre de 2006) Las invenciones universitarias y de los Centros Públicos de Investigación (CPI). Gestión de las patentes en centros CPI. · Domingo Represa (CSIC)
MÓDULO 3. (12 y 13 de diciembre de 2006) ¿Cómo se obtiene una patente?: Parte 1: La solicitud en manos del solicitante. La instancia. El estado de la técnica anterior. Las reivindicaciones: redacción e interpretación. La redacción de la descripción. El resumen y los dibujos. Cómo se presenta una solicitud de patente. · Ruben Amengual (Elzaburu Patentes)
MÓDULO 4. (18 y 20 de diciembre de 2006) ¿Cómo se obtiene una patente? Parte 2: La solicitud en manos de la OEPM. ¿Cómo se examina una patente formalmente? Problemas más frecuentes y lo que la OEPM espera del solicitante. ¿Cómo interpretar un suspenso y cómo responderlo? El informe sobre el estado de la técnica. ¿Cómo se realiza? ¿Cómo se interpreta? · Isabel Seriñá (OEPM)
MÓDULO 5. (15 de enero de 2007) ¿Cómo se obtiene una patente? Parte 3: El papel de los representantes y agentes de la propiedad industrial en el proceso de obtención de una patente. · Francisco Bernardo (ABG Patentes)
MÓDULO 6. (12, 14 y 19 de febrero de 2007) ¿Cómo se obtiene una patente? Parte 4: Aspectos sustantivos. ¿Cómo se examina la novedad? ¿Cómo se examina la actividad inventiva? El Problem-solution approach. ¿Cómo se examina la unidad de invención? El examen sustantivo y la resolución final. · Javier Vera (OEPM)
MÓDULO 7. (5 y 7 de marzo de 2007) Aspectos específicos: Invenciones biotecnológicas. · Carlos Velasco (OEPM) Patentabilidad del Software. · Eduardo Martín (OEPM)
Las patentes como fuente de información tecnológica
MÓDULO 8. (12 y 14 de marzo de 2007) Información tecnológica. Tipos de documentos de patente. Normalización. Bases de datos gratuitas y no gratuitas. Servicios de valor añadido de la OEPM y otras instituciones. · Esther Arias (OEPM)
Procedimientos internacionales
MÓDULO 9. (28 de marzo de 2006). El Tratado de Cooperación en materia de Patentes. · Diego Carrasco (OMPI)
MÓDULO 10. (16 y 18 de abril de 2007) El procedimiento europeo de patentes. · Juan Arias (ABG Patentes)
Transferencia de tecnología
MÓDULO 11. (23 y 25 de abril de 2007). Transferencia de tecnología en la Universidad Negociación de contratos de licencias y transferencias. OTRIS. Antonio Verde (FGUAM); Yolanda de la Peña (UC3); Beatriz Cubeiro (UPM)
La administración de justicia en el sistema de patentes
MODULO 12. (9 de mayo de 2007). La defensa del derecho de patentes en los tribunales de justicia. Enrique García García (Juez de la Audiencia Provincial de Madrid)
Aims and scope
The goal of this Summer School is to present and discuss recent issues and approaches currently under discussion in the vast field of the philosophy of all social sciences -though, according to the tradition of this event, special attention will be paid to economics.
Programme [PDF] | Abstracts: Contributed papers [PDF]
Speakers
- J. Francisco Alvarez (UNED, Madrid)
- Patrick Baert (Cambridge)
- Christina Bicchieri (UPenn)
- Alain Bouvier (Univ. de Provence, Marseille – Institute Jean Nicod, Paris)
- Nancy Cartwright (LSE & UCSD)
- Jeroen van Bouwel (Gent)
- Ian Jarvie (York Univ., Toronto)
- Francesco Guala (Exeter)
- A. Moreno Bergareche (UPV/EHU)
- Julian Reiss (Univ. Complutense de Madrid+LSE)
- Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca (Univ. Complutense de Madrid + F. Juan March)
- David Teira (UNED, Madrid)
- Petri Ylikoski (Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies)
Contributed papers
- Sabine A. Doering
- Till Grüne-Yanoff
- Tilman Hertz
- Floris Heukelom
- Frank Hindriks
- Caterina Marchionni
- Alessio Moneta
- Juan V. Mayoral
- Armando Menéndez Viso
- Michiru Nagatsu
- Menno Rol
- Hauke Riesch
- Ana Santos
- Paul Sheehy
- Obdulia Torres
Can economists contribute to the study of language? Very often philosophers have questioned that instrumental rationality could account for the rational structure underlying our natural languages. Most linguists have simply ignored the economic approach. After the publication of Ariel Rubinstein’s Economics and Language (CUP, 2000) there seems to be an opportunity to bridge all these gaps.
Programme [PDF] | Abstracts [PDF]
Speakers
- Ariel Rubinstein (Tel Aviv)
- J. F. Álvarez (Madrid)
- Andreas Blume (Pittsburgh)
- Bruce Chapman (Toronto)
- Gerhard Jäger (Bielefeld)
- Fabián Muniesa (Paris)
- Robert van Rooij (Amsterdam)
Contributed papers
- Asunción Álvarez
- David Austen-Smith + Timothy J. Feddersen
- Manuel Bagues
- Anton Benz
- N. Goldschmidt + B. Szmrecsanyi
- T. Honkela + V. Kononen + T. Lindh-Knuutila + M.S. Paukkeri
- Kris De Jaegher
- María Jiménez Buedo
- Andrew Jorgensen
- Raúl López-Pérez
- Ittay Nissan
- Christina Pawlowitsch
- Miguel Santa Olalla
- Morgane Tanvé
Winter Workshop Venue
Some basic travel information follows, in case it were of any use. There are all possible sorts of lodgings in Madrid. Our recommendation would be to look for a room in the areas of Moncloa or Gran Via. Moncloa is quite close to the conference venue: either a 10 minutes walk by the Parque del Oeste or a quick bus ride (A line, stopping by the Puente de los franceses). We enclose a map with three red stars: the one on your right signals Moncloa metro station and the A line bus stop, which is right in front of it. The closest stop to UNED is signalled by the little red star, whereas the big one on your left signals the building which hosts the conference. In case you wanted to walk, cross the Parque del Oeste and follow the Avenida
If you opt for Gran via (which may be convenient if you want to enjoy Madrid nightlife), there are lots of hotels and pensions. You might come to UNED using the bus line #46, which goes along the Gran Via and has a stop at UNED (Senda del rey street). It has three stops in Gran Vía and one in the Plaza de España and Paseo de la Florida which have a nearby metro station: respectively, Gran Vía or Callao, Plaza de España or Principe Pío. The stops are announced in the bus on an electronic screen.
If you want to look for a hostel in another area, you might find more about Madrid public transport system at: http://www.ctm-madrid.es/ You may buy a 10 trip metro ticket (6,40 euros), which is also valid for buses. There is a metro line from Barajas airport to the center of Madrid. Taxis are usually reliable, but some drivers may not know the conference venue: if they don’t recognize the street, let them know that it is right beside the Consejo Superior de Deportes. A ride from Gran Via to UNED will cost about 6 euros.
Click here for a picture of the conference venue building together with another map.
Registration
Registration is free. Please, download and complete the following form and send it (together with any queries you may have) to dteira {at] fsof.uned.es
The line connecting the social sciences and the philosophy of science can be followed in two opposite directions, which correspond to the ‘philosophy of the social sciences’, and the ‘social analysis of scientific knowledge’. Traditionally the former has taken the form, either of an application of ‘general’ epistemologies to the peculiarities of the social sciences, or of a marginal output of grand philosophical theories about man and society; perhaps less frequently, it has been the result of self-conscious reflections by practising social scientists. Under any of these forms, the epistemology or methodology of the social sciences has been a ‘philosopher-friendly’ area more often than not, due perhaps to the fact that sociology, anthropology and political science are (to use an evolutionary metaphor) amongst the disciplines which have a more recent ‘common ancestor’ with philosophy. In the case of the ‘social analysis of scientific knowledge’ however, the relationship has very often been one of hostility, for many authors devoted to it have conceived their research as an attempt to show that philosophical interpretations of science are radically delusory, if not that the content of ‘scientific knowledge’ is itself little more than a fictious social fabric, not determined at all by ‘the state of nature’, but by the force of social interests. This hostility reached its latest local maximum during the past decade, with the ‘Science Wars’ episode.
This colloquium of the AIPS will be directed towards the search for theories and approaches that could provide a rational assessment of the role that social factors play in the construction of scientific knowledge. After all, that modern science has produced a colossal amount of discoveries and practical achievements, is a social factum, of which we need both reasonable explanations -’how have modern societies been able of building such an impressive thing?’-, and instruments for rational evaluation and criticism -’how are we to govern such a creature?’-. In recent times, a growing number of authors have conjectured that, amongst the social sciences, it is economics -not necessarily understood as neo-classical economics- which provides the best tools for carrying out this project, not necessarily because of being ‘more scientific’ than its cousins -what may be doubtful-, but mainly because it allows to build clearer theoretical models, more suitable of being rationally assessed and criticised. Obviously, this criticism must begin by an analysis of the assumptions, either methodological or normative, on which the models are constructed, and this is why a philosophical understanding of this theoretical activity is needed in the first place. Considering the relevance of these questions, the next edition of the AIPS colloquium will take place at Universidad de La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain), under the general title ‘Epistemology and the Social’, from September 22nd to 25th, 2005.
In collaboration with
- Universidad de La Laguna
- Instituto de Filosofía del CSIC
- Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
- Sociedad de Lógica, Metodología y Filosofía de la ciencia en España
- Urrutia Elejalde Foundation
A preliminary list of speakers
- Evandro Agazzi
- Mario Bunge
- A. Cordero
- Ian Hacking
- Helen Longino
- aJesús Mosterín
Other members of the Academie have been invited to present shorter communications.
Organisation comittee
- Inmaculada Perdomo (President, Universidad de La Laguna)
- Jesus Zamora Bonilla (Secretary, UNED, Madrid)
- Amparo Gómez (Universidad de La Laguna)
- Francisco Álvarez (UNED, Madrid)
- Javier Echerverría (CSIC, Madrid)
- Juan Urrutia (Fundacion Urrutia Elejalde)
For more information, please contact: Inmaculada Perdomo (mperdomo {at} ull.es or Jesús Zamora (jpzb {at} fsof.uned.es)
Aims and scope
The purpose of the course will be to analyze the role and assess the performance of (and ideally suggest reform proposals for international economic institutions in addressing four central issues: poverty, trade, debt and transition. Four institutions will be the subject of scrutiny the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the Word Trade Organization (WTO); the World Bank (WB); the Inter American Development Bank (IADB); and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Key Issues and Methodology
Departing from a cursory background about the history and (evolving) objectives of each of these institutions, the speakers will analyze: the effectiveness of each in achieving its objectives; the merits of the key criticisms against them; and the main reforms to address these criticisms. The methodology will comprise: (i) defining the benchmarks to assess success for each institution; (ii) appraising the institution’s performance against those benchmarks; and (iii) identifying the redefined role and objectives and/or the institutional reforms necessary to improve performance.
The issues of moral hazard, lender of last resort, “redundant” lending, and “crowding out” of private financing should feature prominent attention. Current programs of the institutions to combat poverty should be analyzed and the suitability of grants versus debt will be assessed. The role of foreign trade reform in the poverty relief agenda will be studied. Also, speakers will address the issue as to whether the existence of these institutions is justified as they are or else significant reforms are needed.
Speakers
- Paulina Beato (InterAmerican Development Bank)
- Mario I. Blejer (Bank of England)
- Willem Buiter (EBRD & LSE)
- Michel Camdessus, Guillermo de la Dehesa (CEPR)
- Edgardo Favaro (World Bank)
- Kurt Geiger (EBRD)
- Ernesto Hernandez-Cata (Johns Hopkins U.)
- Joaquín de la Herrán (CESCE)
- Enrique Iglesias (InterAmerican Development Bank)
- Javier Iguiñiz (PUC)
- Piroska Nagy (EBRD & World Bank)
- Demetrios Papageorgiou (Rubicon capital)
- Cristian Popa (National Bank of Romania)
- Anne Sibert (Birbeck College)
- Boris Vujcic (Croatian National Bank & U. Zagreb)
Contributed papers
Students attending the Summer course are encouraged to submit short papers. However , given time constraints only a limited number of papers, on topics related to the theme of the course, will be admitted for short presentations during the afternoon sessions . If you are interested in submitting a paper , please forward an extended abstract, preferably as an e-mail attachment (.doc or .pdf file) before May 31st to David Teira (dteira {at} fsof.uned.es)
Schedule
July 26th, 2005
8:30: Registration
9:00: The Internacional Economic Organizations: Issues , Challenges, and Plan for the Course
Ricardo Lago ~ Florida International University, former official of the EBRD, IADB, and World Bank
10:00: Multilateral development banks: What the do and what should they do? [PDF]
Willem Buiter ~ Chief Economist, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development & London School of Economics
Their name suggests that the multilateral development banks (MDBs) should provide finance for investments in human and physical capital that promote development. The interpretation of this broad mandate, however, has changed significantly over time. One reassessment occurred when the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development was established following the fall of the Berlin Wall and given a mandate to foster the transition to a market economy by investing primarily in private sector projects. Another is ongoing with the strong focus on achieving the international development goals to reduce extreme poverty to one-half its 1990 level by 2015. This paper assesses the role of MDBs in fostering development or transition through the institutional mechanisms that the MDBs possess for the selection, monitoring and enforcement of loans and other financing agreements and through the use of subsidies that they receive from their shareholders and other sources. We conclude that a useful direction for MDB reform is to exploit more effectively the potential complementarities between the public and private sector financing operations. We disagree with the view that the MDBs should become at least in part fiscal agencies for the allocation of grants either for the purpose of international redistribution or for the financing of international public goods.
11:00: Coffee Break
11:15: New Financial architecture: proposals for reform [Power Point]
Anne Sibert ~ Head of the School of Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, Birkbeck College, London
Willem H Buiter and Anne C Sibert, UDROP: A Small Contribution to the New International Financial Architecture [PDF]
The purpose of the UDROP proposal is to prevent debt rollover crises for foreign-currency-denominated debt instruments. For such liabilities, there is no international analogue to the domestic lender of last resort or to domestic deposit insurance. UDROP stands for Universal Debt Rollover Option with a Penalty. Our proposal is that all foreign currency loans should have a rollover option attached to them. The ‘pure’ version of the option would entitle the borrower to extend or rollover his performing debt at maturity for a specified period. The pricing of the option would be left to the contracting parties. A number of variants on the basic version are also considered. These make the individual borrower’s ability to exercise his option contingent on the prior declaration of a state of ‘disorderly markets’, by the national central bank, the International Monetary Fund or an indicator of ‘disorderly markets’. All versions of the scheme have the property that no commitment of public money is required, either by national governments or by international agencies such as the IMF or the World Bank. The UDROP proposal is rule-based and general: it is mandatory for all foreign-currency debt and automatic. That is, it is exercised at the discretion of the borrower. This stands in sharp contrast to the current practice of discretionary and politicised refinancing arrangements cobbled together in an ad-hoc manner on a case-by-case basis by the IMF. UDROP is marketoriented: the terms and conditions on any foreign-currency loan and associated rollover option would be negotiated by the lenders and borrowers.
12:15: Defining fiscal and debt sustainability: analytics and IMF practice
Willem Buiter
Willem H. Buiter, Fiscal Sustainability [PDF]
This lecture reviews some of the key fiscal sustainability issues faced by developing countries and early emerging market economies. The key conclusions and recommendations include the following.
- Fiscal sustainability should focus on the fiscal- financial-monetary programme of the sovereign (the state), that is, the consolidated general government and central bank.
- It should include all present and future contingent claims owed and owned by the state. In addition to these contractual obligations, non-contractual current and future outlays and revenues must be accounted for exhaustively and comprehensively: nothing is offbudget or off-balance sheet. The special purpose vehicle veil must be torn away.
- For countries with weak economic and political institutions, the safe level of the net public debt to GDP ratio is likely to be low.
- If the re is a history of sovereign default, the safe level of public debt is likely to be even lower. Weak borrowers will have to generate larger and earlier primary surpluses than more credit-worthy borrowers.
- The attractions of hard currency borrowing during normal times are apt to turn into major disadvantages during periods of financial turmoil.
- Privatisations should be undertaken primarily for efficiency reasons rather than for deficit financing or debt reduction reasons.
- The permanent balance rule for government deficits, where the state raises its net debt to GDP ratio when spending (of any kind) is temporarily high and lowers it when spending is temporarily low, has much to recommend it.
Willem H. Buiter, To Purgatory and Beyond When and how should the accession countries from Central and Eastern Europe become full members of the EMU? [PDF]
13:30: Lunch
15:00: Economic Policy in Cuba: Approaching the Crossroads
Ernesto Hernandez-Cata ~ John Hopkins University and former IMF head negotiator with Russia.
E. Hdez-Cata, Output and Productivity in Cuba: Collapse, Recovery, and Muddling Through to the Crossroads [PDF]
More than a decade after the collapse of central planning in most former communist countries and the disintegration of the USSR, Cuba remains an “island of socialism” in the Caribbean sea, 90 miles from the United States. All along, and in spite of massive economic difficulties, the survival, of “socialism” has been the authorities’ explicit objective. So far they have achieved their goal through a combination of political determination, some good and some very bad economic policies, and a steep deterioration in the living standards of the Cuban population. This paper tries to explain the behavior of output and productivity in Cuba in the period since 1989, with particular emphasis on the role of macroeconomic and structural policies, and attempts to provide some basis for evaluating the outlook for the Cuban economy under alternative policy scenarios.
E. Hdez-Cata, Growth and Liberalization During the Transition from Plan to Market: An Empirical Analysis [PDF]
E. Hdez-Cata, Economic Policy in Cuba [Power Point]
E. Hdez-Cata, On Transition: Theory and Empirical Evidence for the former Soviet Union [Power Point]
15:45 Contributed paper
The Determinants of Ownership Costs after privatization: the case of Russia [PDF]
Carsten Sprenger ~ Universitat Pompeu Fabra
In a new data set of 530 Russian manufacturing firms we observe high and gradually decreasing ownership stakes of firm insiders, i.e. managers and workers. Using a tobit model with sample selection due to the privatisation decision, we estimate determinants of the ownership structure after privatisation. The paper provides empirical tests of the main predictions of the Aghion-Blanchard model of ownership choice after insider privatisation. For example, evidence is found that insider ownership serves as insurance against unemployment. The ability to collude among workers matters for the decision to sell shares to outsiders and affects positively the ownership stake of workers. Insiders are found to hold smaller stakes in the largest firms. Cash constraints matter in a negative sense: outsiders who are assumed to be less cash-constrained hold bigger stakes in capital-intensive firms.
July 27th, 2005
9:00 The WTO , the Doha Round and beyond lessons from The World Bank’s multi-country empirical study on Trade Liberalization [Power Point]
Demetrios Papageorgiou ~Managing Director Rubicon Capital and former World Bank Senior Official
Demetris Papageorgiou, Armeane M. Choksi, Michael Michaely, Liberalizing Foreign Trade in Developing Countries: The Lessons of Experience [PDF]
10:00 Volatility to external shocks in small open developing economies: how can the IFIs help?
Edgardo Favaro ~ Head of Growth Department, The World Bank
Edgardo M. Favaro, Managing Volatility in Small States [PDF]
11:00 Coffee Break
11:15 Economic Policy, Transition and the Role of the IFIs. An Eyewitness View
Ernesto Hernandez-Cata
John Hopkins University ~ former IMF head negotiator with Russia, and President of ASCE
12:15 Croatia’s Transition: Stabilization, Privatization, Debt Restructuring, EU Accession. What Role have the Multilaterals Played?
Boris Vujcic ~Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Croatia and Professor University of Zagreb
Velimir Sonje & Boris Vujcic, Croatia In the Second Stage of Transition 1994-1999 [PDF]
The paper attempts to summarize the important aspects of the transition experience in Croatia, focusing upon the second stage of transition, 1994-1999. The presentation is not historical, but rather links similar problems using international data comparisons and occasionally cross-section econometrics. Many topics are briefly surveyed: 1) relation between money growth, inflation, exchange rate regime and currency substitution; 2) determinants and costs of banking crisis; 3) relation between banking supervision, central bank credibility and exchange rate regime; 4) underlying reasons for the emergence of arrears in economy; 5) relationship between monetary and fiscal policy; 6) reasons for poor export performance and high external imbalance in Croatia; and 7) some basic labor market developments. The paper also draws some policy conclusions.
V. Sosic & E. Kraft, Floating with a large life-jacket: Monetary and exchange rate policies in Croatia [PDF]
Even after a decade of macroeconomic stability, Croatia remains one of the most highly dollarized economies in the world and domestic currency gained only a limited additional role since the introduction of the euro cash. Evidence shows that economic agents still remain cautious about exchange rate fluctuations, even of a small magnitude, and react upon depreciation by shifting rapidly from domestic to foreign currency. Commercial banks protect themselves from liability dollarization by indexing loans to foreign exchange, but in an environment of imperfect pass-through from exchange rate to prices any serious depreciation is likely to induce many defaults by borrowers. Substantial reserve requirements making assets denominated in foreign currency more expensive do not seem to deter banks from taking on such obligations, but reserve requirements play a protective role, reinforced by massive international reserves held by the central bank. Monetary and exchange rate policies in such a setting are not primarily engaged in taming cyclical fluctuations, but rather with smoothing exchange rate movements and safeguarding financial stability.
13:30 Lunch
14:45 Poverty trends, policies, and programs -drawing on Peru’s experience and international financial institution practice. Architecture: proposals for reform
Javier Iguiñiz ~ Chairman of the Economics Department, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru , Lima
J. Iguiñiz, La pobreza es multidimensional. Un ensayo de clasificación [PDF]
In this classificatory essay I present five main types of multidimensionality in the recent literature on poverty and human development. The first is intra-economic multidimensionality. Income, aggregate or individual, is accompanied with distribution, assets, employment, or other dimensions. By the second, non-economic elements are added, usually to income. Two versions of this type are very common and influential. In the first multidimensional factors explaining incomepoverty are introduced. Some of these factors are defined as “capital,” human, physical, social, cultural, symbolic, etc. In the second of them economic and non-economic elements define poverty. In both cases income, alone or accompanied, is still seen as an end. The third type eliminates income from the definition of poverty. The qualitative and quantitative transformation of income in order to define the Human Development Index is one of the ways that it is done, but it is even more explicit in the calculation of the Human Poverty Index by the UNDP where income is not included. The last two types arise out of wider approaches in the fields of political philosophy or moral philosophy. The fourth type consists in the introduction of the modern way of classifying the spheres of life. The “economic,” “political,” “social,” “cultural,” etc. spheres are considered dimensions of development, and also of poverty. The fifth type is more openly philosophical and is based in the explicit analysis of values and their relation to development.
J. Iguiñiz, Lucha ¿contra qué pobreza? [PDF]
In this paper I present one of the origins of what is being called today, the “struggle against poverty”. We extract some of the main aspects of the proposal entitled The Concept of Poverty presented by the Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A in 1965. Our main point is that the nature of the poverty they try to confront corresponds to that existing in that country, and it is quite different from the one most massively present in underdeveloped countries.
15:45 Contributed paper
New patters of trade, off-shoring, and migration in the enlarged European Union
Helena Marques ~ Lecturer, University of Loughborough (UK)
Presentation based on a set of four papers [ZIP]
July 28th, 2005
9:00 Economic Reform, Poverty and the Multilateral Development Institutions
Paulina Beato ~ Senior Advisor, Inter-American Development Bank
10:00 Managing the Argentine Financial Crisis – 2002 [Power Point] [Power Point]
Mario I. Blejer ~ Director Central Banking Studies Department, Bank of England, former Governor of Central Bank of Argentina and IMF official and Professor of the Hebrew University
11:00 Coffee Break
11:15 The Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative of the IMF and the World Bank, ups, downs, past and future
Piroska Nagy ~ Senior Official of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, London, and the IMF, Washington DC
12:15 Promoting Transition from Plan to Market in Central and Eastern Europe: the Role of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
Kurt Geiger ~ Head of the Financial Institutions Group of the EBRD
13:30 Lunch
14:45 The Export Credit Agencies, Bilateral Debt Defaults and Paris Club Debt Restructurings
Joaquin de la Herran ~ Chief Executive Officer of Spain Export Insurance Agency (CESCE) and former IMF Official
15:45 Contributed paper
Who’s afraid of Globalization? Academic and Political discourses on the Internationalization of the Economy and Redistribution
Maria Jimenez Buedo ~ European University Institute
The paper analyzes and classifies the theoretical arguments found in the political economy literature on how the internationalization of markets (both financial and of goods) affects the room for redistributive policies. It then compares these arguments with a stylized mapping of those found in the discourse of the main families of European political parties (conservative, social-democratic, and regionalist and nationalist groups). Finally, it analyses these with the discourse of specific social movement organizations of a self-declared anti-globalization stand. In particular, we will analyze the role that these discourses attribute to international economic organizations. In view of the contrasting of these three types of discourse, we build a map that can clarify the different public perceptions that these audiences have of the globalization phenomena.
16:15 Contributed paper
A two step approach to assess the costs of sovereign defaults [PDF]
Gisella Chiang and Francisco Coronado ~ Universitat Pompeu Fabra
The theoretical and empirical literature of international finance has emphasized many aspects of debt crisis and the sovereign decision regarding defaults and debt restructuring. Many authors have shown how international institutions (IFIs) and private creditors have performed in terms of their returns on outstanding loans to emerging market and developing economies. However these numerous works have said little about the performance of sovereign borrowers in terms of the losses that can be associated with debt crisis. This is precisely the contribution of our paper to the literature. We present a two-step evaluation of debt-related crisis in terms of forgone output growth. Our approach allows us to integrated to the analysis not only the e.ects of the default decision as such, but also the e.ects associated with the expectations that operates during the transition to the default equilibrium.
July 29th, 2005
9:00 Romania’s Transition and Accession to the European Union: How much have the Multilateral Institutions Helped?
Cristian Popa ~ Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Romania
10:00 Round Table on Redefining the Role of the International Economic Organizations and on Resolution of Sovereign Defaults
Beato, Blejer, de la Dehesa, Favaro, Geiger, Iguiniz, Hernandez-Cata, Lago, Papageorgiou, Popa and Vujcic
11:00 Coffee Break
11:15 Questions and Answers and General Debate Session: Active Participation of Students
12:15 Reform of the International Institutions wrap-up: tentative conclusions
Ricardo Lago and Mario I. Blejer
13:30 Lunch
15:00 Keynote closing address
Development challenges and reform agenda of the International Economic Institutions?
Enrique Iglesias ~ President of the Inter-American Development Bank, Washington
Michel Camdessus ~ Former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
Guillermo de la Dehesa (moderator) ~ Chairman of the Center for Economic Policy Research (London)
Registration and grants
The organization offers a number of grants to cover registration fees and/or accommodation expenses. Applications should include a short C.V. and, in the case of graduate students, a letter of recommendation by at least one professor. Notice that it is not necessary to present a paper in order to apply for a grant. Download and fill the two following forms (forms) and send them via e-mail before May 31st to: cursosverano {at} sc.ehu.es
How to get to the Summer School?
San Sebastian: The more complete information on San Sebastian available on http://www.sansebastianturismo.com/
Getting to Colegio Mayor Olarain: If you come by train or bus to San Sebastian, you may take a bus in the station (line 24) which will bring you to Zumalakarregui avenue (the yellow street in the map below).
The Summer School: The route you will probably take everyday during your stay in San Sebastian will start in Residencia Olarain ending up in Miramar Palace -where the Summer School takes place. We will probably meet during the first day during breakfast, but here is a map that may be of help in case you get up late.
Residencia Olarain (Paseo de Ondarreta 24) is located on your left (signalled by a star), while Palacio de Miramar (Paseo de Miraconcha) is on the upper right side of the map (signalled by a second star).
More information
Any question concerning the V Summer School may be addressed to David Teira (dteira {at} fsof.uned.es)
