Published by De Gruyter

Volume 3 Issue 2 -

Issue of Man and the Economy

Submit manuscript

Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available November 21, 2016

Original Articles

October 15, 2016

The Deregularization of Land Titles

Sebastian Galiani, Ernesto Schargrodsky

Page range: 169-188

Abstract

In the last years, several countries implemented policy interventions to entitle urban squatters, encouraged by the results of studies showing large welfare gains from entitlement. We study a natural experiment in the allocation of land titles to very poor families in a suburban area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although previous studies on this experiment have found important effects of titling on investment, household structure, educational achievement, and child health, in this article we document that a large fraction of households that went through a situation at which formalization was challenged (death, divorce, sale/purchase), ended up being de-regularized. The legal costs of remaining formal seem too high relative to the value of these parcels and the income of their inhabitants.

October 15, 2016

Laws That Enable Partnerships: The Case of Proyecto Pensilvania in Bogotá, Colombia

Giuseppe Danese, Candace A. Martinez

Page range: 189-209

Abstract

Waste picking is an informal economy activity that has attracted a large amount of research across the social sciences. We contribute to the debate on informality and its institutional determinants through case study analysis. We present a unique partnership between waste pickers and firms operating in Colombia called Proyecto Pensilvania . We argue that two specific sets of laws made this partnership possible. The first grants legal recognition to the activity pursued by the waste pickers, who become “waste entrepreneurs.” This is a key initial step to bring informal sector workers into the realm of the formal economy. The second grants special legal protection to the associations of waste pickers when they compete for inclusion in the local waste management plans. This is a way to incentivize waste pickers to join associations. Proyecto Pensilvania decreases transaction costs, generates income for disenfranchised groups of individuals and limits environmental degradation. The regulatory reforms that led to its establishment can be imitated by other countries with sizable waste picker populations.

Special Session

November 22, 2016

Introduction to the Special Session

Page range: 211-211

October 5, 2016

The Chicago School Student of Bourgeois Civilization

Ross B. Emmett

Page range: 213-224

October 5, 2016

The Idea of – and the Ideas In – Talk

Donald J. Boudreaux

Page range: 225-237

October 15, 2016

“Only Rhetoric” and “Rhetoric”

Richard A. Lanham

Page range: 239-251

October 25, 2016

The Clerisy, Literature, and the Great Fact

James Seaton

Page range: 253-264

October 20, 2016

Wisdom of the Past

Ning Wang

Page range: 265-265

October 11, 2016

Say’s Law, between Classical, Keynesian and Austrian Interpretations

Conversation with Dr. Steve Kates Conducted by Grégoire Canlorbe

Grégoire Canlorbe

Page range: 267-297

Publicly Available November 22, 2016

Corrigendum to: Herbert Spencer on Corporate Governance

Alberto Mingardi

Page range: 299-299

Download PDF

About this journal

Objective
When modern economics was born in the 18th century, Adam Smith made it a historical study of man and the rising commercial society. For Smith, economics is first and foremost concerned with wealth-creation, where the division of labor is the key organizing principle. In the next century, David Ricardo shifted the focus of economics from production to distribution. Over the course of the 20th century, economics has gradually metamorphosed into the logic of choice and taken mathematics as its language. These two transformations have together made economics a towering discipline in the social sciences. But this achievement comes with a heavy price. Economics has largely become a theory-driven subject, severed from the ordinary business of life. Rather than seeing this disconnection as a fatal flaw undermining the vitality of the discipline, many economists take pride in that economics is no longer confined to any subject matter, but stands as a versatile, subject-free analytical approach.

The Coase Society aims to reorient economics as a study of man and the economy. The human economy is a man-made, evolving complex system of cooperation and competition. The defining character of the market economy is its continuous innovation, churning out novel products from the constantly adapting structure of production. This dynamics is kept alive by entrepreneurship and the growth of knowledge. To understand how this open system works requires both empirical and theoretical efforts. But theory-building, unless informed and disciplined by facts on the ground, can easily degenerate into "blackboard economics". Empirical work is most valuable only when it changes the way we look at the problem. The paucity of systematic interaction and mutual learning between empiricists and theorists and the lack of competition in research methodology in modern economics have severely sterilized the discipline.

Man and the Economy is not to replace the prevailing paradigm in economics with what the Society believes as a different and superior one. Such a paradigm simply does not exist yet. But economics as currently practiced ought to change. Working with students of economies across disciplines and all over the world, and bringing diversity and competition into the marketplace for economics ideas, Man and the Economy can help to make it happen. We welcome empirical (historical, qualitative, statistical, experimental) investigations and theoretical explorations that deepen our understanding of how the economy works and how it changes over time. Man and the Economy is keen to publish articles that examine how the market economy spreads throughout the globe and adapts to local conditions as well as studies that cross disciplinary boundaries and/or integrate diverse methods to shed light on the working of the economy.

Click Here to read the newly-published interview with Dr. Ronald Coase!

Topics

Economy and its changes over time
Local and global contexts
Public policies
Political economics

Article formats
Original Articles (regular research papers), Research Notes (interesting ideas and findings not fully developed), Voices from the Field (contributions from practitioners in the business and policy community that are of interest to scholars), Marketplace for Ideas (interviews with leading scholars and other game-changers in the field), Wisdom of the Past (insights on man and the economy that have been forgotten), and Letters from Readers. We expect to open more columns in the future and welcome suggestions from readers and contributors alike.

Information on submission process

Volume 3 Issue 2 -

Issue of Man and the Economy

Frontmatter

The Deregularization of Land Titles

Abstract

Laws That Enable Partnerships: The Case of Proyecto Pensilvania in Bogotá, Colombia

Abstract

Introduction to the Special Session

The Chicago School Student of Bourgeois Civilization

The Idea of – and the Ideas In – Talk

“Only Rhetoric” and “Rhetoric”

The Clerisy, Literature, and the Great Fact

Wisdom of the Past

Say’s Law, between Classical, Keynesian and Austrian Interpretations

Conversation with Dr. Steve Kates Conducted by Grégoire Canlorbe

Corrigendum to: Herbert Spencer on Corporate Governance