FAITH & ECONOMICS
NUMBER 64, Fall 2014
ARTICLES
Development Economics in 2015
Julie Schaffner
Abstract: Compared to 30 years ago, the field of development economics today is more coherent, more grounded in empirical reality, and more relevant to practical policymaking. It is also shaped by richer conceptions of well-being, people, and socioeconomic systems. This paper offers a review of current development economics, highlighting the analytical framework that now ties the field together and the significance within the framework of eight themes, related to transfer costs, mobility costs, liquidity constraints, insurance constraints, present bias, learning and persuasion, cooperation and private institutions, and governance problems in public sector institutions. The paper then briefly discusses the usefulness of the framework for policymaking by governments and NGOs, and the possible implications, more specifically, for Christian development work.
JEL Codes: O10, L31
It Isn’t Bad to Have Limits, as Long as You Know Them: What the Aristotelian Tradition can Offer Economics
Andrew Yuengert
Abstract: Economics can learn much about its limits from the Aristotelian tradition, which describes aspects of choice behavior which cannot be precisely modeled. This article argues through three propositions that economists cannot understand the limits of their modeling approach for normative work unless they engage with more comprehensive accounts of human decision making, like the account offered in the Aristotelian tradition. An awareness of the limits of economic modelling can have two desirable effects: it can bring some clarity to the confusion of terms which plagues discussion between economists and non-economists, and encourage economists to advocate more effectively for those insights of their models which are least dependent on unrealistic assumptions.
JEL Codes: B4, A11, D63
SYMPOSIUM: The Great Recession and Beyond: Lessons Learned
The Unfortunate Longevity of the Keynesian Ideal
Victor V. Claar
Debt
John Lunn and Martha LaBarge
Lessons from the Great Recession: Reflections of a New PhD
Nathanael D. Peach
VIEWPOINT
The “Crazy” Idea of a Christian Libertarian Economist
Peter R. Crabb
BOOK REVIEWS
The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor
by William Easterly
Reviewed by Jared A. Pincin
Climbing Mount Laurel: The Struggle for Affordable Housing and Social Mobility in an American Suburb
by Douglas S. Massey et al.
Reviewed by Kevin J. Brown
Biblical Economic Ethics: Sacred Scripture’s Teachings on Economic Life
by Albino Barrera
Reviewed by Mary Hirschfeld
Beggar Thy Neighbor: A History of Usury and Debt
by Charles R. Geisst
Reviewed by John Lunn
Christians in an Age of Wealth: A Biblical Theology of Stewardship
by Craig Blomberg
Reviewed by David Kotter