Blog posts

Assignment for 9/16

Be prepared to answer the following questions in class (blog posts welcome):

1. What is the treadmill of production theory and why is it important for environmental sociologists?

2. What is the theory of ecological modernization?

 

Reading assignmentfor 9/7:

I. Robert D.Atkinson and Darrene Hackler, Economic Doctrines and Approaches to Climate Change Policy, October 2010 and discuss/answer any two of the following questions on the Blog. (Read pages 1 – 10). Atkinson-etal-2010-econ-climate-change_theories

In the first 10 pages, the authors explain the various economic assumptions that lie behind competing climate change policies advocated by Neoclassical economists, Keynesian economists and Innovation Economists.

Then read the following pages from the article: 20 – 22; 25 – 29 and 30 – 31; Answer any two of the following four questions on the course blog. 

  1. What is your understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors? What are the assumptions about human economic behavior?
  2. What is your understanding of the neo-Keynesian perspective? How does it differ from the neoclassical perspective? What do neo-Keynesian economists view as the most important policies to address the challenges of climate change?
  3. What are the main problems the authors have with both the neoclassical and neo-Keynesian views about how to address the problem of climate change? What are the three arguments the authors cite as to why neither the neoclassical nor the neo-Keynesian views offer an suitable policy framework for addressing the climate challenges of the 21st century?
  4. The authors discuss what they call “Innovation Economics.” What do Atkinson and Hackler mean by innovation economics? Describe their perspective.

20 thoughts on “Blog posts

  1. Carol

    1. Neoclassical perspective, my understanding on this, is that neoclassical economists are concerned about the cost of goods. And neoclassical economist state that people make rational decision. meaning that they compare value v price.
    2. Neo-Keynesian on the other hand, state that it would be better to have government regulations, that messure people consumptions, so that they would be less pollution and natural resources can be preserved
    more.

    Reply
  2. Lichi , Zhu

    1.What is your understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors? What are the assumptions about human economic behavior?
    Neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors argues that markets should be free in neoclassical economic. That means governments should not make rules about who may make things, who may sell things, who may buy things, prices or quantities. For example, neoclassical economics allows individual actors (people or businesses) have the freedom to create the better economic outcomes. These outcomes may be a higher average standard of living, higher wages, better average life-expectancies, and higher GDP, but government doesn’t interfere too much to this market.

    2.The authors discuss what they call “Innovation Economics.” What do Atkinson and Hackler mean by innovation economics? Describe their perspective.
    In contrast to the two other conventional economic doctrines, neoclassical economics and Keynesian economics, innovation economics means that the central goal of economic policy should be to spur higher productivity through greater innovation, and markets relying on input resources and price signals alone will not always be as effective in spurring higher productivity, and thereby economic growth.

    Reply
  3. Vena Taylor-Moses

    Vena Taylor- Moses
    Blog #1

    1. What is your understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors? What are the assumptions about human economic behavior?

    The neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors believe that a price must be set on carbon which is done through the use of carbon tax or cap and trade which is the only principle and sole policy response needed to address the issue of climate change. According to the authors, one of their primary principles when coming to the issue of climate change is that economic growth is achieved by maximizing allocative efficiency where society receives the greatest net benefit when the distribution of available resources results in a desired quantity of goods. Another neoclassical principle is their belief that supply normally meets demand where the economy is simply a large market of goods and services that is generally in equilibrium and usually best left to itself. Neoclassical also believe that individuals act in response to incentives to rationally maximize their own self-interest, and that the collective pursuit of individual self-interest will also maximize public interest.

    The assumptions about human economic behavior is that the individuals act in response to incentives to rationally maximize their own self-interest, and that the collective pursuit of individual self-interest will also maximize public interest. According to the authors the individual who “ intends only his own gain” will, in the course of maximizing his needs, be “led by an invisible hand to promote the public interest, however new research in behavioral economics is showing an opposite to these views.

    2. What is your understanding of neo-Kenynesian perspective? How does it differ from neoclassical perspective? What do neo-Keynesian economist view as the most important policies to address the challenges of climate change?

    My understanding of the neo-Keynesian perspective is that economic growth is a result of business investment, government spending, and consumer spending because of the demand for goods and services it produces. This key principle shapes neo-Keynesian economic policies as they tend to focus on increasing government spending, with the belief that such investment will lead to increased aggregate consumer demand.
    Neo-Keynesians also tend to focus on the demand led economic growth side will little or no focus on the supply side of economy or what the producers or manufacturers do. They see policies, such as costly regulations, that might negatively impact the supply-side have little effect on overall economic growth. For this reason, they are more willing to support direct government regulation of economic activity. They also see it as if companies think consumer demand is increasing, they will have an incentive to invest more; and contend that government can do little to directly spur more growth, other than ensure high levels of aggregate demand.

    How does it differ from the neoclassical perspective?
    The don’t see an equilibrium within the market where supply meets demand but more focus on just the demand side of the economy. For the neo-Keynesian economic growth is not achieved by maximizing allocative efficiency, but rather social welfare, which is as a more equitable distribution of wealth and the achievement of social policy objectives (such as a clean environment, small business growth, etc.)

    Reply
  4. Nyan Lynn Oo

    Nyan Lynn Oo
    Econ2505 – Blog post # 1

    (1) What is your understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors? What are the assumptions about human economic behavior?
    My understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors is an approach to economics that relates supply and demand to an individual’s rationality and his or her ability to maximize utility or profit. According to the authors, neoclassical perspective is based on cap and trade solution which appealing to pure exchange such as carbon tax. Neoclassical economics also increased the use of mathematical equations in the study of various aspects of the economy.

    The assumptions about human economic behavior are a description of how today’s world works. It recognizes the central and growing role of human energy. Basically, the individuals act in response to incentives to rationally maximize their own self-interest, and that the collective pursuit of individual self-interest will also maximize public interest.

    (2)The authors discuss what they call “Innovation Economics.” What do Atkinson and Hackler mean by innovation economics? Describe their perspective.
    Their perspective of “Innovation Economics” is that find the week points or sources in our economic system and remove those by using innovative ways. By doing that, new or better ways of economics will help to boot up our current economic system and can lead to more efficient and green economic which produce less waste and more useful products. Economics growth in innovation economics is the end-product of knowledge, regimes and policies allowing for entrepreneurship and innovation technological spillovers and externals between collaborative firms; and systems of innovation that create innovative environments.

    Reply
  5. Cathy B

    Response # 1: Economic Doctrines and Approaches to Climate Change Policy
    3) The three arguments presented by the authors on why neoclassical nor neo-Keynesian views offer suitable policy framework for addressing the climate challenges for the 21st century are:
    1) Both documents focus on Newtonian way of adjusting supply or demand or supply of capital to keep the economy in equilibrium to secure economic growth, undervaluing the importance of innovation.
    2) Both documents concentrate on macroeconomic factors, particularly prices, rather than on institutional and technological change factors that drive growth, although in different countries and times.
    3) Neither doctrines’ principles focus on the complex process of technological innovation and the messy and complicated world of firms, industries, and national innovation systems as these institutions relate to economic growth. The authors state that neo-Keynesians do recognize that institutions matter, neoclassical do not, and neither create strategies relevant to them. In my opinion, the authors do not see either document as a means to address the global needs of addressing climate control, based on their limitations of not presenting knowledge or innovations in their equations. Namely technology, new ideas, and business as they all relate to economic growth.

    4) “Innovation Economics” is a new theory on how climate control should be addressed in order to create clean sustainable energy starting now and looking at future generations. The economist suggest the goal should be to improve production and adaptive efficiency with allowances for all stakeholders (individuals, organizations/firms,industries, cities and nations), becoming more productive and innovative. Innovation economics is about creating clean energy technologies for the long haul that are cost competitive and globally adaptive; especially in nations with no regulations, carbon taxes or subsidies.

    Reply
  6. saloua

    The neoclassical perspective is the economic approach toward pure exchange, that is based on cap and trade regime, which require the producers to reduce everything that can cause climate changes (such as carbon dioxide). and that will be by paying taxes on these emissions which will benefit the cities in many ways; more technologies will be developed, the new clean energy will cost lower and more jobs will be created. however, the problem with this approach is that the low cost of clean energy is not simple thing to occur and also it is not easy to persuade the global to act toward these changes.
    on the other hand, the neo-Keynesian is the economic approach where the government intervene to mandate the producers to use the “alternative energy sources” and that the renewable energy must be subsidized, so the cost penalty will be reduced. In this approach, the cap and trade regime is to make the producers use alternatives of low-carbon. The problem with this approach is that the neo-Keynesians focus mostly on the short-term solution, which focuses on the use of existing clean energy sources rather than innovating.

    Reply
  7. kristinec

    1. The authors discuss what they call “Innovation Economics.” What do Atkinson and Hackler mean by innovation economics? Describe their perspective.

    The authors suggest that the predominant doctrines devalue innovations. This results in a 20th century perspective to address 21st century issues. The doctrine of innovative economics reconfigures previous models to recognize technology, entrepreneurship, innovation as primary factors as economic growth.

    2. What are the main problems the authors have with both the neoclassical and neo-Keynesian views about how to address the problem of climate change? What are the three arguments the authors cite as to why neither the neoclassical nor the neo-Keynesian views offer an suitable policy framework for addressing the climate challenges of the 21st century?

    According to the authors, none of the predominant three doctrines (conservative neoclassical, liberal classical, and neo- Keynesian) offer a suitable approach to the climate change policy. They argue that this is largely due to three main factors. First, they suggest that each doctrine undervalues the importance of innovation and focuses to keep the economy stable and at equilibrium, promoting economical growth. Second, they undervalue other factors that drive growth such as institutional and technological-change factors and instead establish the importance on macroeconomics factors. Lastly, the above stated doctrines failed to recognize the complicated procedure of technological innovations.

    Reply
  8. Muhammad Javed

    1- What is your understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors? What are the assumptions about human economic behavior?
    Ans- One of the primary principles of neoclassical economics relevant to the issue of climate change is that economic growth is achieved by maximizing allocation efficiency. Society receives the greatest net benefit when the distribution of available resources results in a desired quantity of goods. This occurs not only because the most efficient allocation of resources results in the maximized net benefit through their use, but also because the prices consumers are willing to pay for the produced goods equal the marginal costs of production.

    2- The authors discuss what they call “Innovation Economics.” What do Atkinson and Hackler mean by innovation economics? Describe their perspective.
    Ans- Innovation economics holds that although there is equilibrium in some markets at some times, in a growing share of markets in the new knowledge-based economy, equilibrium is a fleeting moment.

    Reply
  9. Prantick Dhar

    1. What is your understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors? What are the assumptions about human economic behavior?
    My understanding of the neoclassical perspective is that, neoclassicists believe that government should play minimum role in the market. Their approach to climate change and reduction of GHG emissions is through Carbon Trading. They believe that if the government interferes with energy production, U.S will not be able to compete with other countries.
    2. What is your understanding of the neo-Keynesian perspective? How does it differ from the neoclassical perspective? What do neo-Keynesian economists view as the most important policies to address the challenges of climate change?
    Neo-Keynesian economists believe that government should play a big role in reduction of GHG emissions, through Carbon Caps, Direct Regulation, and Subsidies. In the other hand neoclassical economist believe that government should play minimum role in the GHG emissions.

    Reply
    1. Prantick Dhar

      Revised

      1. What is your understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors? What are the assumptions about human economic behavior?

      My understanding of the neoclassical perspective is that, neoclassical economists believe that government should play minimum role in the market. Their approach to climate change and reduction of GHG emissions is through Carbon Trading. They believe that if the government interferes with energy production though tough regulation, U.S will not be able to compete with other countries. Furthermore in my understanding the author said, we want to input minimum resources and output maximum. Which means that people want the cheapest product.

      2. What is your understanding of the neo-Keynesian perspective? How does it differ from the neoclassical perspective? What do neo-Keynesian economists view as the most important policies to address the challenges of climate change?

      Neo-Keynesian economists believe that government should play a big role in reduction of GHG emissions through Carbon Caps, Direct Regulation, and Subsidies. In the other hand neoclassical economists believe that government should play minimum role to reduce GHG emissions, which can be achieve through carbon trading. Noe-Keynesian also believes that the government should support new technologies which will make possible to produce energy with Zero or small GHG emissions. According to the author Neo-Keynesian economists support the idea that Low-carbon clear energy should be subsidy to make it affordable for the consumers and profitable for the producers.

      Reply
  10. Kanstantsin

    Q1. What is your understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors? What are the assumptions about human economic behavior?

    Answer: My understanding of the neoclassical perspective is that neoclassical followers believe that market always finds the equilibrium without government intervention. They assume that supply always meets the demand, and their thought on the climate change is that the problem will resolve itself if the gas emission will be appropriately taxed.

    Q2. What is your understanding of the neo-Keynesian perspective? How does it differ from the neoclassical perspective? What do neo-Keynesian economists view as the most important policies to address the challenges of climate change?

    Answer: My understanding of the neo-Keynesian perspective is that these followers mainly focus on the demand side of the economy, and they think that economic growth is a result of business investment and government spending. Therefore, as a contrast to the neoclassical perspective, neo-Keynesians believe that the climate change will not resolve itself, and the government should intervene by setting limits on gas emission and by supporting current generators of renewable energy.

    Note: I moved my response. Initially it was posted in the wrong place.

    Reply
  11. Matthew G.

    Blog #1

    1. The neoclassical views made from the author can be described in three ways. The first is that individuals want to maximize their self-interest. Also, there must be an equilibrium between supply and demand. In addition, resources must be distributed efficiently.

    2. The Neo-Keynesian believes that regulation of the industry is necessary. They also favor setting a limit on GHG emissions through emission caps and renewable energy portfolio standards, and subsidizing current generators of renewable energy. There should be subsidies for businesses to develop clean energy.

    Reply
  12. Esther

    9/30 Weekly Reading Assignments

    William Emmons suggested that American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of U.S. economic growth due to the five trends working against consumer spending. One of the five trends is stagnant income. After the recession had ended, the economy is trying to recover back to its healthiest. However, due to disequilibrium between the stagnant income, job growth and populations, many consumers can not live up to inflation. The level prices of goods and services continue to rise, as it had exceeded the amounts of earnings for an average consumer. As this trend continues, the higher income workers will become wealthier while the average workers will continue trying to keep up with inflation. As the result, it is difficult for American consumers to maintain healthy rates of growth when consumers spending and income does not equate.

    Reply
  13. Nyan Lynn Oo

    Nyan Lynn Oo
    Econ2505 – Blog post # 2

    One of the five Trends working against consumer spending : “Stagnant Income”

    Income is one of the most important key point in U.S economic system. Without the stable income consumers can’t afford to buy their needs which can create economic slow down due to less spending/ less money circulation in the system. Even though economic recovery under way since 2009, the market is still experiencing a lot of challenges. Minimum wages increase a little bit over time; however on the other hand, inflation rate also increase at the same time. Therefore, weekly earning increasing can’t help that much to growth the economy due since incomes of the typical worker are barely keeping up with inflation. Overall, Consumers need to earn enough income in order for them to consume more which can generate economic growth. Government/politicians need to solve this issue effectively rather than just keep promoting/promising plans. We need better economic reformation system to able to get back consumer spending to be an engine of economic growth it once was.

    Reply
  14. Kanstantsin

    Kanstantsin Yanchanka
    Post #2

    One of the reasons why American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of U.S. economic growth is stagnant incomes.

    Since U.S. economy is mainly based on the consumer spending, the consumers should have enough money to buy products; however, there are not enough jobs for every citizen because the population keeps increasing, and even those who have jobs have not seen an increase in their income for the last five years while the prices keep increasing. Therefore, most of the U.S. consumers, middle class, cannot afford certain products, and, therefore, they cannot contribute to the economic growth.

    Reply
  15. Matthew G.

    Blog Post #2

    Lower Wealth: The average income in a US household has increase slightly since the Depression era, although its still not enough. Negative equity now affects about 22 to 29 percent of households with mortgages. People just aren’t making enough because a lot of jobs are going overseas where the companies can pay their employees a much lower rate than those living in the US. This increases the companies’ profits, but this doesn’t really help the Americans because jobs are being taken away from them. Also with technological advances, computers are now replacing humans, which makes matters even worse.

    Reply
  16. Prantick Dhar

    Prantick Dhar
    Blog post# 2

    I believe that stagnant income is one of the main reasons why American consumers may not be able to serve as the engine of U.S. economic growth. When a country has a large ratio of middle class compare to its population, it is considered to be a strong and a wealthy country. Unfortunately the middle class population is decreasing in US, while the rich are becoming richer. When income does not increase with inflation, spending power decreases. Compare to inflation rate in US, average workers wages has not significantly increased for past few decades. I will end by saying that, how can our economy grow when our middle class is straggling. If we want to make America great again, we must first bring back the middle class.

    Reply
  17. Stefan

    stefan Falciglia
    Blog Post 2

    American consumers cannot be the sole driving force to serve as the engine of the U.S, to help it grow economically as they once did in the post-war era after WWII. Plainly we just may not be able to spearhead this by ourselves as they did in the post-war era, peoples mindsets are not the same as they once were. Those whom are lucky enough to have decent jobs end up hoarding money for “rainy days”, while the others are in a rat race for menial jobs with menial pay; not enough to boost the economy. Stagnant income is really affecting us negatively; job growth is far under population growth with no quick-fix in sight. The way we think as a group has varied in such as way, which is what I feel Emmons was driving at when he said that “We cannot be the driving forces, at least not for a while”, suggesting that we may have the ability but still lack something. Perhaps domestic and foreign sources are needed to maintain growth at a globally steady rate On the other hand, I do feel that we have an obligation to set the standards that will lay the ground work for other (smaller) countries to follow in our footsteps.

    Reply
  18. Alpha

    9/7
    1. What is your understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors? What are the assumptions about human economic behavior?
    A: My understanding of the neoclassical perspective as presented by the authors is that the government may not involve in prices and making goods and selling them.
    2. What is your understanding of the neo-Keynesian perspective? How does it differ from the neoclassical perspective? What do neo-Keynesian economists view as the most important policies to address the challenges of climate change?
    A: my understanding of the neo-Keynesian prospective is that the more money we invest and the more more we will get and the better our economy is going to be.

    Reply
  19. Prantick Dhar

    Prantick Dhar
    November 18, 2015
    Econ 2505 Environmental Economics
    Prof. S. MacDonald and D. Mincyte
    Extra credit

    Cost of recycling

    As people are becoming aware of their environment recycling programs are becoming popular. Earth cannot sustain current human population at the rate we are extracting resources from it. Action must be taken to ensure humanities future. One solution is to recycle our waste. Although people are becoming aware of our waste problems, people are driven by money. In this essay I will mainly focus on the financial aspect of recycling. Recycling is necessary to ensure humankind’s future.
    Many people believe that recycling is costly and is not economical. This is not true, if recycling is done correctly it is economical. It is economical because costs associated with future disposal are avoided. One of these avoided costs is for landfill depletion. Landfills have limited space, and so can receive a limited amount of trash. When it is full, it must be replaced by another landfill that is generally more expensive to operate and maintain. This is due to higher costs of complying with environmental regulations, higher expenses in siting a new location, buying or allocating land, constructing the landfill, operational expenses, and long-term maintenance costs after the landfill is closed. Additionally, the new landfill maybe further away than the old landfill, increasing transportation costs.
    Also new landfills costs more than older ones. If an older landfill is keep open longer paying for a new high cost landfill can be avoided. Recycling combined with other waste-deducting methods can keep older landfills open longer. It is because people don’t see direct correlation between recycling and cost, they don’t think about the savings recycling produces.
    Furthermore recycling is economical in many ways in manufacturing processes. Example of this are the followings, recycling aluminum reduces mining wastes, processing wastes, and emissions produced by extracting the aluminum from the ore. Recycled materials does not require processing of raw materials into usable forms, which cuts down on waste product. Recycled materials require less refining than raw materials. For example, it takes less energy and manpower to melt down an aluminum can to make another can than to process raw materials to make a can. This cuts down on chances for environmental damage and conserves our natural resources. Which reduces carbon emissions, and reduces the usages of scarce raw materials.
    Now let’s talk about the energy that can be saved when recycled materials are used. Manufacturing products for recycled materials requires less energy. Since this requires less energy, it cuts down on pollution emitted by utilities and companies themselves. When energy is used, indirectly the cost of the resulting pollution is passed down to all the energy consumers. Nowadays due to though regulations for clean air laws, utility companies must comply with tougher standards in reducing pollutants they release while producing energy. This cost is usually passed down on to each energy consumer. If energy usage is reduced by process such as recycling, less pollution is produced. That reduces everyone’s cost for paying to reduce pollution and putting less stress on Earth’s natural resources.
    Recycling programs are becoming popular as people are becoming aware of their environment. For our planet and the future generations we must act now to reduce our destructive path. Recycling is the solution to our current natural resource crisis. Now we know that recycling is economical. Recycling is currently in its initial phase and as time goes by it will be much more efficient and economical as seen in Sims Municipal Recycling, which is located in New York City.

    “About Recycling.” Missouri Department of Natural Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
    “Do the Benefits of Recycling Outweigh the Costs?” About.com News & Issues. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
    “The Costs of Recycling.” The Costs of Recycling. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov.
    “Industry-leading Material Separation Technology.” Curbside Recycling. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. .

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