Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 An introduction to the spread of economic ideas
- Part I From economist to economist
- Part II From economists to the lay public
- Part III From economist to policymaker
- 10 Economic ideas and economists in government: accomplishments and frustrations
- 11 The spread of economic ideas between academia and government: a two-way street
- 12 The exchange of favors in the market for commitments
- 13 How tax reform came about
- Part IV Funding the spread of economic ideas
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - The spread of economic ideas between academia and government: a two-way street
from Part III - From economist to policymaker
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 An introduction to the spread of economic ideas
- Part I From economist to economist
- Part II From economists to the lay public
- Part III From economist to policymaker
- 10 Economic ideas and economists in government: accomplishments and frustrations
- 11 The spread of economic ideas between academia and government: a two-way street
- 12 The exchange of favors in the market for commitments
- 13 How tax reform came about
- Part IV Funding the spread of economic ideas
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Discussions of the flow of ideas between academic economists and government officials have tended to focus on the academic's role in shaping public policy. It is quite understandable that this should be the case. Academics have discretionary time to write papers on the topic. And it is probably reasonable to assume that their thought processes are conditioned in some measure by Keynes's oft-quoted comments about the power of ideas as a force for good or evil. In his account, the academic scribblers hold the upper hand, while the practical men are depicted as being enslaved by some “defunct economist.” This characterization, to be sure, is flattering to those who operate primarily from the ivory tower. Small wonder that academics should find it appealing!
But does this characterization do justice to the reality? The process through which new ideas are generated and ultimately translated into policies and programs that shape the flow of history may be too complex to be reduced to a simple and unidirectional schema. And perhaps as well there is an element of exaggeration in the claims made for the primacy of the academic scribblers. Certainly one can think of an abundance of cases in which fundamental changes in economic policy have taken on a life of their own quite independent of inspiration from mainstream professional journals. The Tax Reform Act of 1986, as Joseph Minarik effectively demonstrates in this book, is one such instance: the forces coalescing to produce this result had a political momentum that generated an outcome different from the one the theorists working on optimal policies in public finance would have prescribed.
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- The Spread of Economic Ideas , pp. 119 - 126Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989
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