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
12 - The exchange of favors in the market for commitments
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
Introduction
Policy ideas sprout among economists from time to time, often as a by-product of academic work. Yet sometimes, some of the same ideas can be found, far from home, in politics. As with coconuts on a far shore, questions arise. How did they get there? How, once there, did they survive?
The simple exchange model which economists are fond of is not well suited to describe this spread of ideas from academic to political life. Academicians “transmit” and politicians “receive,” but in what coin do politicians make payment? Prestigious jobs are rare: there are, after all, only three seats on the Council of Economic Advisers and seven on the Federal Reserve Board. The satisfaction of influence can be gained more reliably from students, and for money. “National reputation”? Surely most economists believe that reputation is not built of invitations to testify before Congress. It is not personal gain but duty, motivated perhaps by conviction, that calls participating academics to drop their coconuts on the waves. And the model that explains such a sense of duty is, of course, evolutionary, and was not cast in the mold of the market.
At its point of genesis, the policy idea is a pastime, an idle pursuit. But once on the far shore, in dealings among politicians, the matter becomes more serious. For politicians policy ideas are “plans of action.” And plans of action are the coin of the political realm. Good or bad, they are necessarily political; those responsible must evaluate them with political benefits and consequences firmly in mind. The cast-off coconut is soon lost to the mother tree, but to the natives on the far shore it is food.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Spread of Economic Ideas , pp. 127 - 140Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989
- 1
- Cited by