The Competitive Paradigm in Spatial Economics

Towards a Paradigm Shift in Economics?

Economists and the financial community share a paradoxical fate: their economic influence is strengthened by their mistakes. We all agree that they share much of the responsibility for the crisis, yet we do not call their credibility into question. Over the past five years, the financial markets’ leading actors, notably the credit-rating agencies and major banks, have increased their ability to...

Information and the Change in the Paradigm in Economics

The research for which George Akerlof, Mike Spence, and I are being recognized is part of a larger research program which, today, embraces hundred, perhaps thousands, of researchers around the world. In this lecture, I want to set the particular work which was sited within this broader agenda, and that agenda within the broader perspective of the history of economic thought. I hope to show that...

New Classical Economics: Toward a new paradigm for economics?∗

We discuss the emerging field of New Classical economics from the perspective of some classical economic questions regarding the generation of wealth. We first discuss the foundational hypotheses of New Classical economics. We identify some problems with some basic concepts in its structure and suggest some avenues to amend and enhance this emerging field. We conclude that there are significant...

The Economics of Costly Risk Sorting in Competitive Insurance Markets

In the last twenty years, state and federal policy makers have often been asked to restrict the criteria, or tests, on which insurance companies may base their risk categorization. Insurance companies have responded that it is fair and reasonable to charge groups with different probabilities of death or accident actuarially fair rates for each group. The companies argue that if they are not all...

Mathematical Models in Spatial Economics