On Appraising the Performance of an Economic System
What an Economic System is, and the Norms Implied in Observers' Adverse Reactions to the Outcome of its Working

This book describes and analyses the activities and procedures through which the professional economist may advise on matters of public policy.

Rutledge Vining (Author)

9780521071765, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 August 2008

208 pages
22.5 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.31 kg

This book describes and analyses the activities and procedures through which the professional economist may advise on matters of public policy, specifically on the performance of an economic system. The author shows that the decision-making component within a system may be defined in terms of optimal policies for attaining well-specified objectives, but that the choice of rules by which the system is governed must remain 'outside' the system due to its dependence upon the legislative process. He proposes a 'generating mechanism' for arriving at public policy choices based on the interaction between the economic system and the legislative process.

Part I. The circumstances in which the conceptual problems are posed: legislators deliberating upon how well an economic system is working: 1. Three main concepts that inhere in the circumstances cited
2. On the peculiarities of economics as a descriptive science
3. On norms that are implied in observers' adverse reactions to an economic system's performance
Part II. A nation's economy in geographic space and time: on the task of specifying norms of various aspects of it: 4. On constructing a small-scale model of a nation's population of people
5. A provisional description of a nation's population developing over time while in a state of full employment
6. Concluding remarks upon what an economic system is, and the problem of specifying norms of the outcome of its working.

Subject Areas: Economic theory & philosophy [KCA]