martedì 14 ottobre 2008

Prof. Krugman wins the Economics Nobel Prize

Prof. Paul Krugman wins the Nobel Prize for Economics for his "analysis on trade patterns and location of economic activity". Going beyond the theoretical and accademic importance of his studies, I would like to undeline his personal committment against inequality and corruption as obstacles to the achievement of a real development and the construction of a decent society. This award coincides with a peculiar moment of crisis for that kind of bogus economy which prospered on inequality and corruption. Now it is time to think over the market's auto-regolative mechanisms and the role of measures of economic and social policy directed to control and manage the behaviour of economic agents. It is thus necessary to have a critical mind towards those politicians and economists who consider the market forces as the only solutions for the system's perturbations. It is important to insist that these theories are pure "abstractions", valid perhaps for economic textbooks, because they express concepts can work only in a theoretical context where all the conditions useful for the achievement of forms of equilibrium are fully fulfilled. Reality, on the contrary, (and the last financial crisis confirms this) indicates that the system's agents not always (and not completely) cooperate and the information allocation among agents may be unfair (someone detains complete and accurate information while others have scarce and inaccurate information). The idea of a "stable" and efficient market dimension, based on the relationship between supply and demand and pure economic operators, thus must be integrated with an idea of a stable and efficient institutional, legal, cultural and social context. If this institutional, legal and social framework is not democratically built (honest and competent adminsitrators and politicians, efficient and equal education and health systems, etc.) economic systems won't be able alone to efficiently manage (and solve) those problems economy continuosly produces. It is not possible to delegate issues and problems having political and social nature to economics.
In Italy, at present, we have not such a institutional framework for the high incedence of corruption in the political affaires; everyday those pillars which the possibility to create a decent society depend on, are constantly under attack (justice, education, public health system). For this reason the opportunities to create some real regolative mechanisms within our society are linked to a wider, better, active and voluntary democratic participation of our communities at the different levels and stages of political and social life. Only in this way economic development can become the synthesis among economic justice, political justice and political domocracy.

2 commenti:

giuseppe russo ha detto...

da economista concordo pienamente con la definizione dell'economia quale componente del complesso sistema sociale, ma anche e più nel contesto italiano sui limiti che la corruzione generalizzata pone agli stessi interventi economici (per esempio in tema di costo delle infrastrutture)
Giuseppe Russo

Carmelo Cannarella ha detto...

Io non sono un economista, ma, occupandomi di sviluppo (soprattutto locale) mi pare che in Italia la corruzione si presenti come una vera e propria "tassa" che grava su tutto il sistema economico e sociale. Proprio nel caso dei costi delle infrastrutture (che in Italia raggiungono dei livelli incomparabili con quelli degli altri Peasi europei) si vede come la corruzione finisca con l'agire come una tassa aggiuntiva. Lo stesso dicasi per la sanità.
Lottare contro la corruzione quindi significa in Italia non solo combattere una battaglia etica, ma anche una battaglia "economica" per liberare lo sviluppo da legami ed oneri di ogni genere. In considerazione del fatto che sei un economista, ogni tuo contributo di approfondimento sull'argomento è più che benvenuto.