For decades, the development of transportation infrastructure in the Brazilian Amazon has been the government’s main social and economic development policy in the region. Reductions in transportation costs have not only opened the agricultural frontier to cattle ranching and logging but have...

It is common to think of care ethics and justice ethics as being opposed to each other, and also to think of economic life as being opposed to social life. As a result, it may be hard to see how care ethics, seen as interpersonal, could be applicable to business, when the latter is perceived as...

Writings on the topic of Buddhism and economics seem to be characterized by two very different attitudes towards economic life. The first, drawing from historical Buddhist teachings in primarily pre-industrial contexts, takes a largely positive view of commerce. The second, in which a modern...

Economists are often called on to help address pressing problems of the day, yet many economists are uncomfortable about disclosing the values that they bring to this work. This essay explores how an inadequate understanding of the role of methodology, as related to ethics and human emotions of...

Official estimates tend to overstate the benefits of trade facilitation and ignore its costs. When all underlying assumptions are brought to light, expecting large gains appears unreasonable. At the same time, estimated employment benefits may easily turn into net losses. With fundamental...

The impetus for this paper is the urgent need is to figure out how a non-growing – even a shrinking – economy may be able to provide human well-being while beginning to restore the health of natural world. Twentieth century economic theory is not well able to conceptualize this problem,...

Would having more women in leadership have prevented the financial crisis? This question may arise in courses on Gender and Economics, Money and Financial Institutions, Pluralist Economics, or Behavioral Economics, and offers an important teaching moment. The first part of this essay argues that...

There is an ongoing debate about bilateral investment treaties (BITs) – and investor-state arbitration, in particular – between those who maintain that BITs encourage investment in developing countries by providing enforceable rights and protections for investors, and those who suspect that...

Climate change is changing not only our physical world, but also our intellectual, social, and moral worlds. We are realizing that our situation is profoundly unsafe, interdependent, and uncertain. What, then, does climate change demand of us, as human beings and as economists? A discipline of...

On the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Great Recession, there is still no consensus on the lessons to be gleaned from the lingering crisis. What provoked the largest financial and economic collapse in decades? While the housing bubble and subprime mortgage lending boom provide clear...