Jonathan Heywood.

Conceptualising economic performance. The discussion.

The article.

 ”Economic performance and institutions: capturing the dependent variable”

The key assumptions of the article Where I think there is relevance Where I can find fault

The key assumption made

To find a solution to one of the major pitfalls of economic analysis – the independent variable itself

To define what is Economic performance

To attain based on previous assumptions tackle consensus politics and corporatism in relation to economic preformance

Agreement.

The model certainly defines clearly what the idea of economic performance to be. This is a step forward.

The model delivers results and based on them an understanding when assessing if corporatism or consensus helps determine economic performance.

The logic is solid and results clear

Within the data.

Notable the periods given some nations are coming out of recessions.

Definition of what is corporatism is still a little unclearly defined – and the shifting nature of corporatism over time as states do not always state in the same place.

Disagreement.

The key issue – what is Economic performance!

Growth – Gov debt – Employment vital – but this isn’t the whole story

Disagreement.

Inflation. Is this more harmful to economic performance than high unemployment?

Credibility – an issue totally ignored but vital on securing economic performance

Performance of key partners for trade

Expectation of economic performance linked with government policy and media direction

Disagreement. Key variables.

Public debt – some states can sustain more than others

Growth – some states look to slow growth in certain periods – “short term”

Employment – full employment desirable however to view economic theory through the eyes of right wing idea – desire to climb and avoid

One size fits all.

In the case of economic performance for many different reasons it is not partially always clear.

Cultural reasons for different variables to have more importance

Political reasons to curb a major problem – i.e unemployment or to ignore large debt

Key assumption.

“To a large extent, overall economic performance so defined is independent of short-term government policies. If overall economic performance was a simple matter of government policy performance, directly or indirectly through corporate policy performance, countries would not experience economic cycles and for all countries the normal situation would be a continuous ‘miracle’ (high economic growth, high total employment, low debt) that would not at all count as a miracle but simply as a matter of fact.”

Where can we take this

We can agree on ideas and the arguments but forward however we can also find fault.

Personally economic performance is linked to government performance and linked to cultural and expectation factors as well as uncontrollable such as performance of others.

Thank you for listening.

Have a nice summer.