Collaborative Research in Economics (eBook)

Michael Szenberg is Distinguished Professor of Economics and Chair of the Business and Economics Department at Touro College, USA. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Lubin School of Business at Pace University, USA. He is recipient of many awards, including the 2013 John R. Commons Award, and he served as the editor, Emeritus, of The American Economist (1973-2011).Lall B. Ramrattan is Instructor at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. He has served as an associate editor of The American Economist, and holds a PhD from the New School for Social Research, USA.Szenberg and Ramrattan have collaborated on journal articles, encyclopedia entries, and more than 17 books.ContributorsWalter Adams, Michigan State University, USAWilliam A. Barnett, University of Kansas, USAWilliam J. Baumol, New York University, USAMary Ellen Benedict, Bowling Green State University, USAJames W. Brock, Miami University, USAGraciela Chichilnisky, Columbia University, USADavid Colander, Middlebury College, USARonald G. Ehrenberg, Cornell University, USAStanley Engerman, University of Rochester, USADaniel S. Hamermesh, Royal Holloway University of London, UKGeoffrey Harcourt, Cambridge University, UKRachel McCulloch, Brandeis University, USACharles F. Manski, Northwestern University, USASusan Rose-Ackerman, Yale University, USAPaul Samuelson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USAVernon L. Smith, Chapman University, USAL. G. Telser, University of Chicago, USAW. Kip Viscusi, Vanderbilt University, USARichard Zeckhauser, Harvard University, USA

Dedication 5
Foreword 6
Preface and Acknowledgments 8
Contents 12
List of Contributors 15
List of Figures 17
List of Tables 18
Chapter 1: Introduction 20
1.1 Theories of Collaboration 24
1.1.1 Game Theory and Collaboration 26
1.1.2 Edgeworth Box and Collaboration 28
1.1.3 Team Collaboration 29
1.2 Hypothesis on Collaboration 29
1.3 Chapter Summaries 40
1.4 Conclusion 45
References 46
Chapter 2: On Collaboration in General Economics 50
2.1 Conclusion 58
References 58
Chapter 3: Reflections on Our Collaboration in Industry Studies 60
Notes 68
Chapter 4: The Productivity Impact of Collaborative Research in the Economics of Risk and Uncertainty 70
4.1 Introduction 70
4.2 The Impetus for Collaboration 71
4.3 Assembling a Large Collaborative Team: The Hazardous Waste Policy Project 72
4.4 The Coauthor Roster 75
4.5 Summary Statistics of Publications 79
4.6 Publications Over the Life Cycle 79
4.7 Conclusion 81
References 82
Chapter 5: Age, Cohort and Co-authorship: The Statistics of Collaboration 83
5.1 Background 83
5.2 Age, Cohort or Time? 85
5.3 Prior Co-authoring and Productivity 94
5.4 Age and the Choice of Co-authors 96
5.4.1 The Relation Between Age and Co-authors’ Ages 96
5.4.2 The Stability of Co-authoring Patterns over the Life Cycle 98
5.4.3 Age and the Identity of Co-authors 99
5.5 Aging Female Co-authors 101
5.6 Older and Younger Co-authors: Comparisons and Etiquette 103
5.6.1 Comparing Achievements across Cohorts 103
5.6.2 Co-authoring Etiquette for Older Economists 106
5.7 Implications and Summing Up 108
Notes 109
References 111
Chapter 6: Collaborative Choices in Econometrics 112
6.1 Some Statistics on the Prevalence of Completed Collaborations 113
6.2 Conjectures on the Growth in Collaborative Economics 115
6.3 My Collaborative Experiences 118
6.3.1 My Empirical Research 119
6.3.2 My Theoretical Research 120
6.4 Collaborations as Social Interactions 122
Notes 125
References 125
Chapter 7: On the Pleasures and Gains of Collaboration in Microeconomics 126
7.1 My Coauthor—A Quick Survey 127
7.2 Bill Bowen and Arts Economics—Birth of a Small Industry 130
7.3 Alan Blinder and the Principles Textbook 131
7.4 The Birth of Contestability Theory 133
7.5 Productivity Growth and the Surprising US Performance 134
7.6 Ralph Gomory and the Orderly Region of the Scale-Economies Trade Equilibria 136
7.7 Concluding Comment 138
Chapter 8: A Serial Collaborator 139
8.1 Collaboration with Abba Lerner 139
8.2 Collaboration with Harry Landreth 141
8.3 Collaboration with Arjo Klamer 142
8.4 Collaborations with Critics 143
8.5 Et al.: Institutionally Imposed Collaboration 144
8.6 Collaboration with Non-Economists 145
8.7 Collaboration with the Dead 146
8.8 The Often Unmentioned Collaborators 147
8.9 Why Collaborate? 148
8.10 A Final Comment 149
Bibliography 150
Chapter 9: Collaboration With and Without Coauthorship: Rocket Science Versus Economic Science 152
9.1 Introduction 152
9.2 Rocket Science 154
9.3 Nonlinearity 156
9.4 Measurement 157
9.5 The Federal Reserve 160
9.6 Academia 162
9.7 Conclusion 163
Notes 164
References 165
Chapter 10: Why We Collaborate in Mathematical Ways 167
10.1 Lonely Work versus Collaboration in the Knowledge Economy 168
10.2 Division of Labor Then and Now 168
10.3 How the Human Brain Acquires and Perfects Skills 169
10.4 Findings in Experimental Psychology 170
10.5 From Experimental Psychology to Economics 170
10.6 Regime Shift in the Learning Curve 172
10.7 Solving a Classic Problem of Resource Allocation 172
10.8 Why Do We Collaborate? 173
10.9 Conclusion 174
Notes 174
Selected References 174
Chapter 11: Collaborative is Superadditive in Political Economics 176
11.1 Evidence of Increasing Collaboration 177
11.2 Explanations for Increasing Collaboration 180
11.3 Superadditivity in Production 182
11.4 A Model of Collaboration Costs and Benefits 182
11.5 Superadditivity in Credit 186
11.6 Productivity in Mixed Collaborations in Music and in Economics 188
11.7 Suboptimal Levels and Modes of Collaboration, Some Behavioral Explanations 191
11.8 Conclusion 192
Notes 192
References 194
Chapter 12: “Heinz” Harcourt’s Collaborations: Over 57 Varieties 196
12.1 Introduction 196
12.2 Early Collaborations 197
12.3 First Adelaide Years 198
12.4 Cambridge in the 1960s 200
12.5 Return to Adelaide 1967–72 203
12.6 Collaboration in Adelaide in the 1970s 206
12.7 Collaboration in Canada 209
12.8 Further Collaboration in Adelaide 211
12.9 Twenty-eight Years in Heaven: Return to Cambridge in 1982 212
12.10 Collaboration on Visits to OZ 217
12.11 In Cambridge From 1982 On 218
12.12 Prue Kerr and I 221
12.13 At the School of Economics UNSW, 2010– 223
12.14 Post-Keynesians from Down Under 224
12.15 Conclusion 226
Notes 226
Collaborations 228
Books 228
Articles 229
Review Articles 230
Notes 231
Chapters in Books 232
Reviews 235
Other References 235
Articles et al. by G.C. Harcourt: 238
Chapter 13: Coauthors and Collaborations in Labor Economics 240
13.1 Introduction and Patterns to Explain 241
13.2 The Whys and Whos of Coauthors 245
13.3 Collaboration Without Being a Coauthor 255
13.4 Concluding Remarks 257
Notes 259
References 260
Chapter 14: Two Heads are Better than One, and Three is a Magic Number in Economics 263
Notes 267
Chapter 15: Why Collaborate in International Finance? 269
15.1 How Collaboration Begins 270
15.2 Benefits and Costs of Collaboration 273
15.3 The Process of Collaboration in Economics 274
15.4 Two Long-Term Collaborations 276
15.5 Short-Term Collaborations 280
15.6 Collaboration With a Significant Other 281
15.7 Collaboration versus Co-authorship 282
15.8 Possible Downsides of Collaboration 284
15.9 Some Concluding Thoughts 285
Notes 285
Chapter 16: My Collaborations in Game Theory 286
16.1 Collaborations of the First Kind 286
16.2 Collaboration with Basil S. Yamey 289
16.3 Collaborations with Robert L. Graves 289
16.4 Collaborations with William Best, John Egan and Harlow Higinbotham 294
16.5 Collaborations of the Second and Third Kind 297
16.6 Lessons of Collaboration 298
Chapter 17: Co-authors in History 300
Chapter 18: Collaboration: Making Eclecticism Possible in Economic Law and Politics 306
Chapter 19: Collaboration and the Development of Experimental Economics: A Personal Perspective 316
19.1 Students Had a Prominent Role in the Development and Study of Experimental Markets 317
19.2 Rapid but Unanticipated Innovation Soon Followed 320
19.3 Not All Markets Are Born Equal: The Enigma of Asset Market Bubbles 323
19.4 The Lab as a Test-Bed for Designer Markets 325
19.5 International Reach 328
19.6 Has Economics Seen an Experimental Turn? 330
Index 331