The PPE Society and the Department of Political Economy at King's are hosting the first annual PPE conference this July in London 💭 Interested in submitting a proposal? The deadline is March 1, so don't forget to apply 📝 For more, see 🔽 ppesociety.org/ppe-society-...

We'll be hosting the first UK PPE conference in July - please do submit your abstracts and spread the news!

A seminal work on ontology and economics: Tony Lawson’s Economics and Reality. www.routledge.com/Economics-an...

In Public Affairs Quarterly 38.3, @johnmeadowcroft.bsky.social argues that Robert Nozick's "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" has been misread as a defense capitalism's inequalities. https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/paq/article/38/3/173/392018/Emergence-as-a-Moral-Theory-Reappraising-Robert

The Talent Commission was important in highlighting technicians in our universities. The impact of their work still unfolding itss.org.uk/research-rep...

Thanks to the Royal Economic Society for publishing my overview of Elinor Ostrom's contribution to commons, climate economics and policy, "What works in practice can work in theory."

Such a lovely piece about valuing a really good local restaurant by @msrachelcooke.bsky.social (in last week’s Observer). She writes warmly about Trullo. I feel the same about the wonderful Les 2Garcons in Crouch End.

This is a fine, insightful book on those political aspects of the Ostroms’ work that receive less attention than they deserve. Highly recommended.

Intriguing paper by the great Elinor Ostrom. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Fascinating, thought-provoking article on the need for a new moral political economy by Margaret Levi. academic.oup.com/oxrep/articl...

Good book; fine cover.

Getting a bit realistic now. The Good Father out on 3 July…

Fascinating paper by James Buchanan, engaging at a fundamental level with Kenneth Arrow’s work on social choice theory. www.jstor.org/stable/1825570

Current reading.

A comprehensive analysis of Amartya Sen’s fascinating notion of ’commitment’.

A quick and insightful overview of Elinor Ostrom's life and ideas: "Tackling the sustainability challenge collectively Elinor Ostrom won a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009 for showing that ordinary people, working together, can manage natural resources sustainably. Her work is as relevant as ever."

Interested in how Elinor and Vincent Ostrom drew on ideas from cybernetics? Then check out this paper: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Another fine episode of Great Lives, this time on James Baldwin. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

This paper develops a Hayekian/Ostromian perspective on innovation systems theory. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Terrific episode of Great Lives on the extraordinary Frank Ramsey. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I am always delightfully surprised to see a post from a reader of my book! Thanks Paul and all the readers - past, present, and future. I hope it inspires conversation about how Ostrom's ideas can be applied to today's challenges.

Some reading for today.

A beautifully written, finely observed novella. A delight to read.

Interesting-looking article. academic.oup.com/cpe/advance-...

Classic article by John Maynard Keynes: ’The General Theory of Employment.’ academic.oup.com/qje/article/...

Make your day better by reading this superb paper by Ryan Hanley. It’s on a fascinating topic, is based on a careful and convincing argument, and is full of insight. Highly recommended. ’PRACTICING PPE: THE CASE OF ADAM SMITH’ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

New purchase.

"The purpose of writing isn’t just to demonstrate knowledge in the most expedient way. Writing is to explore knowledge, to connect and synthesise ideas, to create new knowledge, and to share." An interesting analysis of pitfalls of drafting using genAI by @leonfurze.com leonfurze.com/2024/02/21/t...

Citizens hear about democratic backsliding on the news, but they meet it in interactions with street-level bureaucrats. This SI, co-edited with @gabilotta.bsky.social and Nadine Raaphorst, explores how populism and democratic erosion shape the work of the frontline public sector🧵

Walter Lippmann: an institutionalist for our times? joie-blog.net/walter-lippm...

This is interesting: Matt Flinders on The New Politics of Public Inquiries, and on the danger that the public's greatly inflated expectations risks undermining public confidence in British politics rather than rebuilding it. In @politicalquarterly.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The Economist on cronyism, rent-seeking, and the work of Anne O. Krueger. Well worth reading. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

During Covid lockdown, if you had family round on Christmas Day the police could force their way into your home and make them return to their own homes. Does anybody know if this service is still available and, if so, do you have to book it?

Recently published paper on the constitutional political economy of James Buchanan and Vincent Ostrom, co-authored with @johnmeadowcroft.bsky.social link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Thought-provoking essay on behavioural normative economics: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

’True curiosity is serious, not idle, and proper knowledge is almost always hard won. The real spirit of the autodidact is one of awed humility: other people know much more than me; catching up is going to be hard work.’ Fine article on self-education by James Marriott.

Coming up this morning: the final lecture of this term's Studying Economics module, designed to introduce students to complexity economics. The main focus will be on Thomas Schelling's fascinating model of segregation. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Really good episode of "In Our Time" on Friedrich Hayek - a much more interesting thinker than many of his disciples. With Ben Jackson, Melissa Lane and Bruce Caldwell. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

‼️Our department is looking for a 4-year postdoc: ideally someone interested in economic sociology experienced with quantitive methods. We offer: manageable teaching load, great time to develop research & a wonderful city. Please consider applying & share widely! ‼️ jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...

2. Elinor Ostrom was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics! Ironically, she was rejected from UCLA's graduate program in econ and instead got a PhD in political science. Ostrom's work and life is inspiring to many.

Interesting-looking new article: ‘Being good and doing good in behavioural policy-making’. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Recent book by recent former KCL PhD student and fine scholar Matias Petersen: www.routledge.com/Political-Ec...

Really interesting paper by Tony Lawson on the nature/definition of the discipline of economics. www.persee.fr/doc/ecoap_00...

Good morning from north London.

Here’s a little piece I did on the nature and significance of Hayek’s work on theoretical psychology: lawliberty.org/classic/haye...

Thought-provoking article, which seeks to reorient the normative side of behavioural economics, by my KCL colleague Shaun Hargreaves Heap. academic.oup.com/cje/article-...

1. Adam Oliver, LSE, 9th December www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2024/... #BehaviouralScience #PublicPolicy #Autonomy #BehSci #PoliticalScience

Not quite as funny as "Rawls is Jesus", but here's a note from Norman Malcolm to Rawls congratulating him on "The Book" and apologizing for trying, in 1947, to dissuade him from writing a dissertation in moral philosophy. "How fortunate that you were stubborn!"

On liberalism (an early version of the first chaper of a forthcoming book on that topic). papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Democracy, demarchy, and international federalism isonomiaquarterly.com/volume-2-iss...