People & Things in Motion: Economics and the Future

The Dismal Science seems to analyze and involve most aspects of our lives.  While traditional macroeconomics continues to concern itself with  natural rates of inflation and unemployment, with tariffs and taxes, with supply and demand, at both the meso- and micro-levels, economics has productively linked with sociology, social history, anthropology, and psychology. The field of behavioral economics , having adopted the methodology of experimental psychology, is now a full-fledged subgenre within the field. Many of its fascinating and useful insights have in turn seeded new lines of investigation in these sister disciplines.

Now, less out of sheer academic exuberance and more by brute necessity, economics is applying its methods to recent natural and man-made disasters of global consequence. The triad of climate change, the mass migration of refugees, and the pandemic-driven disruptions of the supply chain has descended  with alarming impact.  

In response, economics examines the movement of peoples and things amidst these disruptive forces, assaying their ramifications from both a birds eye view and up close. The effects on inflation, unemployment, family structure, healthcare, education, poverty and productivity are varied and profound. Our roundtable will look at the current dynamics of economics , and ask where the field may move in the 21 ^st century.

Links shared during webinar:

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo29143391.html

https://howiehawkins.us/ecosocialist-green-new-deal/

https://climateandcapitalism.com/2022/01/05/a-critique-of-degrowth/