Robert H. Nelson

Economics as Religion

Perhaps the central question for Christianity is the existence of evil When and why did evil begin in the world? How deeply has human nature been corrupted? How can humanity escape its state of sinfulness, finding the path of salvation?

Ten commandments for policy economists

The incorporation of economic approaches into policymaking requires special skills on the part of the economist. This article examines the use of economics in government as illustrated by the experience of the natural resources agencies. It presents ten guiding rules for the practicing policy economist: (1) be economical about the use of economics; (2) discount for political demand; (3) dare to be “quick-and-dirty”; (4) think like a manager; (5) analyze equity as well as efficiency; (6) know your market; (7) pay your organizational dues; (8) profit from action-forcing events; (9) do not oversell economic analysis; and (10) learn policy economics by doing it.

The office of policy analysis in the department of the interior

The history of a particular policy office, located in the U.S. Department of the Interior, is reviewed from the standpoint of a long-time participant-observer. This office played an active part in the formation of federal policies with respect to the leasing of Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas, the leasing of federally owned coal, and the supply and distribution of federally controlled water in the west, but in many other areas the office was less involved. The article examines the factors that affected the level of office involvement and, more generally, the character of office interactions with the various parts of the Interior Department. The problems of sustaining long-term agency support for a policy office and other issues with respect to the practice of policy analysis in government are discussed.

Lessons from Business Improvement Districts: Building on Past Successes

Although most people probably have not heard of them, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) have proliferated across the globe. Geographically defined zones authorized to collect taxes from businesses within their boundaries, BIDs have significantly changed urban governance and revived business areas. The property owners within a BID elect a board of directors who funnel the collected funds to various activities, which usually include sanitation, street cleaning, street improvements, additional security, and marketing for the business neighborhood. However, the BID model is very flexible and could be used to tackle other urban problems.This Policy Primer provides basic background information on the history, legal framework, and past successes of BIDs, information that local governments interested in promoting BIDs within their jurisdictions might find useful. It further proposes alternative ways urban governments could give BIDs enhanced roles in local governance.

Compressed Forensic Source Image Using Source Pattern Map

A primary bottleneck to successful petroleum forensics [1,2] is disambiguation of fingerprint hierarchy. From an encoding perspective, this amounts to disentangling source-specific biomarker signatures against that of neighboring reservoirs, which are expected to share regional commonalities that decrease with increasing geographic distance.

Compound-Cognizant Feature Compression of Gas Chromatographic Data to Facilitate Environmental Forensics

We present complementary compound-cognizant data engineering techniques for feature compression and data indexing across two-dimensional gas chromatographic (GC×GC) datasets with petroleum forensics as the primary application. We propose single-linkage clustering of dominant compounds (targets) along with local interpretation across biomarker peak profiles. Our methods enable high-volume data compression, along with robust querying and forensic distinction between similar sources. We validate our techniques against a diverse dataset of thirty-four crude oil injections collected from nineteen distinct sources across the planet, with emphasis on Macon do well, the source of Deepwater Horizon disaster (Gulf of Mexico, April 2010).

The rise of the private neighborhood association: a constitutional revolution in local government

Dick Netzer, a leading public finance economist specializing in state and local issues and urban government, brings together in this comprehensive volume essays by top scholars connecting the property tax with land use. They explore the idea that the property tax is used as a partial substitute for land use regulation and other policies designed to affect how land is utilized. Like many economists, the contributors see some type of property taxation as the more efficient means of helping to shape land use. Some of the essays analyze a conventional property tax, while others consider radically different systems of property taxation.

Economics and Religion, What Is the Relationship?: A Case Study of Nordic Social Democracy

Nelson argues that the modern era remains as deeply religious as any previous era in western history. But the outward form of religion often changed radically; new ‘secular religions’ claim that they are grounded in science, even as the underlying belief systems remained surprisingly true to the Christian heritage from which they were derived. In the many modern ‘economic religions’ such as Marxism and the American progressive ‘gospel of efficiency,’ the path of economic progress, leading eventually to the abolition of economic scarcity, would lead to a secular salvation of the world. This chapter examines Nordic social democracy as a case study: how Lutheranism was secularized to become the social democratic path to a new Nordic heaven on earth.

Five Moral Philosophies on Economic Growth: Fundamental Perspectives on Assessing its Benefits and Costs

Most economists are absorbed with writing papers for journals and other audiences and with other routine tasks of their professional lives. They have little time for introspective reflection on the moral philosophical - indeed, often secular religious - foundations of economics; indeed, they may not even be aware that contemporary economics rests on such a powerful set of value assumptions. The large role of moral philosophy in the historical development and now the current practice of economics is thus mostly left implicit and disguised. This paper briefly traces five traditions in moral philosophy that have contributed importantly to shaping the implicit value system of current economics: (1) the moral philosophy of Adam Smith of a “divine harmony” of market forces; (2) the “atheistic” utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and other utilitarians; (3) the “worship” of perfect productive efficiency and the scientific management of society of August Comte and other French positivists; (4) the “faith” of Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and other progressive economists that the abolition of economic scarcity will save the world; and (5) the newer anti-progressive, anti-economic messages of contemporary environmental religion. The paper shows how powerful values derived from these moral philosophies not only play a large implicit role in economic policy making but in ethically justifying the very use of the technical methods of economics itself. This paper was presented to a panel organized by the Association of Christian Economists at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association in January 2013.

Book Review: Gillem, M. L. (2007). America Town: Building the Outposts of Empire. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

recommendations relate to the military and the police, but, remarkably enough, some of the recommendations are intended to be specifically useful for the people who seek confrontation with armed state officials. His attention clearly goes both ways. Collins commends that both armed state officials and protesters learn to recognize the dynamics of forward panic, and he advises developing a training program for the military and the police to deal with these dynamics. In addition, Collins advises ordinary citizens to learn how not to become a victim in the streets: important elements in keeping from being mugged or abused in the streets are timing, body language, and tone of voice. Collins does not refrain from recounting personal experiences in this regard, and nowhere is Goffman far away, as the connoisseur will observe. Finally, Collins straightforwardly recommends legalizing drugs to reduce drug business violence. Clearly, this book is exciting and now and then controversial at the same time. Reading such a high-quality book does not come with annoyances. Yet sometimes the author tends to repeat himself, leading to the impression that stronger editing would have made the book shorter and more accessible to a general readership. A second rebuttal refers to the strict and consequential micro approach in this book. Collins intentionally refuses to incorporate timeand place-related macro arguments in his approach to violence. This is understandable, and surely the master shows himself in defining his limitations, as the German saying goes. However, it would not have been superfluous had the author made his readership aware that there is more to violence than micro interaction only. However, these remarks are only minor rebuttals that need not divert from the general conclusion that this is an exceptionally original and convincing book that is worth reading for many readers and students, not just in sociology or the military. It deserves to be studied by policy makers, journalists, social workers, and law enforcement professionals in general.