Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Economics

The term "fractional reserve banking" relates to a period in history when the role of the banking institution shifted from that of a depository institution to a lending institution. The first modern depository institution was the Bank of Amsterdam, a good description of which is found in the book "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith (1776). This bank accepted deposits of gold and coinage then in circulation and minted coinage of a standard gold content and weight, held on deposit for bank customers, who were issued what amounted to a certificate of deposit that was accepted in the commercial world as currency. As Smith describes, the bank's directors eventually committed fraud on the public by issuing bank notes not fully backed by gold owned by the bank. They operated on the observation that with the increase in circulation of the certificates of deposit, only a small percentage of depositors came to the bank to withdraw their "money" at any given time. Thus, the bank directors adopted a practice of keeping only fractional reserves of specie (i.e., hard money) in the vault.

The Bank of England was later chartered from the first as a fractional reserve bank, its depositors protected (or, insured) by the revenue raising capacity of the British Crown. From this point onward, the distinction between depository banks and fractional reserve lending institutions ended.

Present-day regulation over banking institutions (at least in most countries) imposes no requirement on all that the bank holds specie in reserve against outstanding loans. In the United States, notes issued by the Federal Reserve System (which is owned by the nation's nationally-chartered commercial banks and is not an agency of the national government) are by law legal tender currency. However, the exchange value of Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) is governed not by reserves of precious metals or any basket of goods or commodities but by public confidence in the strength of the nation's economy. In essence, the FRNs could be described as "promises to pay nothing in particular," as demonstrated by the almost continuous decline in the quantity or quality of goods or services one can obtain with a fixed unit of currency.

ACTUAL BANK RESERVE REQUIREMENTS

Central banks in most countries have some degree of regulatory oversight over the investment and lending activity of financial institutions. The central bank may or may not set a reserve requirement for banks to keep a level of currency balance on deposit with the central bank as a protection against depositor runs on the banks as has periodically occurred in every country. The establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the United States in 1933 (to which banks pay an insurance premium) ostensibly protected deposits from loss of deposit balances in the event a bank becomes insolvent and is closed by regulators. EdwardJDodson (talk) 22:18, 8 October 2012 (UTC) EdwardJDodson

Two dozens JEL classification categories are nominated for deletion

See Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2012 September 11#JEL classification categories. jonkerz ♠talk 00:55, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Keynesian Economics - Austrian criticism

Hello. I wanted to try to open up the Austrian School Criticism discussion at the Keynesian Economics talk page to a larger audience since it seems to have stagnated and there has not been a real resolution to this issue. The discussion is specifically related to a section of the Keynesian economics page, but I felt it might get some more attention if it was mentioned here. Thanks. Wormbread (talk) 19:59, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Distributism as a "Third Way"

Our article Distributism uses the term "Third Way", which I assume will be unfamiliar to many readers. There's a dispute about whether we should link to Third Way (centrism).

If interested, please discuss at Talk:Distributism#Re-added_link_for_.22Third_Way.22_which_was_inappropriately_removed.

-- 186.221.135.185 (talk) 16:14, 15 September 2012 (UTC)

Very tiny mistake found in definition of job vacancy rate, in "Beveridge Curve" article

I am completely new to editing Wikipedia, so it was by accident that I signed my edit. The icon with the blue pen tip looked to me to be for a strike-through font, for a perceived error.

Anyway, the article originally defines the job vacancy rate as vacancies over the labor force. I checked with the European Commission (http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Glossary:Occupied_post), the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304587704577335944226268750.html), and EconGuru.com (http://glossary.econguru.com/economic-term/job+vacancy+rate. All of them agree that the job vacancy, for a given population/industry is

job vacancies / (job vacancies + filled positions)

I'm sure my correction looks ugly, as I really don't know how to use the interface. But I stand by the substance of the correction, and only hope that one of you experienced editors will have time to clean it up.

--Pastshelfdate (talk) 16:34, 17 September 2012 (UTC)Pastshelfdate

The issue is a bit more complicated. In academic work, both theoretical and empirical, the vacancy rate IS defined as # of vacancies/labor force. The unemployment rate is # of job seekers/labor force. The reason for defining the variables that way is because the matching function takes "number of job seekers" and "number of vacancies" as inputs to produce the output "number of matches".VolunteerMarek 23:06, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Antal E. Fekete

Hi, this bio contains a lot of unsourced statements and could use the attention of knowledgeable editors. The unsourced article on the New Austrian School of Economics seems to be part of this, as is Sandeep Jaitly (currently at AfD). This is not my field, so any input is welcome! --Guillaume2303 (talk) 14:25, 20 September 2012 (UTC)

Corporate tax rate and hiring costs

I've run across a couple blog posts ([1] and [2]) which confirm the recently empirically validated idea that decreasing the effective corporate tax rate tends to suppress hiring because it puts the cost of paying taxes on profits below the expected risk of hiring and further production using pre-tax revenue, which also involves a feedback threshold effect in the macroeconomic situation when many businesses are facing the same changes in the effective tax rate (if they all aren't hiring, the risk of investing in further production increases because consumer spending is suppressed.) As we've seen, this is accompanied by a spike in profits and bank deposits. I've come across some very oblique references to this effect in old theory papers, and in one recent labor economics sourcebook, but I'm looking for more mainstream sources on it. Does anyone have any suggestions for where this particular situation might have been studied in academic journal papers? —Cupco 04:55, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

Wealth Distribution in Southeast Asia

I am a student at Rice University in Houston, TX, and I'm planning to write an article entry about wealth distribution in Southeast Asia for my Poverty, Justice, and Human Capabilities class. This existing page on Southeast Asia is quite extensive in its depiction of the region’s history, political systems, geography, and culture, but lacks an analysis of development – an extremely relevant subject in a region with expanding economies. The Southeast Asia page does has an “Economy” section with a little over five hundred words, but lacks within that section any information about wealth on a non-macro level or about human capabilities. The word “poverty” is not mentioned once in the entire Southeast Asia Wikipedia page. There are also various pages on income-specific inequality in the United States, a short article on international inequality, and other related topics. They do not, however, adequately address the issue of wealth distribution and corresponding measurements of human capabilities in the region being examined. A region-specific article that focuses on macroeconomic development as well as individual wealth distribution could unite these issues into a more targeted analysis of wealth in that region, and perhaps encourage future work on other regions. Therefore, I plan to write a new, comprehensive article with information regarding and various analyses of wealth distribution and poverty in Southeast Asia, with a link to this new page as a subsection under “Southeast Asia / Economy”. As previously discussed, my article will focus on wealth distribution on Southeast Asia, the various forces acting on said distribution (tax policy, globalization, market forces, socio-economic relationships, etc.), and effects of various levels of wealth throughout the region on human capabilities and overall economic development in Southeast Asian countries. I believe this is a better course of action than to simply revise and expand upon the “Economy” section of the Southeast Asia Wikipedia page, as an expansion of a topic such as this one might lead to an unreasonably lengthy addition to an already lengthy article. An extensive focus on individual capabilities through wealth distribution analysis may overshadow the section’s (and article’s for that matter) focus on macro-economic policy, history, and indices. Note, however, that I do support the overall expansion of the "Economy" section of this page as it is an extremely important aspect of this developing region. With a new article clearly linked (probably as a subsection of “Economy”), I will be able to more easily connect with and build upon scattered and often inadequate pages on poverty and human development in various countries in Southeast Asia. As a highly interconnected region through ASEAN, trade, social exchange, and many other mediums, the region as a whole warrants a more cohesive and comprehensive analysis regarding poverty and human development. By looking at wealth distribution in the region (among and within different countries) with a new Wikipedia article, we can more effectively examine these issues pertinent to the shaping of policies in those countries. I'm expecting to encounter some problems along the way, the most difficult of which is probably the scope of the region as a whole with regard to development on the individual level. I welcome constructive criticism and ideas to overcome these problems, so please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about my planned contribution. Thanks,

Reillysolis (talk) 20:45, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

This looks like a good idea. Remember - the three most important things you need are sources, sources, and sources.

Could you clarify - are you going to expand the existing Southeast Asia article, or are you going to write a new article? Or both? Starting a new article can be very challenging for new editors, but if you need a hand, just shout. Also, there are several other articles which overlap slightly on this topic - maybe you'd like to make some minor updates to them too? Don't worry, you don't have to commit now (unless your tutor needs you to commit to particular work in advance), and often you can find yourself changing direction slightly as you find new things in the text and the sources. bobrayner (talk) 21:14, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

Social market economy

There is interest to expand the article. Anyone interested in sharing that project? --Pass3456 (talk) 10:57, 6 October 2012 (UTC)

Microeconomics

Althought this article should be quite central, I just observed that its twin macroeconomics is much better written mainly because: 1.It ilustrates basics concepts of the field (in micreconomics the only basic concept explained is opportunity cost) 2.It's entirely lacking a development of the field part, which I think its important to someone trying to gain insight on the matter. --Lbertolotti (talk) 22:50, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

Nobel Prize for Lloyd Shapley: Shapley–Folkman lemma needs FA copy-editing

Today mathematician Lloyd Shapley won the Nobel Prize in Economics (finally), and so Nobel Week would be a good time for a related featured-article.

The featured-article nomination for Shapley–Folkman lemma was stalled because of concerns about the professional-prose criterion. Help with copy-editing would be great.

In my dreams, I could imagine an animated illustration ... :)

Kiefer.Wolfowitz 17:26, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

I'll take a look. And I almost want to congratulate you for the prize. Volunteer Marek  18:34, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Family Economics Wikipedia:USEP/Courses/Labor/Gender II: Economics of Gender (Gunseli Berik)

I am planning to revise the family economics article. There is currently an article under this name, and it is under this wiki project. However the article is very short, actually it is categorized as stub class article. Family economics is a subject that has been developed in last few decades and there are many resources that could be used to develop the article. Currently the article is pretty much like an outline of a more developed encyclopedia article. I think the subjects that are stated in the article can be a starting point from which further development. I am planning to put the marriage, or formation of family, division of labor within the family and history of family as three possible sections that could be added to the article. I would really appreciate any general ideas on the contribution i am planning to make. One subject where I am not certain is the children. I think I may add another section on the role of children in the family, or I can cover the role of children within the family family in other sections. Also I think I might add how economics of family is related to macroeconomic policies, like welfare programs, or social movements like feminism, or socialism. However I think I might overextend the article by doing then. If you have any advice on these particular subjects where i have confusion, I would like to hear that. Kerem Cantekin (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 22:02, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Gender wage gap in Russia Wikipedia:USEP/Courses/Labor/Gender II: Economics of Gender (Gunseli Berik)

I am planing to write a new article on the gender wage gap in Russia. I believe that it is advisable to pay special attention to the case of Russia (and maybe other post Soviet republics) if one wants to understand in more depth the reasons for the emergence of wage gaps and apply correct policies for its eradication. Why Russia?

• Justification: Even though the education achievements of women in Russia are higher then those of men and their participation in the labor market is roughly equal to the male participation, the wage gap in this country is persistent and substantial. Russia’s case therefore becomes of particular interest as it preaches that policies which target only an increase in women's level of education and their participation in the labor market might not be very helpful in decreasing the gender wage gap if not accompanied by more activist policies; policies which would fight against the stereotypes of the male/female division of labor and the discriminatory practices employed at the work place as well as within the family.

A very rough outline of the planned content is as follows:

• Section 1: short description of the concept of the wage gap
• Section 2: the Oxaca and Blinder decomposition of the wage gap
• Section 3: Evolution of the wage gap in Russia
• Section 4: analysis of the wage gap in Russia according to the Oxaca and Blinder decomposition.
• Section 5: Russia’s official’s position in regard to the wage gap

Any comments or suggestions would be very welcome. Thank you. Corinabesliu1965 (talk) 16:18, 22 October 2012 (UTC) Corina Besliu

New categories Economics of innovation, Economists of innovation, Sociology of innovation, Sociologists of innovation

New categories Economics of innovation, Economists of innovation, Sociology of innovation, Sociologists of innovation,... Euroflux (talk) 20:22, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Confusion and redundancy in articles about discounting

Isn’t Exponential discounting precisely what happens in Discounted utility calculations? My impression is that there is considerable overlap between both articles, but neither contains a link to the other. I think the difference between the two, if there is any, should be made more clear. This is also true for Time preference, Intertemporal choice, Temporal discounting and Intertemporal consumption; all these seem highly redundant to me. Unfortunately, I’m not confident enough in my understanding of the subject and my English skills to attempt to sort this out by myself, but maybe someone here can help? If not, where should I post this? --Allion (talk) 23:06, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Oh, and Discount rate focuses only on the "hard economics" aspects of discounting and doesn’t link to discounted utility, time preference etc. even though the term is frequently used in these articles. There seems to be a bit of a divide between the purely economics-focused and the psychology-related articles. --Allion (talk) 23:14, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Money and Currency

There's a proposal to merge Money and Currency, that's getting more support than I would have expected. If you have any thoughts on this issue, I would appreciate it if you would comment on the talk page, much thanks. LK (talk) 11:07, 19 November 2012 (UTC)

There's a AfD proposal to delete the currency article. If you care about whether we have or don't have an article about currency, please comment there: WP:Articles_for_deletion/Currency#Currency.

Thanks, LK (talk) 03:15, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

RfC: Puerto Rico government finances

A request for comment has been opened regarding the Puerto Rico government budget balance and the public debt of Puerto Rico. Please see the discussion at:

• Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Council#Request for help: Puerto Rico government finances

—Ahnoneemoos (talk) 14:37, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Family Economics Wikipedia:USEP/Courses/Labor/Gender II: Economics of Gender (Gunseli Berik)

I have completed my revision of family economics article. If you give me any feedback I will be appreciated. 155.97.18.137 (talk) 17:58, 4 December 2012 (UTC) Kerem Cantekin (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:32, 3 December 2012 (UTC)