March 18, 2021 – Economics and Democracy: A Balance of Planning and Improv

Our panel of economists, working both inside and outside of academia, will focus on the tensions between long-range planning and the frequent need to improve economic solutions given the vagaries of life. Broadly, they ask, what are the correlations between market data and democracy?

When: March 18, 2021

Time: 7:00pm

Panelists: This panel of economists, working both inside and outside of academia, will focus on the tensions between long-range planning and the frequent need to improvise choices given the vagaries of life.  Broadly, they ask, how does the economy and democracy work toward and against each other?  Jim Leitner, President of Falcon Management, and Scott Axelrod, Director of Research at Falcon Management, from the vantage point of the private sector, will speak about the V-Dem Project democracy indicators and market behavior.  “Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) is a new approach to conceptualizing and measuring democracy. We provide a multidimensional and disaggregated dataset that reflects the complexity of the concept of democracy as a system of rule that goes beyond the simple presence of elections. The V-Dem project distinguishes between five high-level principles of democracy: electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian, and collects data to measure these principles.” (V-Dem). David Axelrod, Department of Economics, will speak on his analysis of the role of time and spirit in economics and decision-making.  Luis Portes, Department of Economics, will speak on democracy and the distinction between a market economy and capitalism. Collectively the panelists will engage audiences that often consider democracy and the market as distinct and separate spheres of social choice.  The panel will be moderated by Vidya Atal, also of the Economics department.