Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Solow e a Mão Invisível

Como sempre um excelente artigo de Solow fazendo uma resenha do livro de John Cassidy, How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities. My late colleague Evsey Domar, who was, among other things, a student of the Soviet economy, told us how the planning bureau began by setting production quotas for paper factories in tons per year. The result was paper so thick that it could not fit in a Soviet typewriter or anywhere else. So the clever planning bureau changed to setting quotas in terms of square meters per year. The result was paper so thin that even a member of the planning bureau could see right through it. The lesson is that it is so much simpler and more effective to tell paper producers that they have to compete to sell their paper to notebook manufacturers (who are also competing with each other), and live off the proceeds. [H.T. Mankiw]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A passagem mais relevante do artigo do Solow (e que voce nao citou) eh a seguinte:

"The market evangelists, who tend to claim more for unregulated markets than solid theory can justify, are ideologically motivated. They dislike and distrust governments so much that they overlook the exceptions and the implausible assumptions, and simply propose the blanket principle that the market knows best. What is improper in this manner of argument is the frequent casual hint that it is authorized by economic theory. Nothing so general is ever authorized by economic theory."

SELVA BRASILIS said...

Caro anônimo o mais interessante do artigo é o fato de Solow ignorar as falhas de governo e tudo o que a public choice nos ensinou. Por que será? Segundo meu amigo Badger trata-se do velho viés socialista da rapaziada de Boston...

Anonymous said...

Mas voce mesmo nao falou que o artigo do cara era excelente? Que papo jabazeiro de vies socialista eh esse?

SELVA BRASILIS said...

O artigo é excelente porque é bem escrito e muito claro. Isso não implica que eu concorde com as opiniões do Solow. No meu comentário mostro que ele está muito mais preocupado em apontar as falhas de mercado, ignorando que há falhas de governo.