Responsible Economics and Policymaking Workshop

A joint workshop of TINT/ESSK/ReSES and IRN (Justice and Interest)
University of Helsinki, 26-27 October 2023

TINT – Centre for Philosophy of Social Science, in collaboration with the IRN project (“Justice and Interest”), the ESSK project (“Economics as Serviceable Social Knowledge”) and the ReSES project is pleased to invite you to the workshop on Responsible Economics and Policymaking. The workshop will be held on-site at the University of Helsinki on 26-27 October 2023.

Economic models, evidence and expertise are used extensively in policy making, but the value and limits of economic knowledge in shaping worldviews and public policies need more critical scrutiny given the grand challenges currently facing the world, including climate change, biodiversity loss, pandemics, and growing inequalities, as well as the significant threats confronting democracies worldwide. This workshop will explore the philosophical questions concerning the serviceability of economics to society as a policy science. It will focus on institutional and ethical dimensions of economics, paying special attention to questions concerning interest, justice, and responsibility.

PROGRAMME

Thursday, 26 October

09:30 – 10:00 Registration & Coffee

10:00 – 10:15 Opening

Uskali Mäki (TINT/ESSK, University of Helsinki)
Gilles Campagnolo (IRN “Justice and Interest”, Sorbonne/CNRS)

10:15 – 12:15 Session 1

Responsible Modelling in Economics
Caterina Marchionni (TINT, University of Helsinki)
Säde Hormio (TINT, University of Helsinki and Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm)
Harms of idealisation: what to make of homo economicus?
Uskali Mäki (TINT, University of Helsinki)
Models, economic harm and economists’ responsibility
N. Emrah Aydinonat (TINT, University of Helsinki)

12:15 – 13:30 LUNCH BREAK

13:30 – 15:30 Session 2

Prediction, antifragility and policymaking
Miriam Teschl (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS); Aix-Marseille School of Economics (AMSE))
Stéphane Luchini (CNRS, AMSE)
Causality, potential outcomes, and the policy process
Luis Mireles-Flores (TINT, University of Helsinki)
In whose interest is post-growth policy?
Henri Wiman (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland / Helsinki University)
Jooseppi Räikkönen (Independent Researcher)

15:30 – 15:45 Break

15:45 – 17:45 Session 3

On Scanlon’s book Why does inequality matter? A ricoeurian reading
Feriel Kandil (Aix-Marseille School of Economics (AMSE); Aix-Marseille Université (AMU))
The Two Dimensions of Fairness
Stefan Wintein (Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics)
Legitimate Economic Distribution without Legislation? What Does Responsible Decision Making Require?
Nicole Hassoun (Binghamton University)

19:00 WORKSHOP DINNER

Friday, 27 October

09:00 – 11:00 Session 4

What Can We Learn From the Stern-Nordhaus Controversy ? Economic Rationality and Ecological Responsibility
Guigourez Mathieu (Université Panthéon Sorbonne Paris 1)
Integrative risk and the division of responsibility at the science-policy interface
Henrik Thorén (Lund University)
The problems of macroeconomics as institutional problems: Complementing the ‘what went wrong’ story with a social epistemology perspective
Teemu Lari (TINT, University of Helsinki)

11:00 – 11:15 Break

11:15 – 13:15 Session 5

Taxation of Brute Luck and Option Luck incomes: Are Legislators Dworkinian?
Alain Trannoy (EHESS/AMSE)
Who are the economic experts? How can one tell?
Carlo Martini (UniSR – Milan and TINT, University of Helsinki)
Are cognitive biases epistemic vices? Toward a wider panorama of cognitive development in behavioral economic policy
Daniel Zarama (Université de Lorraine)

13:15 – 13:30 CLOSING REMARKS