Daron Acemoglu sobre las lecciones de la crisis internacional para la teoría económica

Después de escuchar tantas tonterías y visiones exageradamente pesimistas sobre la crisis internacional, contando a más de un izquierdista local tratando de llevar agua para su molino, es refrescante leer un artículo como el que acaba de colgar Daron Acemoglu, probablemente el mejor economista académico en estos días, en su página web, titulado "The Crisis of 2008: Lessons from and for Economics". Acemoglu sin dejar de ser crítico con la teoría económica moderna, no se entrega a la crítica mal fundamentada, como aquella que confunde el libre mercado con mercados desregulados. De acuerdo con Acemoglu, la teoría económica tiene mucho que decir sobre la crisis pero esta ha estado casi ausente en los debates sobre esta:

“I would like to argue that several economic principles related to the most important aspect of economic performance, the long-run growth potential of nations, are still valid and hold important lessons in our intellectual and practical deliberations on policy. But, curiously, these principles have played little role in recent academic debates and have been entirely absent in policy debates. As academic economists, it is these principles and the implications of current policies for the growth potential of the global economy that we should be reminding policymakers of.”

Este párrafo me parece particularmente bueno:

“Few among us will argue today that market monitoring is sufficient against opportunistic behavior. Many inside and outside academia may view this as a failure of economic theory. I strongly disagree with this conclusion. On the contrary, the recognition that markets live on foundations laid by institutions -that free markets are not the same as unregulated markets- enriches both theory and its practice. We must now start building a theory of market transactions that is more in tune with their institutional and regulatory foundations. We must also turn to the theory of regulation of both firms and financial institutions with renewed vigor and hopefully additional insights gained from current experience. A deep and important contribution of the discipline of economics is the insight that greed is neither good nor bad in the abstract. When channeled into profit-maximizing, competitive and innovative behavior under the auspices of sound laws and regulations, greed can act as the engine of innovation and economic growth. But when unchecked by the appropriate institutions and regulations, it will degenerate into rent-seeking, corruption and crime. It is our collective choice to manage the greed that many in our society inevitably possess. Economic theory provides guidance in how to create the right incentive systems and reward structures to contain it and turn it into a force towards progress.”

A leerlo completo, sobre todo nuestros “Campodonicos” locales.