Sir Nicholas Stern heeft in de VS een debat over zijn Stern-rapport gehad met o.a. Nordhaus. Het debat bevat inhoudelijk weinig nieuws, maar het toont aan dat economie best vermakelijk kan zijn. Het verslag ervan in de New York Times is van begin:
There is an unofficial code of conduct that dictates how intellectuals should behave when they’re jousting with each other, a sort of Geneva Convention for the ivory tower.Before they attack somebody else’s work, they first need to praise their opponent. A typical way to do so is to describe another professor as a distinguished scholar who has made an important contribution to the research literature. When you hear that, you can be pretty sure things are about to get nasty.
tot eind:
Even its critics seem open to this idea. When Mr. Nordhaus and Sir Nicholas were exchanging e-mail messages before the debate — to their credit, some academics keep their arguments from becoming personal — Mr. Nordhaus sent a note that summed up his view. “I think it’s a great study, but it’s 50 years ahead of its time,” he recalled writing. “Since everybody else is 50 years behind the times, if you average the two, you might come out just right.”In other words, it’s time for a tax on carbon emissions.
Het debat is ook op video terug te zien. lollig. Ok, toegegeven, als econoom heb ik een geperverteerd gevoel voor humor 😉
Bron:
- Stern vs Nordhaus et al. at Yale, Environmental Economics, 21 feb. 2007
- A Battle Over the Costs of Global Warming, New York Times, 21 feb 2007
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