Public Economy
The mission of the Public Economy Project is to articulate and advance a cogent theory of the public nonmarket economy, which is lacking in contemporary economic theory. The project includes research, organizing activities and publications. One facet of the project will be to revive and disseminate the public economy conceptual framework that had been developed as part of the late 19th and early 20th century German public economics discipline, particularly the work of Gerhard Colm, but has since been lost to contemporary economic theory.
Another facet of the project concerns the connection between public economy theory and climate policy in practice. See the description of this project below.
The Public Economy Project is directed by Visiting Scholar June Sekera. Her 2016 book, The Public Economy in Crisis; A Call for a New Public Economics, provides a framework for much of the work of the project. The book followed a 2015 Working Paper on “Economics and the Near-Death Experience of Democratic Governance”.
Climate, Capitalism and Collective Need
The “Climate, Capitalism and Collective Need” project focuses on public policy with regard to one particular form of climate-change intervention: atmospheric carbon reduction. Given the growing scientific consensus that efforts to reduce emissions must now be accompanied by some form of atmospheric carbon dioxide removal, and the mounting calls for public subsidy, is it possible to develop a policy instrument that would enable public authorities and government leaders to assess the efficacy of various options, including natural methods, in terms of thermodynamic, biophysical, and collective need criteria? Given the strong, if often unremarked, momentum of industry demands for government subsidy of commercial ventures in technological carbon capture and storage, on what cogent bases can public leaders make decisions that, first and foremost, meet collective need? This work will expand upon “Missing from the Mainstream: The Biophysical Basis of Production and the Public Economy” (Sekera 2017).
This project is being done in collaboration with Neva Goodwin and William Moomaw, Co-Directors of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University.
People
June Sekera
Will Milberg
Contact
June Sekera at sekeraj@newschool.edu
publications
June Sekera & Neva Goodwin | Why the oil industry’s pivot to carbon capture and storage – while it keeps on drilling – isn’t a climate change solution. The Conversation.
June Sekera & Andreas Lichtenberger | Assessing Carbon Capture: Public Policy, Science, and Societal Need A Review of the Literature on Industrial Carbon Removal. Biophysical Economics and Sustainability volume 5, Article number: 14 (2020)
June Sekera | Carbon Cleanup: The Public is Paying, But Who is Profiting? Handelsblatt. (German) (English Version)
June Sekera | Carbon Capture – Industrial Carbon Removal Legislation Passed by or Pending in U.S. Congress.
June Sekera and Andreas Lichtenberger | The Carbon Capture Conundrum: Public Need vs Private Gain – A Public Policy Perspective on Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Reduction. Executive Summary and Full Report.
June Sekera | The public economy: Understanding government as a producer. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2020-01).
June Sekera | The Public Economy in Crisis: A Call for a New Public Economics. Springer International Publishing. 2016
June Sekera | “Public Goods in Everyday Life;” in GDAE Teaching Modules on Social and Environmental Issues in Economics; Global Development and Environment Institute, July 2019.
June Sekera and Neva Goodwin | “Government’s New Assignment: Pulling CO2 Out of the Air”; October 2019.
June Sekera | “Missing from the Mainstream: The Biophysical Basis of Production and the Public Economy;” Economics, Management, and Financial Markets 13(3), 2018 pp. 56–73, April 5, 2018.
William Milberg | Book Review of The Public Economy in Crisis: A Call for a New Public Economics, Real World Economics Review, December 10, 2018
June Sekera | The public economy: understanding government as a producer, Real World Economics Review, June 2018
Milberg, William | “Gerhard Colm and the Americanization of Weimar Economic Thought (PDF).” Social Research: An International Quarterly, vol. 84 no. 4, 2017, pp. 989-1019
June Sekera | Outsourced Government – The Quiet Revolution; Examining the Extent of Government-by-Corporate-Contractor, Global Development and Environment Institute Data Brief, September 20
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Public Goods Post
The Public Goods Post is an ongoing digest of information and news about public goods. The intent of the Post is to provide information to the public about the multitude of goods and services that they receive through the public economy, many of which are invisible or unrecognized. Topics range from urban transport and biking to education and technological innovation.
