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European Association
of Environmental and Resource Economists
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EAERE President Correspondence
Colleagues,
Germany is on the psychoanalyst's couch. When societies are perceived by their citizens as failing to provide sufficient jobs and income for themselves and their posterity, they generate a plethora of critiques and analyses that aim to explain the pathology and how to move forward. We all know the truth of Nietzsche's observation that 'Success has always been a great liar.' The Wirtschaftswunder years and the exhilaration of unification have been followed by persistent high unemployment and a kind of social ennui. The sociologist Paul Nolte in his book 'Generation Reform' notes a trend initially described as extended adolescence - the number of 25 year olds who still let their mother do the laundry - seamlessly turning into infantilisation. Henning Sussebach in De Zeit uses this work to critique the 'typical' modern German urban male as a narcissist, unwilling to be tied down by family or societal responsibility, favouring criticism over action, resulting in a crisis where the lower classes have been orphaned, and the middle classes have been infantilised. Economists take a less personal perspective, focusing on government failures manifest in rigidities in many labour markets, the high transactions costs and competition inhibiting effects of regulations that exist because they exist or to protect incumbents, complex governance structures that respond slowly to changing global circumstances, and tax regimes that inhibit inward investment and entrepreneurship.
Our Bremen meeting is the antidote to this fashionable pessimism. It has generated a huge volume of high quality papers, focussed on real challenges, with a high proportion coming from German scholars who have manifestly escaped the 'infantilism' trap, and produced work of exceptional merit. And we have hundreds of new young minds and hearts joining us for the first time.
Writing about Edmund Wilson, Gore Vidal commented: 'To the end of a long life, he kept on making the only thing he thought worth making: sense'. That's our task also. The EAERE Bremen meeting will help to make sense of what's happening, to understand the choices we face, and their implications.
Whatever the diagnoses of national malaise, history teaches us that over time they become redundant. After Germany passes some 'tipping point' effective reform will become irresistible, the psychology will turn from defeatist to optimistic, and prosperity will be regained. We in Bremen will play our part in moving to this brighter day, and we'll have a lot of fun in so doing. To establish a baseline indicator, we will conduct a survey of all 25 year olds at EAERE Bremen to see who does their laundry…..
Non and Nee
In the media there is a centrifugal attraction towards exaggeration and hysteria, epitomised by the over the top reactions to the decisions by French and Dutch voters to reject the proposed constitution. It seems inevitable that scepticism will prevail over affirmation when unpopular governments try to convince their citizens who are living in struggling economies to approve a lengthy and baroque document that is simultaneously claimed to be simply 'tidying up' and fundamental to progress. I know people of great quality and integrity who were involved in the drafting the constitution and they spent precious months of their lives selflessly engaged in working through the various options and making the compromises necessary to reach agreement. But compromise results often in complexity, verbosity and incoherence. We need to re-think the processes for maintaining our European vitality, with a focus on the essentials - what is the absolute minimum we need to move forward effectively - how can we get some consensus on these minima before going to the people formally, and capture the proposals in a few short pages (how about agreeing a maximum of 10 pages of 12 point script for whatever new proposals emerge in the future?). The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme is a model of a Europe-wide initiative that can produce substantial economic and environmental gains.
One worry about the debate on the Constitution, especially in France, is the emergence of protectionism as a solution. We in Ireland adopted a protectionist 'Sinn Féin' - which means 'Ourselves Alone' - economy in the 1940s and 1950s, expressed by imposing high tariffs on imports and discouraging inward investment. It was predictably catastrophic, producing high unemployment, mass emigration, and gratuitously blighting the lives of hundreds of thousands of our citizens. The long shadow of this trauma has been hugely useful since then in keeping us culturally focused out rather than in, on the merits of education, flexibility, reduction of barriers and welcoming to new ideas, people and investment as opportunity more than threat. As environmental economists we need to join the debate on the interface of economics, social life and environment, focusing on how we in Europe can move these agendas forward, and use our evidence and our insights to inform the debate. In the meantime, if there are any Polish plumbers in Paris who are unhappy with their reception, please consider moving to Dublin. We need you badly……
Our Membership Drive
At our EAERE Council meeting in Dublin on March 23, 2005, we decided to launch a campaign with the objective of doubling our EAERE Membership. Our target is to at least double the number of members in each country. Achieving this objective is important in terms of deepening the presence and effectiveness of environmental and resource economics, and supporting our association to develop and fulfil its potential.
The statutes of our Association require us to:
- Contribute to the development and application of environmental economics as a science in Europe;
- Improve communication and contacts between researchers, teachers and students in environmental economics in the different European countries;
- Develop and encourage cooperation between teaching institutions of university level and research institutions in Europe.The more talent we have in our membership, the more effective we will be in advancing these objectives
We would appreciate it hugely if all of our members take on this challenge of doubling this number. The benefits yielded by members and the procedures for application are available at http://www.eaere.org/membership.html.
The following benefits will accrue to those who are successful in generating new memberships.
1. Those who get 5 or more new members to join will receive in Bremen a fine bottle of wine selected by our hosts, and special recognition.
2. Those who successfully get 2 or more new members to join will be listed in our documentation - web, newsletter etc.. - as 'EAERE supporter'.When new members apply, they will be invited to indicate who encouraged their application, and this will be the basis on which decisions on the above awards will be made.
You can access the current EAERE membership list at http://www.eaere.org/members/directory.html. Members are listed in alphabetical order or by countries. The membership directory is password protected.
Favourite Quote: An Englishman visiting a Wyoming ranch in the 1880s asked the foreman: 'Is your master home'? The foreman replied: 'The s.o.b. hasn't been born yet'. [Quoted by George Wills]
Frank J. Convery
EAERE President
Past Correspondence
