Jekyll2023-06-16T11:31:34-07:00https://youssefaitb.github.io/feed.xmlYABEconomist, Teacher, MentorYoussef A. Benasseryoussefa@reed.eduOn reductionist economics. Musings2020-10-11T00:00:00-07:002020-10-11T00:00:00-07:00https://youssefaitb.github.io/posts/2020/10/blog-post-1<p>Production relations, labor markets, trade networks, government policies, agents’ decision patterns are what comes to mind when I hear the word economics. As economics continues to trend away from its original subject matter, and rebrand itself as a a versatile prism able to refract any and all things human, my passion for economics is very much about the good old fashioned economy. Value production relations and the rules that govern them are the core of what my focus is as an economist, and as an economist, the tools that I have inherited from centuries of economic research allow increasingly rigorous conceptually modelling and empirical quantification. The history of economics is indeed one of amazing progress at the service of improved human welfare. It is a tradition that I am proud to belong to and that I strive to participate in.</p>
<p>The current moment in the history of economic thought is a peculiar one. In my work, I use concepts such as incentives, utility, otpimization, rationality, exogeneity when applicable, but I deny these concepts the primacy that neo-classical economics has given them. The theories are helpful. The praxis however has accepted these theories as uncontested assumptions pushing the discipline to claim authority over an ever expanding field of questions. This, in my view, poses epistemological and ethical concerns that I will not delve into here. Suffice it to give the example of the treatment of race in economics from the early days of the AEA to today as an “exogenous” variable, and not an endogenous production of the dynamic system itself that cannot exist outside of it.</p>
<p>But, there is hope …. Econ’s anthropological overreach can become an opportunity for inter or postdisciplinary research. Economic thinking can infrom many of the themes that have triggered economists’ interests from crime, to religious comittment, identity, gender, etc. But it cannot do it alone in an imperialist approach that disregards the knowledge accumulated in other disciplnary praxes and claim the sufficiency of economic priors in addressing fundemantelly non-economic topics. I hope to be able to participate in moving economics towards this postdisciplinary world, where the profession is, outwardly-curious, less overreaching, and more ambitious.</p>Youssef A. Benasseryoussefa@reed.eduProduction relations, labor markets, trade networks, government policies, agents’ decision patterns are what comes to mind when I hear the word economics. As economics continues to trend away from its original subject matter, and rebrand itself as a a versatile prism able to refract any and all things human, my passion for economics is very much about the good old fashioned economy. Value production relations and the rules that govern them are the core of what my focus is as an economist, and as an economist, the tools that I have inherited from centuries of economic research allow increasingly rigorous conceptually modelling and empirical quantification. The history of economics is indeed one of amazing progress at the service of improved human welfare. It is a tradition that I am proud to belong to and that I strive to participate in.Why Economics? Why Trade?2020-10-11T00:00:00-07:002020-10-11T00:00:00-07:00https://youssefaitb.github.io/posts/2020/10/blog-post-2<h2 id="economics-and-me">Economics and me</h2>
<p>My dedication to learning about and contributing to economic knowledge originates in a larger passion for dynamic social systems. I grew up in a space where cultural constructs, social norms, political overreach, economic struggles, and religious beliefs seemed to constantly collapse into one another. The identities that I carry put me at odds with many of these otherwise impercitible forces. And the constant tensions and hesitations of a country that is in perpetual transition emphasized the emphasized the complexity of the systems at play. I was fascinated. I have since never ceased to be.</p>
<p>So in college, I chose the most multidisciplinary social science program that I knew off. Sciences Po’s undegraduate program operated very much beyond disciplines. This made it an excellent gateway to the study of those dynamic social systems that I was so anxious to understand, analyze and critic. I used the flexibility of my year abroad at the University of Southern California to focus on two vantage angles : the history of religions, and political science. Through these exposures, I was becoming increasingly aware that the system that (tw: controversial statement) mattered most, in informing the others was the economy.</p>
<p>So I went back to Paris, graduated with a <em>MSc in Economics and Public Policy</em> from l’Ecole Polytechnique and Sciences Po, applied what I had learnt and picked up some more skills working in the financial sector, and here I am now!</p>
<h2 id="why-trade-">Why trade ?</h2>
<p>For most of my 2nd year, I agonized over having to choose a field to focus on. A little of this indecision had to do with my epistemological resistence to specialization. A lot of it was about my genuine fascination for most of economic thought. There was very little research at the UO’s Econ department that I couldn’t get into. I very much enjoyed applied macroeconomics. Labor aligned well with my interest in distributional issues. The resource-related literature in environmental economics seemed like mandatory reading.</p>
<p>I was eventually drawn to the international trade literature, for the same reasons I was drawn to economics. It interfaces with all of the other fields I was inclined to. The way economies trade relates to their very production structure, is informed by and consequential for their labor market outcomes and resulting welfare. It is impacted by their resource endowment, and is also a path towards optimized global resource use. By studying trade, I could continue to learn about macroeconomic dynamics not only in large insular economies, but in the more challenging and fluid context of the small open economies. Just as importantly, I could adapt new micro and macro econometric and modelling methods to questions old and new. The international dimension of the literature would allow me to stay atune with economic concerns that are specific to poor peripheral economies, that I do not want to lose from sight in my research. For its breadth, its global encline, and its promise, international trade was the field for me.</p>Youssef A. Benasseryoussefa@reed.eduEconomics and me My dedication to learning about and contributing to economic knowledge originates in a larger passion for dynamic social systems. I grew up in a space where cultural constructs, social norms, political overreach, economic struggles, and religious beliefs seemed to constantly collapse into one another. The identities that I carry put me at odds with many of these otherwise impercitible forces. And the constant tensions and hesitations of a country that is in perpetual transition emphasized the emphasized the complexity of the systems at play. I was fascinated. I have since never ceased to be.