Annual Conference of Association of Economists
Modern capitalist economies rely on a very lively social science literature focusing on social institutions. This literature stresses that markets are structured; that markets cannot work in isolation, and that they rely on institutions to make them work, Judith Heyer, Emeritus Fellow in Economics, Somerville College, Oxford University, the U.K., said here on Saturday.
She was speaking on “Economics and Village Level Research” at the 29th Annual Conference of Association of Economists of Tamil Nadu at the PSG College of Arts and Science. She said textbook economics did not recognise the connection between markets and social institutions. Too often it still treated markets as if they were made up of autonomous individuals competing on a level playing field. “But it is clear that this is not the way markets work in reality”. Drawing on her experience of research in villages in Coimbatore district since 1980, Ms. Heyer wondered if industrialisation and expansion of Government development policies and programmes had made social institutions less relevant than before.
Inaugurating the conference, Vice-Chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University C. Ramasamy listed out the factors that influenced agricultural growth. “The period from mid-90’s to 2005 saw great fluctuations in agricultural growth. Factors like infrastructure, weather, wrong use of inputs and irrigation, latest technology not being available to farmers, etc., hampered agricultural growth.
“If we have to achieve the target of four per cent growth in the XI Five Year Plan, then we have to ensure that positive aspects of the above factors are stressed on,” the Vice-Chancellor said. D. Rudrappan, former Joint Director of Collegiate Education, Fr. A.G. Leonard, Loyola College, Chennai, and V. Mohansundaram, Organising Secretary, spoke. Awards for Young Economist, Senior Economist, and best paper were given away.
