Welcome
I am Full Professor in Economics and member of the post graduate programme in Public Policy at the Federal University of Paraná, Brazil.
My main fields of academic interest are: institutional economics, institutions design, the role of participatory institutions in public policy - those engaging citizens in decision making, and the meso aspects of socio-economic development.
Here you will find some of the academic texts I have published and course material for the ongoing semester. I hope there will be something of interest.
My main fields of academic interest are: institutional economics, institutions design, the role of participatory institutions in public policy - those engaging citizens in decision making, and the meso aspects of socio-economic development.
Here you will find some of the academic texts I have published and course material for the ongoing semester. I hope there will be something of interest.
James H. Street Scholar 2023
I am extremely honored to be chosen as the James H. Street Scholar of 2023 by the Association for Evolutionary Economics. Presented at the Association's meeting in New Orleans, 6th of January 2023, the award is based on "outstanding scholarship in Latin America in the area of economic development, from an Institutionalist perspective." Yes, I know, I should have taken my mask off for the picture with President Mary Wrenn, but it was a lot to process in such a personally remarkable moment. |
*Recent publications *
New Book on Participatory Institutions
Since the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, the idea that voting is only part of political life in a democratic society has flourished. Citizens can and should be more involved in the decisions that affect them. And it is possible to do this in institucionalised ways, such as in policiy councils. This book looks at some of Curitiba's 46 policy councils to investigate how they help to engage citizens and what can be done to improve their participation according to existing practices and examples. |
"Institutional entropy." Journal of Economic Issues, v. 57(2), p. 397-406, 2023. "Instituições participativas e a pandemia de COVID-19: um estudo sobre o Conselho Municipal de Turismo de Foz do Iguaçu." Revista Política e Planejamento Regional, v. 9, p. 267-293, 2022. With colleagues. Conselhos municipais de esportes das capitais brasileiras e o exercício da participação. The Journal of the Latin American Socio-cultural Studies of Sport, v. 13, p. 257-279, 2021. With colleagues. Tourism councils as a voice institution in Brazil. Services in Russia and Abroad, v. 15, p. 32-47, 2021. With colleagues. Tourism businesses, local state and habits of interaction: an institutional approach. International Journal of Tourism Policy, v. 10, p. 163-183, 2020. With Bruno Gomes. |
Book on Institutional Economics
Institutional Economics offers a pragmatic worldview for socioeconomic analysis. Human habitual practices and thoughts are the basis for collective action that guides production and distribution of wealth. Markets, for instance, are seen as human artifacts that reflect our human traits, not as idealised abstractions. The same view is applied to Economics as a field of knowledge: its relevance stands on helping people to understand and work on real institutions, not on excessive or unnecessary mathematical abstraction. In this collection you will find twelve articles that explain and put into practice such views. Eight are translations of unpublished works into Portuguese. They include classic texts by Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons, Walton Hamilton and K. William Kapp, and contemporary and influential texts by Geoffrey Hodgson, Walter Neale and Anne Mayhew. The other four articles were written by Brazilian scholars especially for the collection. The book is an introduction to the works of the Institutional school of thought for those looking for a more realistic Economics. |
My book on the cognitive and interactional bases of institutions
Nanoelementos da Mesoeconomia (Nanoelements of mesoeconomics) brings together new and old good ideas that reheated debates in economics and other social sciences in recent decades. It starts looking into nano elements - small but powerful ingredients in our brains that frame our reason, our preferences and decisions - and builds up to discuss the meso results they bring about in our daily economic lives. These are two analytical levels for which economists have turned their attention with the benefit of other fields of knowledge, such as psychology and the other social sciences. From reason to learning and habits, through the presence of trust and cooperation, and finally talking about institutions, this book avoids the unfathomable nature of traditional texts in the area. Not only economists but also non-specialists may want to engage with those old and new good ideas. In spite of the sober title - a homage to the dull science - its corpus is a lively and humoured conversation with the reader. Click here to watch an interview about the book. |
Participation in Advancing the Frontiers of Heterodox Economics: Essays in Honor of Frederic S. Lee.
Book review by Professor Geoff Harcourt Professor Geoff Harcourt has reviewed the festschrift to Professor Frederic Lee, to which Fabiano Dalto, Ramón Fernández, and I have contributed a chapter. He's been very kind about it: "Huáscar Pessali, Fabiano Dalto and Ramón Fernández...have a superb chapter (15) on analogies we suffer by, for example, between the state and the household. They argue out the fallacy of likening state behaviour and constraints to those of a private household. The illogicality of the so-called theory lying behind current fiscal austerity programmes and, in Australia, the conservatives’ election slogan, ‘jobs and growth’, is brilliantly dissected. Their chapter should be required reading for all, especially for politicians and their public servants." Thanks for the nice words, Professor Harcourt. The full reference to the chapter is as follows: Analogies we suffer by: the case of the state as a household. In: T-H. Jo; Z. Todorova (Org.). Advancing the Frontiers of Heterodox Economics: Essays in Honor of Frederic S. Lee. New York: Routledge, 2015, p. 281-95. With Fabiano Dalto and Ramón Fernández. |
This website was last updated on 07 August 2023.
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