User:Nick Gardner

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Revision as of 00:16, 12 July 2009 by imported>Nick Gardner (→‎Past Contributions)
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Biography:

Nick Gardner is retired after successive careers as a flight test observer, as a professional engineer, and as an economist. He has worked in two industrial companies, a research establishment and four government departments; and served as economic adviser to four cabinet ministers. As an engineer he was engaged in aeronautical research and development including the development of new manufacturing processes, he took part in the Concorde project and he visited the Apollo project. As an economist he evaluated numerous aerospace projects, he played a part in the development of UK competition policy and he managed a major statistical series. During his working life he contributed to several professional journals and symposiums on subjects including spotwelding, launching aid and project management, and since retirement he has written a book on contemporary economic history and another on competition policy that was published in three editions. His latest book is Mistakes – how they have happened and how some might be avoided. Nick is mainly interested in how people form beliefs and how they make decisions. Pursuit of that interest has led him to explore published work in the fields of philosophy, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, genetics, economics, politics, media studies, religion and decision theory. His CZ contributions have mainly been on the economics and his principal CZ objective has been to attract constructive criticism from fellow-economists and, with their help, to develop articles that provide a wide range of readers with a clearer perception of economic issues than can be gained from other sources.

Planned contributions

High priority

Medium priority

  • Stub balance of payments: an accounting statement for the transactions of a country with the rest of the world. [e] expand using Wolf p201
  • Stub taxation: The transfer of resources from the community to the government. [e] change title to "Fiscal Policy" and develop
  • Developed Article crash of 1929: the sharp fall in prices on the New York Stock Exchange that contributed to the severity of the Great Depression [e] add links to subpages and complete the tutorials subpage
  • Developed Article financial system: The interactive system of organisations that serve as intermediaries between lenders and borrowers. [e] put flesh on the skeleton consider reference to White [3]
  • Developed Article bank failures and rescues: an account of the occurrence , causes and consequences of bank failures, and of methods of dealing with them [e]more on Nordic and Asian crises [[4]].
  • Stub money supply: the economy's stock of those assets that can be quickly exchanged for goods and services. [e] add paragraphs on determinants, control and economic effects
  • Stub deflation: a persistent sequence of reductions in the general level of prices. [e] add historical data from Bordo and Filado [5]
  • Developing Article World Trade Organisation: A multinational organisation that develops trade policies and resolves disputes, with an assumption that free trade is generally the best [e]

Low priority

  • Developing Article IS-LM model: Model of simultaneous equilibrium in the product and money markets - shown graphically as two intersecting interest rate/spending graphs, one depicting the investment/savings (I/S) relation and the other the liquidity/money (L/M) supply relation (also known as the Hicks-Hansen model). [e] develop non-technical main page and transfer maths to subpage
  • Market: A term used in commerce and economics to denote a conjunction of buyers and sellers. [e] add efficient market hypothesis

PROPOSED NEW ARTICLES

  • Developing Article Fiscal policy: Policy concerning public expenditure, taxation and borrowing and the provision of public goods and services, and their effects upon social conduct, the distribution of wealth and the level of economic activity. [e]
  • Developing Article Monetary policy: The economic policy instrument that is regularly used to stabilise the economy, and that has sometimes been used as a temporary expedient to relieve severe credit shortages. [e]

Past Contributions

Nick has made substantial contributions to CZ articles on:-