Social Economics, Poverty, and Human Development: Conceptual Approaches, Empirical Analysis, and Policy

Abstract

How vulnerable groups fare in society and how they are affected by public policy have long been topics of high interest among social economics researchers. This is why poverty and human development were chosen as the themes for the program of sessions organized by the Association for Social Economics at the 2017 annual meetings of the Allied Social Sciences Associations in Chicago. Among three dozen papers presented at those sessions, seven were selected for inclusion in this proceedings issue. While two of the papers are theoretical or conceptual, respectively on discrimination in markets and ignorance in economics, most of the papers are empirical. They cover issues related among others to entrepreneurship, employment, the measurement of poverty, growth and shared prosperity, and finally student debt. Together the papers provide valuable contributions to the field of social economics and the topics that many researchers in the field as well as readers of this journal care about.

Keywords:

• social economics
• poverty
• human development
• association for social economics