Business & Economics Collected Works - Research Publications

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Author: Harper, Ian × End date: 2024 × Start date: 2020 × Type: Journal Article ×

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    Segmenting communities as public health strategy: A view from the social sciences and humanities
    Ganguli-Mitra, A ; Young, I ; Engelmann, L ; Harper, I ; McCormack, D ; Marsland, R ; Buch Segal, L ; Sethi, N ; Stewart, E ; Tichenor, M (F1000Research, 2020-01-01)
    On the 5th of May 2020, a group of modellers, epidemiologists and biomedical scientists from the University of Edinburgh proposed a 'segmenting and shielding' approach to easing the lockdown in the UK over the coming months. Their proposal, which has been submitted to the government and since been discussed in the media, offers what appears to be a pragmatic solution out of the current lockdown. The approach identifies segments of the population as at-risk groups and outlines ways in which these remain shielded, while 'healthy' segments would be allowed to return to some kind of normality, gradually, over several weeks. This proposal highlights how narrowly conceived scientific responses may result in unintended consequences and repeat harmful public health practices. As an interdisciplinary group of researchers from the humanities and social sciences at the University of Edinburgh, we respond to this proposal and highlight how ethics, history, medical sociology and anthropology - as well as disability studies and decolonial approaches - offer critical engagement with such responses, and call for more creative and inclusive responses to public health crises.
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    The human dimension of good economic policymaking
    Harper, IR ; Ramadge, A (Economic Society of Australia (Queensland) Inc., 2020-12)
    Good economic policymaking requires the best possible economic advice. To be an effective adviser, a policy economist needs to remain credible, even under pressure. There is a gap between theory and reality; minding the gap can help policy economists determine which theories are more likely to work as a matter of practical policymaking. Adding the human dimension makes for better decisions by casting light on how people might respond to otherwise rational policy proposals. It is not sufficient for good policy outcomes that economists confer only with their professional peers. Citizens must be persuaded that the proposed policy reform is in the best interests of the community as a whole. Good economic policymaking should not underestimate the power of incentives to override moral and ethical restraint. Regulation is a poor substitute for culturally-embedded moral restraint. While it is possible to divorce the mechanical side of economics from its moral foundations, this is not the route to good economic policymaking.