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> It is quite ridiculous and offensive to name it "underproduction". Underproduction is a meaningful term in economics, where it refers to the way collective a

> It is quite ridiculous and offensive to name it "underproduction". Underproduction is a meaningful term in economics, where it refers to the way collective action problems cause a gap between a socially-desirable outcome and the actual outcome. However, from skimming the paper, this does not seem to be the direct source of the term. The authors appear to adopt it from Gorbatai[0], who is apparently using the economic term without defining it or referring to literature about underproduction generally. That means the authors of this paper may be unaware of the depth of economic literature in this field. [0] https://opensym.org/ws2011/_media/proceedings%253Ap205-gorbatai.pdf https://opensym.org/ws2011/_media/proceedings%253Ap205-gorba...

nickvincent 6y ago
Section III definitely connects the choice to use this term to economics ("In an economic market, supply and demand are said to be aligned through a price mechanism. Alignment is reached because lower demand decreases prices, which disincentivizes production and returns a market to equilibrium.") Not 100% sure about the context of this conference, but my understanding is that it's a norm in these kinds of papers to refer to relatively basic concepts like supply, demand, and price signals without a citation (esp. given that page limits often limit your cites!). Totally get that some may disagree with this choice though. Sorry if this comes across as defensive -- I know the authors, so am very certain that they are aware of the rich literature on collective action problems and public goods.
- jacques_chester 6y ago
  I don't think that connection is really very strong. Supply and demand is taught in a 101 course -- but maddeningly, discussion of externalities, public goods, information etc tend to get a fairly cursory glance. It's the latter which have been the most important developments in the past 70 or 80 years (starting with, say, Coase), because they so radically modify and constrain the applicability of pure theories of supply and demand. "Underproduction" belongs to these later developments.

nickvincent 6y ago

Section III definitely connects the choice to use this term to economics ("In an economic market, supply and demand are said to be aligned through a price mechanism. Alignment is reached because lower demand decreases prices, which disincentivizes production and returns a market to equilibrium.") Not 100% sure about the context of this conference, but my understanding is that it's a norm in these kinds of papers to refer to relatively basic concepts like supply, demand, and price signals without a citation (esp. given that page limits often limit your cites!). Totally get that some may disagree with this choice though. Sorry if this comes across as defensive -- I know the authors, so am very certain that they are aware of the rich literature on collective action problems and public goods.

jacques_chester 6y ago
I don't think that connection is really very strong. Supply and demand is taught in a 101 course -- but maddeningly, discussion of externalities, public goods, information etc tend to get a fairly cursory glance. It's the latter which have been the most important developments in the past 70 or 80 years (starting with, say, Coase), because they so radically modify and constrain the applicability of pure theories of supply and demand. "Underproduction" belongs to these later developments.