Louis G. Putterman (born 1952) is an American economist. He taught economics at Brown University from 1980 to 2025 and continues as a research professor there.
Biography Putterman received his B.A. in Economics (minor: Anthropology) from Columbia University in 1976, and his M.A. in International Relations in 1978 and Ph.D. in Economics in 1980 from Yale University. He joined the Brown University faculty after his doctoral studies and received a Sloan Research Fellowship in 1983. He is a specialist on comparative economic systems and comparative economic development and has written extensively on China's economic development and the long-term development of human capabilities. Part of his work has focused on using laboratory experiments to analyze the preferences and dispositions underlying human social interactions, especially solving problems of collective action. Putterman served as president of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies in 2000–2001.
Research contributions
Behavioral and experimental economics Beginning in the late 1990s, Putterman shifted his focus to behavioral economics and experimental economics through collaborations with Avner Ben-Ner of the University of Minnesota.Ben-Ner, Avner; Putterman, Louis, eds. (1998). ''Economics, Values and Organization''. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521580984. His experimental work has examined cooperation, trust (social science), and punishment in laboratory settings, particularly through variants of public goods game and trust game.Bochet, Olivier; Page, Talbot; Putterman, Louis (2006). "Communication and Punishment in Voluntary Contribution Experiments". Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 60 (1): 11–26. doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2003.06.006 A significant focus of Putterman's experimental research, conducted with Brown colleague Talbot Page and others, has been investigating how institutional arrangements affect cooperative behavior. His work has explored how punishment mechanisms, communication, and democratic choice of rules influence outcomes in collective action problems.Dal Bó, Pedro; Foster, Andrew; Putterman, Louis (2010). "Institutions and Behavior: Experimental Evidence on the Effects of Democracy". American Economic Review. 100 (5): 2205–2229. doi:10.1257/aer.100.5.2205 This research examines whether subjects respond differently when rules are chosen democratically versus imposed exogenously. Putterman has also participated in international survey projects that study trust and social preferences, including the OECD's TrustLab project, which conducted representative surveys in multiple countries examining trust in government, inter-group biases, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.Grimalda, Gianluca; Murtin, Fabrice; Pipke, David; Putterman, Louis; Sutter, Matthias (2023). "The Politicized Pandemic: Ideological Polarization and the Behavioral Response to COVID-19". European Economic Review. 156: 104472. doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2023.104472
Long run comparative development Putterman published research on relationships between pre-modern development indicators and modern economic outcomes.Putterman, Louis (2000). "Can an Evolutionary Approach to Development Predict Post-War Growth?" Journal of Development Studies 37(1): 1-30. Papers co-authored with Burkett and Humblet (1999) and with Bockstette and Chanda (2002) presented statistical analysis of correlations between measures of pre-modern development and 20th century growth rates.Burkett, John P.; Humblet, Catherine; Putterman, Louis (1999). "Preindustrial and Postwar Economic Development: Is There a Link?" Economic Development and Cultural Change 47(3): 471-495. doi:10.1086/452416.Bockstette, Valerie; Chanda, Areendam; Putterman, Louis (2002). "States and Markets: The Advantage of an Early Start". Journal of Economic Growth 7(4): 347-369. doi:10.1023/A:1020827801137. Putterman and Trainor created a dataset of estimated agricultural transition dates for 165 countries.Putterman, Louis; Trainor, Cary Anne (2006). "Agricultural Transition Year Country Data Set". Brown University. A 2008 paper used this data in regression analysis of year 2000 per capita income.Putterman, Louis (2006). "Agriculture, Diffusion and Development: Ripple Effects of the Neolithic Revolution". ''Economica''. '''75''' (300): 729–748. Borcan, Olsson and Putterman (2018) analyzed state history data and reported that quadratic models showed different patterns than linear models.Borcan, Oana; Olsson, Ola; Putterman, Louis (2018). "State History and Economic Development: Evidence from Six Millennia". Journal of Economic Growth 23(1): 1-40. Putterman and David N. Weil (2010) constructed estimates of ancestral population origins using ethnic composition data and DNA studies.Putterman, Louis; Weil, David N. (2010). "Post-1500 Population Flows and the Long-Run Determinants of Economic Growth and Inequality". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 125 (4): 1627–1682. doi:10.1162/qjec.2010.125.4.1627 The paper presented regression results comparing models using ancestral versus territorial development histories. Chanda, Cook, and Putterman (2014) used Putterman and Weil's and other data to show that developmental outcomes show persistence when outcomes are predicted by the ancestry's of countries' modern populations, rather than the reversal of fortune highlighted by Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson (economist) and James A. Robinson.Chanda, Areendam; Cook, C. Justin; Putterman, Louis (2014). "Persistence of Fortune: Accounting for Population Movements, There Was No Post-Columbian Reversal". American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 6(3): 1-28.Acemoglu, Daron; Johnson, Simon; Robinson, James A. (2002). "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution". The Quarterly Journal of Economics 117(4): 1231-1294. Jared Diamond (2012) discussed both papers in The New York Review of Books. The topic received media coverage following the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.Smith, Noah (October 15, 2024). "A Nobel for the big big questions". Noahpinion. Oded Galor and Ömer Özak (2016) used the Putterman-Weil ancestry matrix in their research.Galor, Oded; Ozak, Omer (2016). "The Agricultural Origins of Time Preference". American Economic Review 106(10): 3064-3103.
Economics of organization Putterman was introduced to the economics of organization through his doctoral advisor Sidney G. Winter, known for his evolutionary economics approach to studying firms. Early in his career, Putterman edited The Economic Nature of the Firm: A Reader, collecting classic papers on institutional, agency-theoretic, and heterodox approaches to enterprise organization. The volume had three editions, with the second and third co-edited with Randall Kroszner.Putterman, Louis; Kroszner, Randall S., eds. (1996). The Economic Nature of the Firm: A Reader (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521566087. Putterman published critiques of prevailing explanations for why capital hires labor rather than labor hiring capital in market economies. His 1984 paper "On Some Recent Explanations of Why Capital Hires Labor" challenged existing theories.Putterman, Louis (1984). "On Some Recent Explanations of Why Capital Hires Labor". Economic Inquiry. 22 (2): 171–187. A subsequent contribution examined how the bundling of profit rights, decision rights, and tradable claims determines enterprise structure.Putterman, Louis (1993). "Ownership and the Nature of the Firm". Journal of Comparative Economics. 17 (2): 243–263. doi:10.1006/jcec.1993.1025
Comparative economic systems Putterman's research examined work incentives and efficiency in worker-owned firms, cooperatives, and collective farms. With John Bonin and Derek Jones, he surveyed the literature on worked-managed firms through the mid-1980s.Bonin, John P.; Jones, Derek C.; Putterman, Louis (1993). "Theoretical and Empirical Studies of Producer Cooperatives: Will Ever the Twain Meet?". Journal of Economic Literature. 31 (3): 1290–1320. With Gregory Dow, he co-authored a theoretical overview of the 'why capital hires labor, and not labor capital' question.Dow, Gregory K.; Putterman, Louis (2000). "Why Capital Suppliers (Usually) Hire Workers: What We Know and What We Need to Know". Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 43 (3): 319–336. doi:10.1016/S0167-2681(00)00124-4 His early work extended research by Amartya Sen on agricultural cooperation among poor farmers, with applications to Tanzania and China.Putterman, Louis (1980). "Voluntary Collectivization: A Model of Producers' Institutional Choice". Journal of Comparative Economics. 4 (2): 125–157. doi:10.1016/0147-5967(80)90025-6 He studied Tanzania's government-encouraged group farming initiativesPutterman, Louis (1982). "Peasants, Collectives, and Choice: Economic Theory and Tanzania's Villages". ''Journal of Modern African Studies''. '''20''' (3): 423–442. and China's collective farming system.Putterman, Louis (1993). Continuity and Change in China's Rural Development: Collective and Reform Eras in Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195076714. Putterman collaborated with Xiaoyuan Dong on studies of rural and urban industrial enterprise structure and performance in China's transition economy.Dong, Xiaoyuan; Putterman, Louis (1997). "Productivity and Organization in China's Rural Industries: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis". ''Journal of Comparative Economics''. '''24''' (2): 181–201.Dong, Xiaoyuan; Putterman, Louis (2003). "Soft Budget Constraints, Social Burdens, and Labor Redundancy in China's State Industry". Journal of Comparative Economics. 31 (1): 110–133. doi:10.1016/S0147-5967(02)00012-4
Personal Putterman grew up in Long Island, New York.Putterman, Louis (2012). The Good, The Bad, and the Economy. p. 297. Before earning his bachelor's degree, he spent three years engaged in agricultural work in kibbutz communities in Israel.Putterman, Louis (2012). The Good, The Bad, and the Economy. p. 297.
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