Hey everyone – guess who’s presenting at ASA?

Me! And thousands of others, of course. But if you want to see my first-ever panel session presentation, here’s the skinny:

Session Title: Knowledge about the Economy: Creating It and Using It (one of the Section on Science, Knowledge and Technology Section Sessions)
Time: Tue, Aug 17 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Location: Hilton Atlanta
Paper Title: Markets as Technologies: Market Epistemology and the Exclusion of Housework from National Income Statistics

Abstract (which will be slightly different by August!):

What do markets do? Markets have traditionally been understood as institutional arrangements that organize the production and distribution of goods and services, in opposition to states or firms. Drawing on and extending the performativity of economics approach, this essay argues that markets must also be understood as technologies that produce information. For economists and policymakers, market prices reveal underlying social dynamics, and are understood as the best indicators of the social value of goods and services. Paradoxically, market prices thus make possible both other markets, and tools for state planning such as national income statistics. Focusing on the technological aspects of markets helps us understand the early history of national income statistics in the U.S., and specifically why these statistics exclude unpaid housework. Without appropriate markets to reveal the value of housework, early national income statisticians could not include it, in spite of their beliefs that such labor was productive. The markets as technologies approach thus suggests a new way of understanding the relationship between states and markets, as well as a way to unify previously disparate phenomenon.

If you’re presenting something interesting, leave a comment.

Also, any word on blogger events this year?