Arturo Macias
Bio
I am an Economist working at Banco de España (Spanish Central Bank). I am 46 years old and have recently finished my PhD Thesis (See ORCID webpage: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1623-0957 ).
How I can help others
Risk Management, banking regulation, energy and commodities, mechanism design.
Posts 11
Comments136
Dear Klara, the information about Chicken Watch is very useful, and I completely understand your specialization.
I am trying to spread the idea of taking animal welfare certification "in our own hands", because I see it both possible and even financially self sustainable. So perhaps, somebody in the EA space will try to develop the idea.
Thank you very much for the good work,
Arturo
It is really incredible. How many do they think care for seafood welfare? To be even modestly effective you shall certify popular animals.
Humane eggs or dairy for vegetarians is the first natural step. Free range ruminants, and perhaps, after that, free range pork or chickens. Seafood is probably the most intractable case.
Have you thougth on the development of your own certification system for animal welfare?
"Therefore, if we had a credible certification of the level of animal suffering in each product, omnivorous diets could be reshuffled to have a lower impact in terms of animal welfare. But there is a large institutional vacuum: the meat industry has no interest nor credibility, and the animalist organizations are vegan, and in the best of cases only willing to fight for animal welfare measures imposed by governments."
Time ago, I took part in an exchange on risk aversion that can be useful.
"I remind you that "risk aversion" is a big deal in economics/finance because of the decreasing marginal utility of income. In fact, in economics and finance, risk aversion for rational agents is not a primitive parameter, but a consequence of the CRRA parameter of your consumption function. So I think risk aversion turns quite meaningless for non monetary types of loss."
See here the complete exchange:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/mJwZ3pTgwyTon2xmw/?commentId=grW3y8JCmNK2rjFPA
The concept is slippery: you really need to clarify "why utility is non convex" in the relevant variable? Risk aversion in economics is not primitive: it is derived from decreasing marginal utility of consumption...
I totally agree with this. But while disappointment is sad, the the global ennui of our times is even worse. I hope you soon resume the pursuit of your own happiness, with the feeling of fulfilled duty.
I lack something in EA: what about being a farmer, a nurse or a policeman? As utilitarians, there shall be a message for the ample majority of the people, that shall do the "manteinance" work of civilization. For the majority of people, the main message of utilitarianism shall be to find private happiness (in non extractive ways). And in any case you never know when a "disproportionate impact" opportunity can arrive to your life.
Oh, sure. Many things can lead to degrowth, and some could be necesary. What I point out is that degrowth is allwayws a negative side consequence. You do not plan for it, you suffer it (the less, the better).
Economists often speak of "dematerialization" to refer to the natural trend of capitalism to increase GDP by unit of material input, both by increasing efficiency in inputs use and consumption substitution.
You can imagine a future where that people becomes more interested in virtual reality instead of physical consumption. That is a form of "dematerialization" but it cannot be considered degrowth (well, at least if our price indexes were properly constructed, that often is not the case).
But what shall be avoided at all costs, is people celebrating GDP contraction (=somebody's income contraction).
All this EROI issues are far easier to follow when you use the inverse of EROI (energy auto consumption).
But what about the other way around? It is far better if jobs move from the rich to the poor world. Online Kenyan administratives for UK and US firms, Peruans for Spanish firms, etc...
The most consequential effect of the pandemics has been that it was a demo of how easily many service jobs can be performed online, and that allows for "online migration". Workers can stay at home enjoying their very cheap local cost of life while getting higher foreing wages.
Labour and goods and capital migrations have similar economics effects, but goods and capital movements do not create the same political resistance.