Economics focus

51. Bold strokes
Oct 16th 2008 From The Economist print edition

A strong economic stylist wins the Nobel prize

51-1-232
WHEN Paul Krugman won the Nobel prize in economics on October 13th, the news was greeted with nostalgia as well as congratulation by some of his fellow economists. Since 1999 Mr Krugman has written a twice-weekly column for the New York Times, in which he has devoted himself to attacking the Bush administration and all of its works. The nostalgists feel these jeremiads have distracted him from the cutting-edge research that secured his reputation. The polemicist, they feel, has buried the theorist.
And yet the old Krugman is still recognisable in the new. Indeed, the arts of the columnist are not so far removed from Mr Krugman's style as an economist. In his most celebrated academic papers, Mr Krugman paints with bold strokes, striving to render his insights as starkly as possible. Like a good columnist, he cuts to the quick of a problem, stripping it of clutter and encumbering nuance. The result is a revealing caricature: what economists call 'models'.
Mr Krugman won the prize for his models of international trade and economic geography. Both belong to the same grand project he confidently launched just a year after earning his doctorate: 'Before my 25th birthday,' he has written, 'I basically knew what I was going to do with my professional life.' In 1978 he realised that a model of 'monopolistic competition', published a year earlier by Avinash Dixit and Joseph Stiglitz, could help him introduce economies of scale into trade theory and beyond.

A. 어휘
stroke 筆致(필치), 필법. stylist 名文家(명문가).
economic stylist 名文章(명문장)의 경제전문가. economics 경제학. congratulation 축하.
devote 헌신하다. administration 행정부. jeremiad 비탄, 한탄.
distract [마음.주의를] 딴 데로 돌리다. cutting-edge 예리한. reputation 명성.
polemicist 논객. theorist 이론가. recognisable 인지할 수 있는, 분간할 수 있는.
celebrated 유명한. paper 논문, 평론. strive-strove-striven 노력하다, 애쓰다.
insight 眼識(안식), 통찰. starkly 완전히, 강력하게, 단호하게. quick 급소.
strip 제거하다, 박탈하다. clutter 혼란, 난잡. encumbering 방해하는, 거추장스러운.
nuance 뉘앙스, 미묘한 차이. revealing [옷 따위가]살을 노출시키는, 의미심장한.
caricature 諷刺畵(풍자화), 풍자문. confidently 자신만만하게. doctorate 박사학위.
monopolistic 독점적인. economies of scale 규모의 경제. and beyond 그 너머로.

B. 구문
- The nostalgists feel these . . . has buried the theorist.
cf. the+단수보통명사→추상명사
ex. the mother 모성애. the patriot 애국심.
[ 鄕愁病者(향수병자)(그의 과거연구활동을 그리워하는 사람들)들은 이러한 비탄(정부에 대한 공격)이 그에게 명성을 가져다 준 예리한 연구활동으로부터 그를 멀리하게 하였다고 생각한다. 그들은 논객의 정신이 이론가의 정신을 매장해버렸다고 생각한다.]
- The old Krugman is still . . . style as an economist.
cf. the new=the new Krugman( 논객으로서의 크루그만).
[옛날의 크루그만(경제학자)은 새로운 크루그만(논객)에서도 여전히 볼 수 있다. 실제로 칼럼니스트의 기술은 경제학자로서의 크루그만의 스타일로부터 그렇게 멀리 벗어난 것은 아니다.]
- stripping it of clutter and encumbering nuance.
[그 문제에서 혼잡과 거추장스러운 늬앙스를 걷어 내면서]

51-2-233
Economies of scale had long posed awkward problems for theorists. If bigger firms face lower costs, then in principle one firm should supply the entire market, thereby enjoying the lowest costs of all. But in the Dixit-Stiglitz model, this monopolising logic is offset by a countervailing force: consumers' taste for variety. People prefer to spread their custom over different versions of the same good. The market is therefore carved up among competing firms, each offering a product bearing its own distinctive stamp. The model is highly stylised. Nonetheless it gave Mr Krugman, as he put it, 'a tool to open cleanly what had previously been regarded as a can of worms'.
Mr Krugman used this tool to save economics from an abiding empirical embarrassment. According to one of the discipline's founding doctrines, countries gain from specialisation and exchange, concentrating on what they do best and importing the rest. The theory explains why the Portuguese might sell wine in exchange for English cloth. But it cannot explain why similar countries, blessed with similar ratios of capital, labour and land, should so vigorously trade similar goods back and forth. This is not a small blind spot. According to the World Trade Organisation, 52% of Germany's exports to France are things France also produces and exports to Germany. But the Dixit-Stiglitz model, with its subtly differentiated firms competing for variety-loving consumers, lent itself to explaining why Germans might import Renaults, even as the French imported Volkswagens.

A. 어휘
pose 제출하다, 주장하다, 자세를 취하다. awkward 다루기 힘든, 불편한, 서투른.
firm 회사. face lower costs 보다 낮은 비용이 들다. monopolise 독점하다. logic 논리.
offset 相殺(상쇄)하다. countervail 상쇄하다, 반작용하다. variety 다양성.
spread custom 애호하다. the same good 같은 상품. carve up 베어 나누다, 분할하다.
distinctive 독특한, 구별하는. stamp 특징, 도장, 檢印(검인). worm 고뇌, 고통.
a can of worms 고뇌의 상자. abiding 변함없는. empirical 경험주의적인.
embarrassment 難題(난제), 당황. discipline 학과, 학문의 분야. found 創設(창설)하다.
doctrine 학설, 주의, 원리. founding doctrines 창설이론. specialisation 전문화.
ratio 비율. vigorously 활발하게. back and forth 오락가락하며.
blind spot 예외적인 것, 盲點(맹점), 보이지 않는 곳. subtly 미묘하게.
differentiated 차별화 된.

B. 어휘
- the discipline→ 앞 문장의 economics (경제학)을 가리킴.