Comments on: The Incredible Shrinking Jurisdiction of the Alberta Utilities Commission

By: Bob Clarke

Bob Clarke — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:52:37 +0000

Alice; is there any way to obtain a copy of
“Practical Necessity’ or ‘Highly Sophisticated Opportunism”?

thanks Alice; BobC

By: Alice

Alice — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:06:20 +0000

Spell check doesn’t like it, and I’ve never heard it outside of economics land. I think it is indeed invented my economists and means “to be given an incentive to”. So “because of the low coffee prices I was incented to buy more coffee than usual”. I don’t know if I am comforted or disturbed that googling “incented definition” turns up only one entry, although at least there is one: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/incented

I would note that if one does economic analysis it is an extremely useful word, saving several. Much like the dreaded and dreadful “lawyering”.

By: Jonnette Watson Hamilton

Jonnette Watson Hamilton — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:00:24 +0000

One of Alice’s main points in this post is that the Alberta Utilities Commission needs to be able to ensure “that a utility is incented not to speculate with its assets.” As soon as I read this phrase in the second paragraph, I was struck by the word “incented.” It was my first encounter with it; I had never read “incented” before and I have never heard anyone use it in a conversation. I stopped reading and pondered “incented.” Knowing Alice, I had no doubt that it was a word. In context, I could guess that it probably meant “motivated” or “encouraged” or “inspired” or “induced.” Is that “cent” in the middle of the word a clue as to why someone might want to promote its usage in certain contexts? Is “incented” a word that economists invented?