|
on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Agnès Festré (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR6227 - Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis); Nathalie Lazaric (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - CNRS : UMR6227 - Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of our contribution is to analyse the notion of routine as it is developed in recent economic literature in the light of two past economists, Joseph Schumpeter and Ludwig von Mises. We will focus on one peculiar feature put forward by the two Austrian economists, namely, on the distinction between adaptive / routine-minded behaviour on one side, and active / creative behaviour on the other. According to us, this feature is worth emphasizing since it permits to shed some new light on the long disputed Nelson and Winter's conception of routines. Our conjecture is that if Nelson and Winter had taken up the aforementioned distinction, they would have developed a richer view of economic behaviour and of its interweaving within the firm or the social environment. |
| Keywords: | Routines, Schumpeter, von Mises |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00271338_v1&r=hpe |
| By: | Dietrich Franz; List Christian (METEOR) |
| Abstract: | How can the propositional attitudes of several individuals be aggregated into overall collective propositional attitudes? Although there are large bodies of work on the aggregation of various special kinds of propositional attitudes, such as preferences, judgments, probabilities and utilities, the aggregation of propositional attitudes is seldom studied in full generality. In this paper, we seek to contribute to filling this gap in the literature. We sketch the ingredients of a general theory of propositional attitude aggregation and prove two new theorems. Our first theorem simultaneously characterizes some prominent aggregation rules in the cases of probability, judgment and preference aggregation, including linear opinion pooling and Arrovian dictatorships. Our second theorem abstracts even further from the specific kinds of attitudes in question and describes the properties of a large class of aggregation rules applicable to a variety of belief-like attitudes. Our approach integrates some previously disconnected areas of investigation. |
| Keywords: | mathematical economics; |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamet:2008047&r=hpe |
| By: | Dietrich Franz (METEOR) |
| Abstract: | Economic models describe individuals in terms of underlying characteristics, such as taste for some good, sympathy level for another player, time discount rate, risk attitude, and so on. In real life, such characteristics change through experiences: taste for Mozart changes through listening to it, sympathy for another player through observing his moves, and so on. Models typically ignore change, not just for simplicity but also because it is unclear how to incorporate change. I introduce a general axiomatic framework for defining, analysing and comparing rival models of change. I show that seemingly basic postulates on modelling change together have strong implications, like irrelevance of the order in which someone has his experiences and `linearity'' of change. This is a step towards placing the modelling of change on solid axiomatic grounds and enabling non-arbitrary incorporation of change into economic models. |
| Keywords: | mathematical economics; |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:umamet:2008045&r=hpe |
| By: | Robert J. Gordon |
| Abstract: | Historians have long recognized the role of economic resources and organization in determining the outcome of World War II: the Nazi economy lacked the economic resources and organization to oppose the combined might of the U.S., U.K., and U.S.S.R. A minority view is that the Germans were defeated not by economics, but by Hitler's many strategic and tactical mistakes, of which the most important was the invasion of the Soviet Union. Compared to this debate about the outcome of the war, there has been less attention to economics as the cause of World War II. This is a review article of a new economic history of the Nazi economy by Adam Tooze which cuts through the debate between economics and Hitler's mistakes as fundamental causes of the outcome. Instead, Tooze argues that the invasion of the Soviet Union was the inevitable result of Hitler's paranoia about the land-starved backwardness of German agriculture as contrasted with the raw material and land resources of America's continent and Britain's empire. The American frontier expansion that obliterated the native Indians provided Hitler with a explicit precedent, which he often cited, for pushing aside the native populations in the east to provide land for German Aryan farmers. Germany's agricultural weakness is summarized by its low land-labor ratio, but Poland and the Ukraine had even less land per person. Thus simply acquiring the land to the east could not solve Germany's problem of low agricultural productivity without removing the native farming populations. Far better than other histories of the Third Reich, Tooze reveals the shocking details of General Plan Ost, the uber-holocaust which would have removed, largely through murder, as many as 45 million people from eastern agricultural land. Tooze, like the Nazis before him, fails to emphasize that the solution to Germany's agricultural problem was not acquiring more land for the existing German farm population, but rather by raising the land-labor ratio by making the existing German land more efficient, mechanizing agriculture and encouraging rural-to-urban migration within Germany. |
| JEL: | H56 N14 N24 N54 N64 N70 N74 N80 N84 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14560&r=hpe |
| By: | Andrés Felipe Mora Cortés |
| Abstract: | RESUMEN La omisión de los procesos de interacción social e intercambio por parte del modelo de equilibrio general explica la falta de consistencia entre los juicios normativos del liberalismo económico como proyecto de organización social y el “deber ser” metodológico que intenta explicarlo y defenderlo científicamente. De la inclusión de los procesos de interacción en el marco científico de la teoría económica dependerá la renovación del liberalismo en términos i) del reconocimiento de la economía como un sistema de interacción social institucionalmente incorporado, ii) de la búsqueda de metodologías científicas alternativas, y iii) de la mayor correspondencia que se presentaría entre este nuevo marco analítico y elementos fundamentales del liberalismo económico. ABSTRACT Omission of social interaction and exchange processes on the part of the general equilibrium model explains the lack of consistency between the economic liberalism’s statutory criteria as a project for social organization and the methodological “should be” that attempts to explain and defend liberalism on scientific grounds. The inclusion of the interaction processes within the scientific framework of the economic theory shall determine the renewal of liberalism in terms of i) the recognition of economics as an institutionally incorporated system of social interaction, ii) the search for alternative scientific methodologies, and iii) the increasing correspondence that should arise between this new analytical framework and underlying elements of economic liberalism. |
| Date: | 2008–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000097:005177&r=hpe |
| By: | Jóse Francisco Puello-Socarrás |
| Abstract: | RESUMEN Este artículo pretende mostrar una mirada mucho más compleja del liberalismo contemporáneo, más conocido como neo-liberalismo, aproximando más referencias teóricas y evidencias concretas de su historia intentando mejorar la hermenéutica tradicional que se le práctica. Así, la transformación global de la escena neoliberal emerge, desde sus inicios, bajo el influjo de un fuerte poder político y social que debería ser indagado en torno a los discursos neoclásicos de la teoría económica pero que en su genealogía completa son frecuentemente omitidos por la mayoría de trabajos sobre sus fundamentos. El neoliberalismo lejos de aparecer unívocamente como una teoría económica enfrenta una importante dimensión política que es imposible de negar para dar con la esencia real del fenómeno. ABSTRACT This article attempts to show a very complex view of contemporary liberalism, better known as neo-liberalism, including more theoretical reference and concrete evidence about his history trying to improve the traditional hermeneutics on it. Hence, the global transformation of the neo-liberalism scene emerges -from the very start of their process- as a stronger political and social power that should be finding out around the basics of neoclassical economic discourses but usually in their complete genealogy is systematically refuse by the most work about their foundations. The neo-liberalism far away that appears only as economic theory faces an important political dimension impossible to deny for seizes the real essence of this phenomena. |
| Date: | 2008–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000097:005181&r=hpe |
| By: | Richard H. Steckel |
| Abstract: | Since 1995 approximately 300 publications on stature have appeared in the social sciences, which is a five-fold increase in the rate of production relative to the period 1977-1994. The expansion occurred in several areas, but especially within economics, indicating that heights have become a traditional source of evidence for study of human welfare. Much of this work extends beyond the traditional bailiwick of anthropometric history, including biological welfare during economic and political crises; anthropometric determinants of wages; the welfare of women relative to men in the contemporary world; the fetal origins hypothesis; and inequality in the developing world. The approach has also expanded within economic history to consider the consequences of empire for colonials; the health of populations lacking traditional measures of social performance; the consequences of smallpox; and very long-term trends in health. Much has also been learned about socioeconomic aspects of inequality, the welfare implications of industrialization, and socioeconomic determinants of stature. The last is a work in progress and one may doubt whether sufficient longitudinal evidence will become available for a complete understanding of the variety and strength of pathways that affect human physical growth. |
| JEL: | N00 O1 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14536&r=hpe |
| By: | Rami Abdelkafi; Hatem Derbel |
| Abstract: | The lack of efficiency that characterized the economic policies of developing countries has prompted several economists to recommend a massive disengagement of the state of economic activity. Economic freedom is advanced as an alternative to development strategies more effective. Our work shows that the index of economic freedom hides the importance of its components and mask the importance of state intervention in developing countries. Through the method of Hansen, 2000, we show that for sizes of the State relating to scores above 5,956 (depending on the construction of the index of economic freedom), public investment should have a positive effect on growth. |
| JEL: | C13 C21 H10 H11 H50 |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2008-19&r=hpe |