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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Pierre Januard (PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Thomas Aquinas's De emptione et venditione ad tempus is concerned less with usury than with commercial exchange. Cross-referencing the economic aspects of forward selling and the role of the virtue of justice with Aquinas's concepts of sign and analogy leads us to revise our understanding of the just price, drawing a distinction between three different levels of reality (normative, market, and singular exchange), each of which gives rise to analytical, commercial, and strategic risks. This risk analysis grid offers a basis for a new reading of his later works, notably the Summa theologiae. |
| Keywords: | Thomas Aquinas,scholastics,just price,usury,forward selling,sign,analogy |
| Date: | 2021–02–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03153997&r=all |
| By: | Patalano, Rosario |
| Abstract: | The evolution of Ferdinando Galiani’s thought toward social mathematic has been neglected by scholars, and his attempt to establish political arguments on the analytical basis remains unexplored. The non-systematic nature of Galiani’s intuitions, due to his laziness, largely justifies this underestimation of his scientific program. This paper intends to show that the mature abbé Galiani follows an intellectual itinerary autonomous and parallel to that followed by Marquis de Condorcet in the same years. The anti-Physiocratique querelle represents Galiani’s methodological maturation. In contrast with Physiocratic economic doctrine, based on the primacy of deductive methodology, Galiani claims for economic science the realism of circumstance against aprioristic axiomatic hypotheses and rationalist generalizations. Galiani’s project, substantially similar to Marquis de Condorcet’s approach to social science, can be defined as Newtonian social mathematics opposed to Physiocratic Cartesian social mathematics. |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:ncdfh&r=all |
| By: | Meacci, Ferdinando |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to focus, within Adam Smith’s system of thought, on the various aspects of the twofold link between the accumulation of capital and the demand for labor, on the one hand, and between an increasing population and increasing wages, on the other. This link is examined, first, in the light of the relationship between the principles of self-interest and competition; and, secondly, in support of the possibility (neglected by Smith) that the long-run supply of labor may fall short of the long-run demand for it. The paper’s main argument is that this possibility is peacefully implemented in advancing economies by the “uniform, constant, and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition” which lies behind a continuous process of capital accumulation (including technical progress) along with the birth control techniques so widely used in our times. |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:hq7bf&r=all |
| By: | Bíró, Gábor |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the history of the first economics film, made by Michael Polanyi. It traces the evolution of the film from the first idea to the latest version. It portrays Polanyi's motives for making the film, the contexts in which the film was embedded and its perception by various individuals and communities. The paper demonstrates the novelty of both the content and the presentation of Polanyi's economic ideas through the eyes of his contemporaries. It discusses why it was important for Polanyi to make a film about the circulation of money and the principle of neutrality and comments on what historiographers of economic thought might learn if they put a stronger emphasis on visual representations in their pursuits. |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:rb8w9&r=all |
| By: | Button, Kenneth John |
| Abstract: | A century ago Arthur Pigou published The Economics of Welfare. Within this volume are a few lines relating to the pricing of traffic congestion. Over the years, these lines have attracted the attention and thoughts of some of the leading economists of their day. These have included, Knight, Clapham, and Robertson in the 1920s, Kahn and Viner in the 1930s, Ellis and Fellner in the 1940s, and Buchanan, Vickrey, Solow, Friedman, Walters, Demsetz, Newbery, and Allais in the post-World War II period. Here I look at the academic arguments from the 1920s concerning how roads should be priced, and by whom. I then move to consider the continuation of the intellectual debates after World War II and their implications for policy design and implementation. Finally, I briefly look at the extent to which some of the existing road congestion pricing systems meet the requirements of the economic theory. |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:wkrb5&r=all |
| By: | Luca Fiorito,; Massimiliano Vatiero |
| Abstract: | This note reproduces an unpublished paper on "Social Values in Economic Consumption" which Knight prepared for the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Summer Conference, on Nantucket, Massachusetts in June 1931. This paper sheds new light on Knight in two important respects. First, it presents, in a more systematic fashion, Knight’s criticism of what he perceived to be the then standard theory of consumption. Specifically, Knight argued that an individual's consumption is dictated more by his income in relation to others than by mere utility maximization—a notion now commonly known as relative income hypothesis. In this connection, Knight also pointed out that a general increase in income, not only leaves the individual’s relative position in society unaltered but makes her/his situation worse off due to the peculiar characteristics of the market for “personal services.†Second, this unpublished address provides further evidence of how, in spite of some substantial differences in terms of methodology, his research interests converged in many respects with those of the institutionalists. |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:trn:utwprg:2021/03&r=all |
| By: | Jean-Luc Gaffard (OFCE Sciences-Po; Université Côte d'Azur; GREDEG CNRS; Institut Universitaire de France) |
| Abstract: | Knight ne distingue pas seulement l'incertitude du risque. Il pose explicitement le problème de la maitrise et de la réduction de l'incertitude en la faisant dépendre de la forme de l'organisation sociale et non d'un calcul de probabilités en toute hypothèse impossible en raison de la nature même du processus de production qui prend du temps. La théorie de l'entreprise fondée sur les coûts de transaction, initiée par Coase, tourne le dos à cette approche en étant une théorie du choix et de l'échange sans véritable considération ni de la production, ni de l'incertitude. Revenir à Knight et approfondir son analyse requiert (i) de reconnaître, à la suite de Arrow, l'imperfection de l'information et les défaillances du système de prix qui en découlent impliquant de se séparer de la rationalité individuelle pour considérer l'importance de l'action collective et faire ainsi place à l'entreprise, (ii) de reconnaître, à la suite de Richardson, la nécessité pour l'entreprise de faire face au jeu conjoint de l'irréversibilité et de l'incertitude en mettant en place des formes collusives d'organisation. |
| Keywords: | connaissance, entreprise, incertitude, production, temps |
| JEL: | D21 D23 D80 D81 L22 L23 L26 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2021-09&r=all |
| By: | Düppe, Till |
| Abstract: | Wilhelm Krelle (1916-2004) had two careers; one before 1945 as an officer in the German Army (Wehrmacht), and a second after 1945 as an economist in West Germany. After retirement, he was honored as the economist who brought modern modeling techniques, Lawrence Klein’s macro-econometrics in particular, from the U.S. to West Germany. After his engagement in the reform of East German economics, however, his person was discredited as his early career became public. This essay reconstructs Krelle’s career in his attempt and struggle to maintain moral integrity in and between the various domains of his troubled life as officer, economist, political adviser, father, and husband. |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:a8rq3&r=all |
| By: | Almeida, Felipe; Cavalieri, Marco |
| Abstract: | Clarence Ayres was a strong dissenting voice in US economics during the 20th century. In the 1930s, a debate between Ayres and Frank Knight was published by the International Journal of Ethics. Although the debate focused on ethics, the evolution of economics was also discussed. This paper proposes an understanding of Ayres’s ideas based on the context in which he made them. This context is defined by the 1930s Ayres-Knight debate and the archival correspondence between Ayres and Knight during the 1930s. |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:95jek&r=all |
| By: | Richard Arena (Université Côte d'Azur, France; GREDEG CNRS); Eric Nasica (Université Côte d'Azur, France; GREDEG CNRS) |
| Abstract: | This article aims to analyze the impact of taking into account a truly uncertain and complex economic environment on the methodology used by Keynes. Our work leads to two main results. The first conclusion is that, even when an ordinal or cardinal measure of probability is impossible, Keynes provides a coherent set of tools for the analysis of economic decisions. In particular, even if a numerical probability cannot be determined, the choices of economic agents will be rationally governed by reasoning based on their limited but real knowledge of the observed reality and on non-numerical probabilities. The second result obtained is that the complex decision-making environment surrounding economic decisions influences the characterization of the individual actor himself and economic and social interactions; this form of economic analysis implies referring to a methodological conception which is open to and even requires the use of philosophy and other social sciences as cognitive psychology, social psychology and even anthropology. |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2021-10&r=all |
| By: | Neil R. Ericsson (Division of International Finance, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System) |
| Abstract: | David Hendry has made-and continues to make-pivotal contributions to the econometrics of empirical economic modeling, economic forecasting, econometrics software, substantive empirical economic model design, and economic policy. This paper reviews his contributions by topic, emphasizing the overlaps between different strands in his research and the importance of real-world problems in motivating that research. |
| Keywords: | cointegration, consumers' expenditure, dynamic specification, equilibrium correction, forecasting, machine learning, model evaluation, money demand, PcGive, structural breaks |
| JEL: | C52 C53 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwc:wpaper:2021-001&r=all |
| By: | Schabas, Margaret |
| Abstract: | Interview with Neil de Marchi, published on the Journal of the History of Economic Thought |
| Date: | 2020–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:wtznr&r=all |
| By: | Fleurbaey, Marc; Kanbur, Ravi; Viney, Brody |
| Abstract: | This paper considers and assesses the concept of social externalities through human interdependence, in relation to the economic analysis of externalities in the tradition of Pigou and Arrow, including the analysis of the commons. It argues that there are limits to economic analysis. Our proposal is to enlarge the perspective and start thinking about a broader framework in which any pattern of influence of an agent or a group of agents over a third party, which is not mediated by any economic, social, or psychological mechanism guaranteeing the alignment of the marginal net private benefit with marginal net social benefit, can be attached the “externality” label and be scrutinized for the likely negative consequences that result from the divergence. These consequences may be significant given the many interactions between the social and economic realms, and the scope for spillovers and feedback loops to emerge. The paper also establishes a tentative and probably incomplete list of possible internalizing mechanisms for externalities under this broader framework, which includes: pricing and monetary incentives; altruism and solidarity; moral norms; reciprocity and mutual monitoring; centralized cooperative decision-making; and merger. There are clear reasons why the pricing mechanism is not appropriate in some cases. A more difficult question to answer is what factors determine which of the mechanisms is the appropriate one to rely on in a given sphere of relations and activities. The object of the paper is to encourage research and contributions from all the relevant disciplines of social sciences on the pervasive human interdependence that the notion of social externalities tries to capture. |
| Keywords: | Production Economics |
| Date: | 2020–08–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:cudawp:309990&r=all |
| By: | Kanbur, Ravi |
| Abstract: | This paper considers and assesses the concept of social externalities through human interdependence, in relation to the economic analysis of externalities in the tradition of Pigou and Arrow, including the analysis of the commons. It argues that there are limits to economic analysis. Our proposal is to enlarge the perspective and start thinking about a broader framework in which any pattern of influence of an agent or a group of agents over a third party, which is not mediated by any economic, social, or psychological mechanism guaranteeing the alignment of the marginal net private benefit with marginal net social benefit, can be attached the “externality” label and be scrutinized for the likely negative consequences that result from the divergence. These consequences may be significant given the many interactions between the social and economic realms, and the scope for spillovers and feedback loops to emerge. The paper also establishes a tentative and probably incomplete list of possible internalizing mechanisms for externalities under this broader framework, which includes: pricing and monetary incentives; altruism and solidarity; moral norms; reciprocity and mutual monitoring; centralized cooperative decision-making; and merger. There are clear reasons why the pricing mechanism is not appropriate in some cases. A more difficult question to answer is what factors determine which of the mechanisms is the appropriate one to rely on in a given sphere of relations and activities. The object of the paper is to encourage research and contributions from all the relevant disciplines of social sciences on the pervasive human interdependence that the notion of social externalities tries to capture. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Economics and Policy |
| Date: | 2020–08–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:cudawp:309988&r=all |
| By: | Andrés Gago (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella) |
| Abstract: | A sizable proportion of individuals act reciprocally. They punish and reward depending on the (un)kindness of those with whom they interact. In this paper, I explore whether individuals still reciprocate intentions when others lack full control over the consequences of their actions. By means of a dictator game with punishment opportunities, I show that unkind intentions are enough to trigger punishments, irrespectively of the outcome. By contrast, accidents are forgiven. To isolate how uncertainty over the result of an action affects the assessment of intentions, I control for other possible departures from self-profit maximization, such as distributional concerns or efficiency maximization. I find that the former also plays a role in respondents’ behavior. |
| Keywords: | Reciprocity, uncertaint,; blame, intentions, dictator, punishment. |
| JEL: | C91 D63 C79 |
| Date: | 2020–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cmf:wpaper:wp2020_2024&r=all |
| By: | McMullen, David |
| Abstract: | By setting out the full range of confusion on the subject of socialism, the report by the Council of Economic Advisers (C.E.A.) has provided a good opportunity to both explain and defend the Marxist view on the matter. |
| Date: | 2019–05–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:t3kfy&r=all |
| By: | Fleury, Jean-Baptiste (CYU Cergy Paris Université) |
| Abstract: | Social scientific research on crime in the 20th century |
| Date: | 2021–03–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:nuwy9&r=all |
| By: | Ingela Alger (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, IAST - Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse); Jean-François Laslier (PSE - Paris School of Economics - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris sciences et lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | The paper reviews the implications of evolutionary Kantian morality for a classical problem in the economic theory of voting: the costly participation problem. |
| Keywords: | Homo moralis,Ethical voter,Voting,Voter turnout,Kantian morality |
| Date: | 2021–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-03152172&r=all |
| By: | Bichler, Shimshon; Nitzan, Jonathan |
| Abstract: | We write this essay for both lay readers and scientists, though mainstream economists are welcome to enjoy it too. Our subject is the basic toolbox of mainstream economics. The most important tools in this box are demand, supply and equilibrium. All mainstream economists – as well as many heterodox ones – use these tools, pretty much all the time. They are essential. Without them, the entire discipline collapses. But in our view, these are not scientific tools. Economists manipulate them on paper with impeccable success (at least in their own opinion). But the manipulations are entirely imaginary. Contrary to what economists tell us, demand, supply and equilibrium do not carry over to the actual world: they cannot be empirically identified; they cannot be observed, directly or indirectly; and they certainly cannot be objectively measured. And this is a problem because science without objective empirical tools is hardly science at all. |
| Keywords: | demand,econometrics,equilibrium,neoclassical economics,science,supply |
| JEL: | E13 C01 O47 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:capwps:202103&r=all |
| By: | Shaun P. Hargreaves Heap (Department of Political Economy, King’s College London); Aikaterini Karadimitropoulou (School of Economics, Business and International Studies, Department of Economics, University of Piraeus); Eugenio Levi (Department of Public Economics, Masaryk University) |
| Abstract: | People typically do not acquire new information about the facts of the economy through consulting official statistics; they read or listen to mediatype reports/stories on the economy where the facts are packaged in a story. This paper tests with an experiment whether the explanatory style used in such media-type stories affects individual decision making. We also compare this particular narrative influence with that of the actual facts contained in the story. Our subjects receive a media-type story about the economy before they play a minimum effort game. The media story has either good or bad background facts about the economy and we use the psychological theory of explanatory styles to present these facts in a narrative style designed to engender either optimism or pessimism. We find evidence that the explanatory style matters more than facts in the sense that optimistic styles support higher equilibria than pessimistic ones while the influence of the facts itself is weaker. |
| Keywords: | narratives, information, media, minimum effort game |
| JEL: | E71 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mub:wpaper:2021-08&r=all |
| By: | John E. Roemer (Dept. of Political Science & Cowles Foundation, Yale University); Joaquim Silvestre (University of California, Davis) |
| Abstract: | Wicksell (1896) and Lindahl (1919) analyzed the public provision of public goods through parliamentary negotiation. Roemer (2010, 2019) applied Kant’s (1785) categorical imperative to the private provision of public goods by voluntary contributions. They coincide in yielding efficient outcomes. Our focal equilibrium notions are the Multiplicative Kantian Equilibrium in the Kant-Roemer modelling and the Balanced Linear Cost Share Equilibrium for the Wicksell-Lindahl approach. It turns out that both are deï¬ ned by the same individual optimization problem, and that costs are distributed according to marginal valuation, what we call the Lindahl Ratio. More general versions of the Wicksell-Lindahl and Kant-Roemer models depart from the Lindahl Ratio in ways that can be interpreted in terms of private property rights on the technology. |
| Keywords: | Public goods, Public provision, Private Provision, Voluntary contributions, Wicksell, Lindahl, Kant, Categorical imperative |
| JEL: | H0 H2 H4 C3 C5 C7 B1 B2 B3 |
| Date: | 2021–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2278&r=all |
| By: | David de la Croix (UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES)); Matthias Doepke (Northwestern University) |
| Abstract: | A long-standing challenge for welfare economics is to develop welfare criteria that can be applied to allocations with different population levels. Such a criterion is essential to resolve the optimal population problem, i.e., the tradeoff between population size and the welfare of each person alive. A welfare criterion that speaks to this issue inherently requires evaluating the welfare of nonexistent people, because some people exist only in some allocations but not in others. To make progress, we consider the population problem in an environment where population is variable, but there is a fixed supply of souls, who may experience multiple incarnations over time. Rather than pondering the value of nonexistence, from the souls’ perspective comparing larger or smaller populations merely involves valuing shorter or longer waits until the next incarnation. We argue that such comparisons are possible on the basis of introspection and lead to intuitive welfare criteria with attractive properties. We emphasize that one does not have to believe in reincarnation to accept the resulting criteria—rather, reincarnation serves as a metaphor to facilitate the necessary utility comparisons. |
| Keywords: | Population Ethics, Repugnant Conclusion, Endogenous Discounting, Utilitarianism, Reincarnation |
| JEL: | D63 H43 J11 Q56 |
| Date: | 2021–03–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctl:louvir:2021007&r=all |