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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Sophie Harnay (EconomiX (UMR 7235), UPL, Université Paris Nanterre, CNRS, 200 avenue de la République, 92001 Nanterre cedex, France) |
| Abstract: | The aim of the article is to explore how Richard A. Posner began to focus on judges and courts at the turn of the 1960s and early 1970s, when his focus had previously been mostly on regulation, antitrust law, and administrative agencies. We argue that Posner’s writings during this short period are critical to understanding his intellectual trajectory as they are the source of the pioneering research program that would be known as economic analysis of law a few years later. We thus emphasize the continuity between Posner’s early work of the 1969-1973 period, mostly inspired by public choice theory, and his later work, and show that the former obviously paved the way for the latter. |
| Keywords: | R. A. Posner, economic analysis of law, public choice, judicial decision-making, regulation |
| JEL: | B31 K2 K4 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:afd:wpaper:2302&r=hpe |
| By: | Kouam, Henri; Mua, kingsley |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the theory of innovation in attaining economic sciences. It equally reviews economic literature and investigates creation from different economic models. It begins with analyzing views on classical economics, including Adam Smith and David Ricardo. This is followed by discussions on theory in innovation today, as handled in the knowledge-based economy. Analyzing the achievements in economic thought outlines that innovation's importance and relevance have grown over the last decade. |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Economics, Development, Theory, Economic Growth, |
| JEL: | B1 B12 B22 O3 O40 |
| Date: | 2023–03–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:119162&r=hpe |
| By: | Chassonnery-Zaïgouche, Cléo (University of Lausanne); Goutsmedt, Aurélien (UC Louvain - F.R.S-FNRS) |
| Abstract: | Elisabeth Popp Berman’s Thinking Like an Economist unfolds a captivating and detailed historical account of the rise of economics and economists’ influence within the US Administration during the 1960s and 1970s. This transformation played a pivotal role in reshaping American policy, Berman argues. At the core of her story is the concept of an “economic style of reasoning”, inspired by Ian Hacking’s (1994) work. Berman’s “economic style of reasoning” describes a distinct approach to policy problems, one anchored in microeconomic concepts (rather than macroeconomic ones) such as incentives, externalities, and efficiency. Crucially, the “economic style of reasoning” does not designate what some economists think, but rather, a set of ideas, related to economics but not completely overlapping with it, that are used in policy—not only by economists. Throughout 230 pages, Berman masterfully traces the progressive ascension of the economic style of reasoning within US administration, from its rise in the 1960s to its relative decline during the Reagan Presidency. “Efficiency” as a policy criterion gradually supplanted other foundational values that had long justified policy actions, values such as “rights, universalism, equity, and limiting corporate power” (4). These concepts were actually loosely used by the actors Berman is interested in. Berman posits that the dissemination of this style of reasoning exerted a profound influence by eroding the legitimacy of policy propositions rooted in alternative values, notably those championed by the left-wing of the Democratic party. One strength of the book is to show how the economic style of reasoning stuck and consolidated, even in the absence of economists, and how unusual suspects—center-left technocrats, favoring government intervention—were responsible for promoting a sense of ineluctability of its use. |
| Date: | 2023–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:bs9xd&r=hpe |
| By: | Graham White |
| Abstract: | The paper considers three aspects of Joan Robinson’s writings all of which have a link to concern for the treatment of time and history in economic analysis. The first aspect is Robinson’s view of the significance of the capital-theoretic critique of orthodoxy, a critique in which she played a significant role. The second aspect relates to her concerns about the use of equilibrium in economic analysis and particularly the concept of long-period equilibrium. The third aspect is Robinson’s view of the significance of Sraffa’s Production of Commodities, and particularly as part of the positive side of the critique of orthodoxy; in particular, its potential role in an alternative non-marginalist approach. As such, the discussion inevitably to turns to the tension between Robinson’s views and those of the Sraffian camp, noting however that the possibility of some common ground remains open. stabilization policy tool by influencing the velocity. |
| Keywords: | Capital; time; equilibrium; Robinson; Sraffa |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:syd:wpaper:2023-07&r=hpe |
| By: | Nina Banks |
| Abstract: | Economist Nina Banks reveals her own work and the work by Sadie T.M. Alexander, the first Black American to receive a doctorate in economics. |
| Keywords: | women in economics; Black women in economics |
| Date: | 2022–01–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:l00001:94067&r=hpe |
| By: | François Facchini (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | L'objet de cette note est de savoir si Hayek a soutenu la dictature chilienne et inspiré son action. La réponse donnée n'est pas originale. Elle se contente de reprendre les informations rassemblées sur les deux visites d'Hayek au Chili par les Pr. Bruce Caldwell et Leonidas Montes et publiées dans la Review of Austrian Economics de 2015. Ils montrent sur la base d'un travail d'archives qu'Hayek n'a ni soutenu la dictature chilienne ni inspiré l'écriture de la constitution chilienne et en particulier ses articles les plus liberticides. Hayek a bien rencontré en 1977 le général Pinochet durant vingt minutes, il a bien réuni la société du Mont Pèlerin en 1981 au Chili à Viña del Mar, mais il n'est pas l'inspirateur des choix de politiques publiques du dictateur. La thèse d'un idéal libéral autoritaire véhiculée par de nombreux sociologues et politistes est en ce sens un contresens. |
| Keywords: | Hayek, Chili, Pinochet, Néolibéralisme, démocratie, dictature, constitution |
| Date: | 2023–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04261553&r=hpe |
| By: | Sebastian Edwards |
| Abstract: | In this essay, I analyze Salvador Allende’s economic policies in Chile during the early 1970s. I argue that the explosion of inflation during his administration (above 1, 500% on a six-month annualized measure) was predictable, and that the government’s response to it, through massive and strict price controls, generated acute macroeconomic imbalances. I postulate that the combination of runaway inflation, shortages, and black markets generated major disaffection among the middle class and that that unhappiness reduced the support for the Unidad Popular government. |
| JEL: | E31 E40 E52 F38 F42 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31890&r=hpe |
| By: | Trautwein, Hans-Michael (Department of Economics, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg) |
| Abstract: | The European Central Bank’s activities as lender of last resort are especially controversial in Germany. The overriding concern of the critics is an alleged tendency of creating moral hazard on the side of public and private borrowers in the European Monetary Union. This contrasts with the predominant views among German economists in the classical gold standard era, when the newly founded German empire merged the many currency areas in its realm into monetary union. Prominent experts and policy advisors, such as Erwin Nasse, Adolph Wagner and Friedrich Bendixen, argued that in view of the costs of system failures moral hazard ought not to be a predominant consideration at times of crisis. In critical assessments of the Currency vs. Banking debates in England, German commentators questioned the credibility and sustainability of strict rules for monetary policy in banking crises. Some even developed evolutionary views, in which monetary integration is driven by financial markets and lending of last resort becomes a constitutive characteristic of central banking, in particular in the formation of a monetary union. This paper compares the older German views about lending of last resort in monetary unions with the current discourse and explores possible explanations for the differences. |
| Keywords: | monetary union; banking crises; lending of last resort; gold standard |
| JEL: | B15 E58 F45 G01 |
| Date: | 2022–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:uuehwp:2022_001&r=hpe |
| By: | Goutsmedt, Aurélien (UC Louvain - F.R.S-FNRS); Sergi, Francesco; Cherrier, Beatrice; Claveau, François; Fontan, Clément; Acosta, Juan |
| Abstract: | Why do policymakers and economists within a policymaking institution choose to throw away a model and to develop an alternative one? Why do they choose to stick to an existing model? This article contributes to the literature on the history and philosophy of modelling by answering these questions. It delves into the dynamics of persistence, change, and building practices of macroeconomic modelling, using the case of forecasting models at the Bank of England (1974-2014). Based on archives and interviews, we document the multiple factors at play in model building and model change. We identify three sets of factors: the agency of modellers, institutional factors, and the material factor. Our investigation shows the diversity of explanations behind the decision to change a model: each time, model replacement resulted from a different combination of the three types of factors. |
| Date: | 2023–11–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:m2cet&r=hpe |
| By: | Ferreira, Francisco H. G. |
| Abstract: | Thirty years after the “Washington Consensus”, is there a new policy consensus that addresses the problem of inequality? This paper argues that there is widespread acceptance that multiple, interrelated and mutually reinforcing inequalities exist – in income, wealth, education, health, power, and recognition – and that these inequalities are generally “too high”. There has also been a significant shift towards a shared view that these inequalities matter, both intrinsically and because of their instrumental effects on economic efficiency and political institutions. There is much less consensus, perhaps surprisingly, on what the actual levels of income inequality are, and there are common misperceptions about their trends. In policy terms, there is something approaching a consensus regarding the desirability of various “pre-distribution” policies, ranging from early childhood development to investment in better teaching. In certain quarters, there is also agreement that sharper antitrust regulation, freer labor unions, and more progressive taxation is needed in most countries. But much less is known about how to provide the poor with genuine opportunities to break the cycle of intergenerational transmission of disadvantage in a durable way. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper) |
| Date: | 2023–11–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:cyw3d&r=hpe |