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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Pattit, Jason M.; Pattit, Katherina G.; Spender, J-C |
| Abstract: | When Edith T. Penrose became Fritz Machlup’s student in the late-1940s, she found little in mainstream or Austrian economics to guide her as she began her explorations into the growth of the firm. While she acknowledged Kenneth Boulding’s influence on her work, we suspect she drew on a broader tradition that includes, among others, Alfred Marshall, Frank Knight (Boulding’s teacher), and Ronald Coase. We seek to demonstrate Penrose’s connection to this ‘invisible college’, particularly to Knight, and its influence on her investigation of the growth of the firm. Given mainstream economists’ pursuit of rigor at the expense of practical relevance and their continuing inattention to Coase’s work, we suggest Penrose’s work on the growth of the firm can be understood as part of a broader tradition represented by this ‘invisible college’, lending to useful new insights for business strategy and business ethics scholarship. |
| Keywords: | Edith T. Penrose, Frank Knight, Theory of the Firm, Management History |
| JEL: | B31 M0 N8 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:121229&r= |
| By: | Felicia Odamtten |
| Abstract: | To inspire the next generation of black economists, how important is it for them to see people like themselves working in the profession? Felicia Odamtten, an economist at the Resolution Foundation and founder of The Black Economists Network, outlines her experiences. |
| Keywords: | equality, gender, Employment, Social mobility |
| Date: | 2024–06–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cep:cepcnp:683&r= |
| By: | Mohammadhosein Bahmanpour-Khalesi (Imam Sadiq University); Mohammadjavad Sharifzadeh (Imam Sadiq University) |
| Abstract: | Nowadays, it is thought that there are only two approaches to political economy: public finance and public choice; however, this research aims to introduce a new insight by investigating scholastic sources. We study the relevant classic books from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries and reevaluate the scholastic literature based on public finance and public choice doctrines. The findings confirm that the government is the institution for realizing the common good according to a scholastic attitude. Therefore, scholastic thinkers saw a typical government mission based on their essentialist attitude toward human happiness. Social conflicts and lack of social consent are the product of diversification in ends and desires; hence, if the ends of humans were unified, there would be no conflict of interest. Accordingly, if the government acts according to its assigned mission, the lack of public consent is not significant. Based on the scholastic point of view, this study introduces the third approach to political economy, which can be considered an analytical synthesis of classical doctrines. |
| Keywords: | Scholastic Economics, Essentialism, Political Economy, Public Finance, Public Choice, Arrow's impossibility |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04614845&r= |
| By: | Mervyn A. King |
| Abstract: | Inflation targets were introduced well ahead of the development of the theory of inflation targeting. The practice was successful because it comprised a new set of procedures and institutions for setting monetary policy in a transparent and accountable fashion – “constrained discretion”; the later theory was less useful because it purported to be a theory of the determination of the price level. But inflation targeting does not constitute a new theory of the monetary transmission mechanism. The belief that it does led to the replacement of Milton Friedman’s dictum that “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon” by the new dictum that “inflation is always and everywhere a transitory phenomenon”. This had unfortunate consequences during the recent inflation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges facing inflation targets in the future. |
| JEL: | E42 E43 |
| Date: | 2024–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32594&r= |