|
on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Ivan Boldyrev |
| Abstract: | What are the effects of authoritarian regimes on scholarly research in economics? And how might economic theory survive ideological pressures? The article addresses these questions by focusing on the mathematization of economics over the past century and drawing on the history of Soviet science. Mathematics in the USSR remained internationally competitive and generated many ideas that were taken up and played important roles in economic theory. These same ideas, however, were disregarded or adopted only in piecemeal fashion by Soviet economists, despite the efforts of influential scholars to change the economic research agenda. The article draws this contrast into sharper focus by exploring the work of Soviet mathematicians in optimization, game theory, and probability theory that was used in Western economics. While the intellectual exchange across the Iron Curtain did help advance the formal modeling apparatus, economics could only thrive in an intellectually open environment absent under the Soviet rule. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2407.14315 |
| By: | Heise, Arne |
| Abstract: | Controversy is vital in the pursuit of knowledge. Constructive dispute can drive intellectual growth and deepen understanding within a field. However, mutual respect, thorough engagement, and intellectual humility are necessary for productive exchanges. In this vein, I clarify in my response to Tom Palley's critique of my article that I did not argue against his claim regarding social conflict in Keynesian economics. However, I questioned whether social conflict is the sole ontological fault line, as Palley suggests. Additionally, I highlighted the distinction between Keynes' economics and Keynesian economics, challenging Palley's lumping them together as part of a liberal project. In conclusion, Palley's assertions regarding the absence of social conflict in Keynesian economics and its implications for economic laws lack foundation. |
| Keywords: | Keynes, social conflict, paradigm shift |
| JEL: | A14 B40 B51 E11 E12 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:300689 |
| By: | Allen, Amy; Apostolidis, Paul; Azmanova, Albena; Ypi, Lea |
| Abstract: | In a discussion of Albena Azmanova’s book Capitalism on Edge (Columbia University Press, 2020), Amy Allen, Paul Apostolidis, Lea Ypi and Albena Azmanova debate key issues critical social theory confronts today. How should critical theorists re-engage with the critique of capitalism without entrapment in old ideological certainties? They revisit the classical debates about transformative agency, direction and methods of change, and the place of normative ideals and of moral theory in the critique of capitalism in light of the current historical juncture. |
| Keywords: | capitalism; crisis; critical theory; revolution; utopia |
| JEL: | P10 |
| Date: | 2023–01–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:118154 |
| By: | Heise, Arne |
| Abstract: | The push to pluralise the economic discipline involves making informed decisions about which paradigm to adopt, requiring a deep understanding of each paradigm's characteristics and affiliations. Once paradigmatic choices are made, different theories can either collaborate effectively or require clear discrimination if they belong to distinct paradigms. Therefore, economic theories and models need to be compared with respect to their paradigmatic localisation. Based on a hermeneutic comparison, the common assessment that the champions of Post Keynesian economics - John Maynard Keynes, Michal Kalecki and Hyman P. Minsky's share a unified Post Keynesian paradigm must be questioned. Kalecki's economics, with its closed system perspective, differs fundamentally from Keynes's open system approach. This distinction suggests that Kalecki's work is not merely a variant of Keynes's monetary production paradigm but could align more closely with new-Keynesian imperfect competition models based on the traditional real-exchange paradigm. Minsky's dynamic approach, however, shares Keynes's open system ontology, making them compatible. This analysis suggests that the term 'Post Keynesianism' might inaccurately imply a coherence that does not exist. |
| Keywords: | Keynes's economics, Kalecki's economics, Minsky's economics, paradigms, comparison |
| JEL: | B40 B59 E12 P59 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:300692 |
| By: | Kolev, Stefan |
| Abstract: | This paper pursues two goals. First, to reflect on how historical Ordnungsökonomik (Economics of Order) illuminates the politico-economic crises in today's Western democracies via the increasing parallels to the fragilities and fractures of the 1930s. Second, based on these historical inspirations, to come closer to a modern Ordnungsökonomik targeted specifically at today's crises. The three-step approach consists of an anamnesis ("crisis burger"), a diagnosis ("anxiety from over-dynamics"), and a therapy ("fixed points towards order security"). The paper revisits the role of liberal political economists as order guardians amid what the paper calls superfragility, a context in which citizens radically lose trust and unsubscribe from the order, making the trust-enhancing role of liberal political economists existential for the order. |
| JEL: | A11 B25 B41 H11 P16 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:lefpes:301002 |
| By: | Ariza Ruiz, Efrén Danilo; Garza, Nestor |
| Abstract: | We document and analyze the emergence and consolidation of neoliberalism in higher education in economics in Colombia. The research focuses on four interrelated categories through which the neoliberal ideology changed the scientific field of economics by replacing endogenously developed analytical traditions during the 1980s -1990s: 1) homogenization of curricula; 2) neoclassical mathematization; 3) use of textbooks; and 4) quantitative assessment (scientometrics) of academic quality. The results show how a generation of economists combined their networks of social capital and legitimacy from international academic connections, to simultaneously impose their worldview in academia, the public administration, and private sector. Our analyses highlight the transfer of the neoliberal values to the education field through the concepts of quality assessment and scientometrics, which institutionalized the exercise of power to discipline intellectual inquiries and scholarship. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education, Economists, Research Policy, Cultural Capital, Sociological Studies, Neoclassical Economics |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:300688 |
| By: | Ariza Ruiz, Efrén Danilo; Garza, Nestor |
| Abstract: | We use process tracing to test the hypothesis of a specific strategy in the process of discussing and enacting a policy agenda. Our case study is Colombia, where the trace of events and milestones allow us to detect the strategy followed in implementing neoliberal reforms during the 1980s-2000s. The analysis is performed by compiling and offering in a directly comparable setting, the individual professional trajectories and scholarly viewpoints of a set of 61 key economists. The analysis reveals a process of revolving doors between academia, think tanks and government, where the key individuals rotated between different institutions, using their networks of social capital to access the highest level of policy making. The key individuals are mostly extracted from Colombian elites, obtained under and postgraduate degrees in international universities, mostly in the USA, and appealed to academic credentialism in legitimizing their ideological positions. However, the process tracing of their scholarly output shows that it was not very high and mostly published in domestic journals, endogenous to the institutions where they worked. It also shows the scholarly viewpoint of every individual regarding two features of policy making: their preferred degree of market freedom and of government regulation. |
| Keywords: | Economists, Neoliberalism, Process Tracing, Think Tanks, Scholarly Trace |
| JEL: | A11 A14 B24 B53 N01 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:300691 |
| By: | Rödel, Bodo |
| Abstract: | Das Peer-Review-Verfahren ist ein in der Wissenschaft anerkanntes, wenn auch nicht unumstrittenes Qualitätssicherungsverfahren. Die Publikation resümiert zunächst Forschungsergebnisse zum Verfahren, um dann genauer auf das Thema Peer Review in der Berufsbildungsforschung einzugehen. Schließlich werden Ergebnisse einer Untersuchung dargestellt. Diese adressierte Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler der Berufsbildungsforschung aus drei Perspektiven: als Lesende wissenschaftlicher Fachpublikationen, als Autorinnen und Autoren von Fachpublikationen und als Gutachterinnen und Gutachter im Peer-Review-Verfahren. |
| Keywords: | Peer Review, Berufsbildungsforschung, Qualitätssicherung |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bibbfb:300904 |
| By: | Dominique Desbois (UMR PSAE - Paris-Saclay Applied Economics - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement) |
| Abstract: | Daniel Kahneman, a researcher in cognitive psychology and professor at Princeton University, has highlighted cognitive biases in human behaviour, in particular aversion to the risk of loss, renewing our understanding of the psychological foundations of economics. |
| Keywords: | Behavioral Economics, Cogintive Psychology, United=States, Israel |
| Date: | 2024–06–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04620674 |