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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Ivan Prates Sternick (Cedeplar/UFMG e PHARE/Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | This article reconsiders the status of the so-called four stages theory in Smith’s work, and its relationship with the historical accounts of the Lectures on Jurisprudence and Book III of the Wealth of Nations (WN). The article discusses some recent contributions to the literature, which claim that the stadial theory is either a kind of fictitious economic model or a counterfactual thought experiment completely divorced from historical experience. These interpretations usually conflate the stadial theory and what Smith presents as the “natural progress of opulence†in book III of WN, and accordingly imply there is a separation between a priori theory (economic model) and empirical history in Smith’s work. We will argue that, though the FST is indeed presented as a thought experiment, the progression depicted in it from shepperding to agrarian and then to commercial societies, in Smith’s vision, was actually followed by Antient Greece and Modern Europe. And that, therefore, it should not be conflated with the model of the “natural progress of opulence†, but rather that they fulfill different analytical roles in Smith’s work. |
| Keywords: | Adam Smith; Four Stages Theory; Philosophical History; Conjectural History |
| JEL: | B10 B11 B12 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdp:texdis:td675 |
| By: | Keita, Moussa |
| Abstract: | Since the 17th century, the question of the economic valuation of time (in particular the working time) has been at the center of debates among economists, from classicists to neoclassicists, Marxists to contemporary schools of thought. Today, with the advent of the digital age, characterized by the pronounced robotization and digitalization of common uses in society, the question of the economic value of time remains more relevant than ever. By supporting it with the new consumer theory, this article attempts to contribute to economic theory by providing new insights of the foundations of the economic value of time. To this end, we propose a mathematical formalization in which economic time results from the combination of physical time and the mobilization of a set of physico-cognitive resources that can be assimilated to effort. |
| Keywords: | Allocation du temps, effort, pénibilité |
| JEL: | D01 D11 D13 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:121886 |
| By: | Bezencry, Gabriel F.; Jensen, Nicholas; Smith, Daniel J. |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the writings of socialist scholars who played a pivotal role in shaping Hayek’s perspective in TRTS, including William Beveridge, Stuart Chase, Henry Dickinson, Hugh Dalton, Evan Durbin, Oskar Lange, Harold Laski, Abba Lerner, Barbara Wootton, and the contributing authors in Findlay Mackenzie’s Planned Society (1937). Many of these socialist thinkers held two main hypotheses. First, industrial concentration was inevitable under capitalism. Second, they argued that government ownership or control of key economic sectors was necessary to protect democracy from industrial consolidation in the capitalist system and to reduce political opposition to complete state ownership or control over the means of production. Despite sharing Hayek’s concern for socialism’s potential erosion of democratic freedoms, these socialist hypotheses have received much less scholarly attention than Hayek’s TRTS. We conclude that Hayek formalized socialist scholars’ fears and developed a well-defined hypothesis that central planning could threaten democratic freedoms. |
| Date: | 2024–08–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:vad37 |
| By: | Mink, Reimund |
| Abstract: | Am 4. September 2024 vollendet Professor Dr. Helmut Schlesinger sein 100. Lebensjahr. Von 1991 bis 1993 bekleidete er das Amt des Präsidenten der Deutschen Bundesbank. Zuvor war er in verschiedenen Positionen für die Bank tätig, unter anderem als langjähriger Vizepräsident (von 1980 bis 1991) sowie als Leiter der Hauptabteilung Volkswirtschaft und Statistik. Das bevorstehende Jubiläum bietet Anlass, das Lebenswerk des Jubilars zu beschreiben und zu würdigen. Für uns ehemalige Mitarbeiter war Helmut Schlesinger ein großes Vorbild und eine Quelle des Ansporns in vielerlei Hinsicht. Insbesondere vier Bereiche seiner Tätigkeiten haben unsere eigene Arbeit maßgeblich geprägt: Erstens seine Fähigkeit, ökonomisches Denken als eine Synthese aus Analyse und Statistik zu begreifen, zu vermitteln und zu organisieren, zweitens sein Verdienst, eine Stabilitätskultur in leitenden Positionen mitgeschaffen und bewahrt zu haben, drittens sein ordnungspolitisches Credo zur Preisstabilität und zur Unabhängigkeit der Zentralbank sowie viertens seine klaren Vorstellungen zu den Bedingungen einer erfolgreichen Europäischen Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion. Im Folgenden soll ein Überblick über die vier Schwerpunkte seiner Schaffensbilanz gegeben werden. In diesem Kontext ist insbesondere Schlesingers entscheidende Rolle bei der Schaffung der deutsch-deutschen Währungsunion 1990 sowie beim langjährigen Entstehungsprozess des Eurosystems und der Europäischen Zentralbank hervorzuheben. In der deutschen Bevölkerung, aber auch international hoch geachtet, wurde Helmut Schlesinger oft als die "Seele der Bundesbank" bezeichnet. Die Anforderungen, die er an jeden Einzelnen stellte, waren hoch. Er wurde von den Mitarbeitern sehr geschätzt, nicht zuletzt aufgrund seines großen Arbeitsethos und seiner unermüdlichen Schaffenskraft, die von Beständigkeit, Gradlinigkeit und Prinzipientreue geprägt waren. |
| Abstract: | Professor Dr. Helmut Schlesinger will be 100 years old on 4 September 2024. He was President of the Deutsche Bundesbank from 1991 to 1993 and held various positions at the bank before that, including long-serving Vice President (from 1980 to 1991) and Head of the Economics and Statistics Department. The forthcoming anniversary is an occasion to describe and pay tribute to his life's work. For us former employees, Helmut Schlesinger was a great role model and source of motivation in many respects. We were particularly impressed by four areas of his work: his ability to understand, communicate and organize economic thinking as a synthesis of analysis and statistics, his contribution to creating and maintaining a culture of stability in central positions, his regulatory credo on price stability and central bank independence, and his clear ideas on the conditions for a successful European Economic and Monetary Union. This article will address these four main areas of his work. Schlesinger played a pivotal role in the creation of the German-German monetary union in 1990 and in the long process of establishing the Eurosystem and the European Central Bank. Helmut Schlesinger was highly respected by the German population and internationally. He was often referred to as the "soul of the Bundesbank." He demanded a lot from everyone. He was held in high esteem by us employees because of his great work ethic and his tireless creativity, which was characterized by consistency, straightforwardness, and adherence to principles. |
| Keywords: | Zentralbanken, Bundesbank, Notenbankpolitik, Preisstabilität, Finanzmärkte und Finanzinstitute |
| JEL: | E58 N2 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:imfswp:302548 |
| By: | Poitras, Geoffrey |
| Abstract: | The origin of modern financial economics can be traced to early discounted expected value solutions for the price of life annuities. In contrast to the single life annuity valuations attributed to de Witt and Halley, the computational complexity of joint life annuity valuation posed difficulties. Following a brief review of various joint life annuity specifications, a history of joint life annuity issuance and valuation in northern Europe from the 13th to the mid-18th century is provided. With this background, the 1671 correspondence from de Witt to Hudde on possible methods for valuing joint life annuities is detailed. These methods are contrasted with the geometric method described in Halley (1693); providing impetus for examination of the analytical approximations developed by de Moivre and Simpson. |
| Date: | 2024–08–29 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ak6gu |
| By: | Ignacio Andrés Rossi (UNGS/CIC-PBA) |
| Abstract: | El trabajo sistematiza y analiza el pensamiento económico de Jorge Schvarzer (1938-2008) en torno al proceso económico argentino entre 1975-1983, particularmente poniendo el foco en la disrupción del Plan económico de Alfredo Martínez de Hoz (1976-1981). El colapso político y económico del tercer peronismo a partir de 1975 y las transformaciones operadas por la dictadura de 1976 se diferenciaron de otros procesos críticos de la historia argentina por factores como el peso de la violencia política, la violación sistemática a los derechos humanos y los cambios estructurales en la economía. Actualmente, existen vigentes debates en torno a la interpretación de ese pasado, puntualmente en torno al peso que tuvieron las reformas emprendidas en la economía para explicar dificultades que, incluso, llegan hasta la actualidad. Según sostenemos, Schvarzer fue uno de los primeros en dilucidar que, motorizada por una relegitimación de las ideas neoliberales vinculadas a procesos coyunturales de crisis capitalistamundial y nacional, la política económica de Martínez de Hoz avanzó en reformas con el fin alterar las relaciones de fuerza en vísperas de una transformación integral del Estado y la economía. En este marco y con un perfil exploratorio, analizamos la producción de Schvarzer en medios de diferente naturaleza entre los años setenta y ochenta atendiendo a sus interpretaciones sobre la evolución de la política económica en el periodo. |
| Keywords: | dictadura, reforma financiera, deuda externa, inflación, Argentina. |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aoz:wpaper:335 |
| By: | Iosif Anca (Aurel Vlaicu University of Arad, Romania) |
| Abstract: | Recognizing the vulnerabilities of debtors, C. H. Spurgeon, through his rich imagination, wanted to offer a model of good practice that rejects any lending that is not fully covered by the borrower's financial possibilities or material assets. In doing so, he sought to draw attention to the risks that those who resort to such practices run and the inappropriateness of excuses for those who can no longer pay the debts they have incurred. Spurgeon argues that financial ignorance and immaturity cost enormously when one resorts to borrowing. On the other hand, this paper will investigate Spurgeon's openness to forms of borrowing that do not involve any further cost except gratitude or thanksgiving. The analysis will focus on how he approached God's grace given to humanity, but also on His great work in creation or in our fellow man, in which he considered that we find an inexhaustible source of resources that one can borrow without fear of having something to lose. |
| Keywords: | Spurgeon, loans, creditors, refunds |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smo:raiswp:0411 |
| By: | Anna Becker (Stockholm University); Steffen Huck (University College London and WZB Berlin) |
| Abstract: | We study the relationship between moral values (“ought” statements) and factual beliefs (“is” statements). We show that thinking about values affects the beliefs people hold. This effect is mediated by prior political leanings, thereby contributing to the polarization of factual beliefs. We document these findings in a pre-registered online experiment with a nationally representative sample of over 1, 800 individuals in the US. We also show that participants do not distort their beliefs in response to financial incentives to do so, suggesting that deep values exert a stronger motivational force than financial incentives. |
| Keywords: | motivated beliefs; values; polarization; experiment; reasoning; |
| JEL: | C90 D72 D74 D83 P16 |
| Date: | 2024–09–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:510 |
| By: | Chavis, Larry (Institute for American Indian Arts); Wheeler, Laurel (University of Alberta, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the effort to build a more inclusive discipline by offering lessons and teaching strategies derived from the Indigenous peoples of North America. Our proposed relational approach to teaching provides a framework that accommodates many practices already gaining traction in economics. Drawing on the literature on inclusive teaching practices as well as personal narratives from the classroom, we propose a set of principles of Indigenous-influenced economics courses, and we talk about how to translate those principles into applied teaching strategies. We believe borrowing from Indigenous pedagogies can build belonging and community in our classrooms, thereby contributing to a discipline that is more welcoming of a broader range of students. |
| Keywords: | teaching economics; Indigenous; Native American; First Nations; diversity; inclusion |
| JEL: | A20 |
| Date: | 2024–09–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:albaec:2024_005 |