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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Davis, John B. (Department of Economics Marquette University; Department of Economics Marquette University) |
| Abstract: | This chapter discusses how philosophy could influence economists in the future. It emphasizes factors affecting economists’ willingness to incorporate philosophical ideas in economics, and distinguishes a weak case and a strong case for them doing so. Both are tied to behavioral welfare economics’ ‘reconciliation problem’ regarding the relationship between positive and normative economics. The weak case concerns the nature of individual identity in connection with how present bias and weakness of will potentially pit today’s and tomorrow’s selves against one another. The strong case concerns the normative scope of economic policy and expanding policy recommendation beyond its current welfare-only basis. The weak case imposes adjustment on positive economics; the strong case imposes it on normative economics. The paper closes with brief comments on how historically different sciences and fields draw on one another over time. |
| Keywords: | economics, philosophy, reconciliation problem, present bias, individual identity, justice, Rawls, institutions, interdisciplinarity |
| JEL: | A12 A33 B41 D03 |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mrq:wpaper:2024-04 |
| By: | Mathias Dewatripont (ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles); Jean Tirole (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - 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) |
| Abstract: | Scholars and civil society have argued that competition erodes supplier morality. This paper establishes a robust irrelevance result, whereby intense market competition does not crowd out consequentialist ethics; it thereby issues a strong warning against the wholesale moral condemnation of markets and procompetitive institutions. Intense competition, while not altering the behavior of profitable suppliers, may, however, reduce the standards of highly ethical suppliers or not-for-profits, raising the potential need to protect the latter in the marketplace. |
| Keywords: | Competition, Consequentialism, Replacement logic, Non-profits, Corporate social responsability, Race to the ethical bottom |
| Date: | 2024–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04695298 |
| By: | W. Benedikt Schmal |
| Abstract: | I explore the concept of growth being rooted in the recombination of existing technology as an explanation for the remarkable growth witnessed during the Industrial Revolution as it was recently proposed by Koppl et al.(2023). I adapt their combinatorial growth theory to assess its applicability in generating academic knowledge within universities and research institutions, particularly in the field of economics. The central question is whether significant combinatorial growth can also be anticipated in academia. The current career structures discourage the recombination of ideas, theories, or methods, making it more advantageous for early career researchers to stick to the status quo. I employ machine-learning-based natural language analysis of the top 5 journals in economics. The analysis reveals limited correlations between topics over the past three decades, suggesting the presence of isolated topic islands rather than productive recombination. This confirms the theoretical considerations beforehand. Overall, the institutional order of academia makes combinatorial growth at the research frontier unlikely. |
| Date: | 2024–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2409.20282 |
| By: | Viktor Zinchenko (Institute of Higher Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv-city, Ukraine); Mykhailo Boichenko (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) |
| Abstract: | Ecological approach gives new meaning to the original concept of economic rationality that was created by representatives of the Ukrainian school of physical economy – Serhii Podolinskyi (1850-1891), Volodymyr Vernadskyi (1863-1945) and Mykola Rudenko (1920-2004). It propose a theory of the sustainable development of mankind, which included an original version of thermodynamics, in which labor energy is the result of the transformation of solar energy. Humanity is gradually taking control of the changes in the balance of energy exchange between humanity and the rest of nature, and physical economics is a tool for discovering the limits of such control. The cycles of global energy transformation include cosmic, biological, social and spiritual stages, and the economy acts as the material basis and the place of concentration of these transformations. The threat of technogenic self-destruction of humanity actualizes the need to establish a dynamic and harmonious self-reproduction by humanity of these cycles. |
| Keywords: | Ukrainian philosophy of physical economy, Ecological approach, Global energy transformation, Energy balance in the economy, Economic rationality |
| Date: | 2024–09–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04698733 |
| By: | Brian D. Varian |
| Abstract: | Economic historians have identified Victoria's McCulloch Tariff of 1866 as the genesis of Australian protection of manufacturing—a trade-policy regime that was to persist until the latetwentieth century. The McCulloch Tariff imposed 10 per cent duties on a range of manufactured imports; this range was further extended by the closely following Customs Act of 1867. Victoria's pathbreaking protectionist legislation of 1866–7 has, until now, escaped any direct cliometric assessment of its consequences. This paper relies on what little industryspecific data are available for Victoria in this period: annual data on the number of manufactories in operation in the years preceding and following the policy change. Following a difference-in-differences approach, this study finds no statistically significant association between the imposition of the 10 per cent duties and the number of manufactories. This finding is irrespective of changes in the regression sample, definition of an untreated industry, and estimation method used. The McCulloch Tariff is better remembered for the trajectory on which it placed Victorian economic policy. |
| Keywords: | Australia, manufacturing, protectionism, tariffs, trade policy, Victoria |
| JEL: | F13 N67 N77 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:auu:hpaper:124 |
| By: | Andreas Gerster; Raphael Epperson |
| Date: | 2024–08–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bjn:evalua:2k4ycf19 |
| By: | Marie Claire Villeval (GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - EM - EMLyon Business School - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | This review explores the social determinants of unethical behavior through a review of the recent experimental literature. It examines how decision-making environments, encompassing institutional frameworks, organizational structures, incentive schemes, peer influences, and social norms, affect unethical behaviors such as lying, corruption, tax evasion, or asset destruction. Key areas include the cultural roots of unethical behavior, the influence of markets and organizational cultures on moral values, the impact of competitive and cooperative incentive schemes, and the role of peer effects and social norms, social image and guilt. By analyzing the interaction between social determinants and individual behavior, the chapter highlights the complex dynamics that lead to unethical actions and suggests ways to harness these determinants to foster ethical conduct. The chapter concludes on interventions aimed at promoting ethical behavior, such as moral appeals and norm nudges. |
| Keywords: | Unethical behavior, dishonesty, moral values, social norms, experiments |
| Date: | 2024–07–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04706356 |
| By: | Orhan, Mehmet A. (EM Normandie Business School); van Rossenberg, Yvonne; Bal, P. Matthijs |
| Abstract: | Ideally, the academic publication process should be meritocratic, fair, and open to diverse groups of researchers. Yet, many scholarly disciplines are far from this ideal. To investigate the extent and nature of overrepresentation in management and organizational research, we examined 60-year publication trends in three closely related subfields: Management (MNGT), Human Resource Management (HRM), and Industrial-Organizational Psychology (IOP). Analyzing over 60, 000 publications from 42 top-tier journals, our study reveals an increasing trend in authorship inequalities and a growing dominance of the scientific elite. Individual-level analyses, along with journal and field-level comparisons, show that a select group of researchers has become more influential over time, leading to rising disparities in authorship. Field-level comparisons also show that the most productive IOP researchers publish significantly more articles than those in other fields. Besides rising numbers of publications, the super-elite of IOP are found to dominate more journals, as evidenced by a higher frequency of the same authors appearing on the top-10 most productive list in IOP than in the other two fields. Through network analyses, we revealed that IOP consistently shows a large giant component, indicating that a large portion of IOP authors is part of the “same connected network, ” reflecting a highly collaborative field where even smaller groups are connected to the broader network. We recommend future advancements in theory, practice, and policy to address these inequalities and promote a more inclusive and equitable research environment. |
| Date: | 2024–10–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:tzx92 |