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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Cantoni, Davide; Yuchtman, Noam |
| Abstract: | In 2024, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson (AJR) received the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. These three scholars were recognized “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.” This paper reviews the contributions of these three scholars to our understanding of the institutional causes of historical and contemporary economic development. We place their work in the context of the intellectual history of the fields of economics and economic history: these authors pioneered the quantitative analysis of historical natural experiments to identify the causal effects of political institutions. We then discuss a less widely discussed contribution of their work: the identification of historically contingent causal effects. Historical contingency, we argue, is at the heart of AJR’s conceptual and empirical insights. These insights clarify transformative processes in historical development, including: (i) European colonialism; (ii) the Atlantic Trade; and, (iii) the French Revolution. More generally, they have implications for how we think about the path-dependence of political institutions and economic development: history has a long shadow, but that shadow shifts over time. |
| Keywords: | political institutions; economic development; natural experiments; historical contingency; critical junctures; Nobel Prize |
| JEL: | N00 B00 P00 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:127989 |
| By: | Brandão, Tiago |
| Abstract: | This paper offers a critical historical analysis of the intellectual and institutional precursors to the open innovation paradigm. Challenging the perception of open innovation as a radical departure from earlier models, the paper demonstrates that many of its core principles—such as external collaboration, absorptive capacity, and distributed knowledge flows—have deep roots in 20th-century innovation practices and theories. Through an extensive review of foundational literature in innovation studies, strategic management, and organizational learning, this extended paper traces how ideas of inter-firm cooperation, technological brokering, and institutional embeddedness shaped current open innovation frameworks. Emphasis is placed on the path-dependent nature of absorptive capacity, the strategic management of complementary assets, and the evolution of innovation networks. By revisiting contributions from Mowery, Teece, Cohen and Levinthal, March, Hagedoorn, Powell, and others, the study repositions open innovation within a broader intellectual trajectory, offering a more nuanced understanding of its origins and limitations. |
| Date: | 2025–08–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:2nbs3_v1 |
| By: | Xavier Ragot (OFCE - Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po, ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | Cet article discute du retour des États dans la reconfiguration des sociétés contemporaines, marqué par la réapparition des frontières et une militarisation accrue. L'article souligne que les sciences sociales peinent encore à comprendre cette nouvelle évolution du lien entre État et économie, marquant la fin de la deuxième mondialisation. L'objectif est de proposer une conception de l'État comme acteur stratégique dans la recomposition des capitalismes, en insistant sur la tendance à l'étatisation de l'économie et la promotion de principes moraux. Il est noté que cette tendance est hétérogène entre les pays, reflétant une diversité des capitalismes. L'État est vu comme un intégrateur de valeurs hétérogènes et un lieu de conflits des principes de justice. Enfin, le texte discute du rôle de l'État dans la théorie de la régulation et de l'importance de repenser ce rôle pour favoriser le progrès social, en particulier dans le contexte de la construction européenne. |
| Keywords: | État, capitalisme, morale |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05167837 |
| By: | Mark A. Carlson |
| Abstract: | There was a banking panic in New Mexico in early 1924 when about one-fourth of the banks in the state closed temporarily or permanently amid widespread runs. The Federal Reserve used both high profile and behind the scenes operations to calm the panic. This paper provides a history of this episode and explores how conspicuous and inconspicuous aspects of the Federal Reserve’s response interacted to bolster confidence in the banking system. |
| Keywords: | Banking Panic; New Mexico; Federal Reserve; Lender of Last Resort |
| JEL: | G01 N21 |
| Date: | 2025–08–13 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2025-64 |
| By: | Alberto Baccini; Lucio Barabesi; Carlo Debernardi |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of the global financial crisis on the shape of economics as a discipline by analyzing EconLit-indexed journals from 2006 to 2020 using a multilayer network approach. We consider two types of social relationships among journals, based on shared editors (interlocking editorship) and shared authors (interlocking authorship), as well as two forms of intellectual proximity, derived from bibliographic coupling and textual similarity. These four dimensions are integrated using Similarity Network Fusion to produce a unified similarity network from which journal communities are identified. Comparing the field in 2006, 2012, and 2019 reveals a high degree of structural continuity. Our findings suggest that, despite changes in research topics after the crisis, fundamental social and intellectual relationships among journals have remained remarkably stable. Editorial networks, in particular, continue to shape hierarchies and legitimize knowledge production. |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2508.09079 |
| By: | Clair, Matthew (University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews cultural sociological approaches to the study of law and how they may be applied to future research on law-related social crises. As the world faces myriad social crises, such as rising authoritarianism and police violence, the study of culture and the law has become an even more urgent intellectual and practical endeavor. Over the last decade, five concepts have dominated the cultural study of law: rules, norms, frames, cultural capital, and legal consciousness. While past research has provided generative insight, future research would benefit from more precise considerations of rules and norms in this unsettled moment. Moreover, future research could leverage the five cultural concepts to sharpen understandings of inequality and social control in understudied legal organizations, along understudied axes of social stratification, and with respect to the infusion of new technologies into the legal system. |
| Date: | 2025–07–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:vd3a6_v1 |