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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Michael D. Bordo |
| Abstract: | On the fiftieth anniversary of Milton Friedman receiving the Nobel Prize in economics, I reflect on the legacy of monetarism – his revolutionary idea. Friedman developed the modern quantity of money in 1956 as a challenge to the prevailing Keynesian view that “money did not matter.” Friedman’s empirical and historical research made a strong case that changes in the money supply, largely instituted by the monetary authorities, account for much of the macro instability in the twentieth century including the Great Recession 1929-1933 and the Great Inflation 1965 -1982. Friedman’s ideas were at the base of the creation of modern macroeconomics, and of the adoption by many central banks of rules based monetary policy as a guidepost to maintain credibility for low inflation. His emphasis on monetary aggregates as the key monetary policy tool has been superseded by the use of policy interest rates, but the monetary aggregates are still useful as a crosscheck against incipient high inflation. |
| JEL: | E12 E31 E32 E41 E42 E51 E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34765 |
| By: | Rosario N. Mantegna |
| Abstract: | Benoit Mandelbrot's scientific legacy spans an extraordinary range of disciplines, from linguistics and fluid turbulence to cosmology and finance, suggesting the intellectual temperament of a "fox" in Isaiah Berlin's famous dichotomy of thinkers. This essay argues, however, that Mandelbrot was, at heart, a "hedgehog": a thinker unified by a single guiding principle. Across his diverse pursuits, the concept of scaling -- manifested in self-similarity, power laws, fractals, and multifractals -- served as the central idea that structured his work. By tracing the continuity of this scaling paradigm through his contributions to mathematics, physics, and economics, the paper reveals a coherent intellectual trajectory masked by apparent eclecticism. Mandelbrot's enduring insight in the modeling of natural and social phenomena can be understood through the lens of the geometry and statistics of scale invariance. |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2602.01122 |
| By: | Kokou Kouzouahin Somabe (UCL - Université catholique de Lille) |
| Abstract: | The scientific successes of the mathematization of his research approach, the physics has revolutionized the natural sciences with benefits a reference scientist status, in the community of scientist. Therefore, other disciplines like economics turn to the natural sciences, in their scientific approach. Furthermore, the epistemologists had the difficult to paint the scientific status of the economics, by referring to the natural science. From there, we notice a certain distancing from its political and normative approach, in this objective or approach to constituting an ‘physics economics'. For us, this isn't in according of the expectations of the specifical research on the phenomena economic, in the favor of justifying the authentic identity scientist of economics, which by its axiological foundation is political. After noting the socioeconomic and the environmental crises which experiences the world of economic, we discover that the economy of commons goods appears as an epistemological opportunity to redefine the real identity of the economy today. Our analysis epistemological approach of the economics isn't in the case to discredit the scientificity of the economics, but it's an objective critic look at the meaning of this science status, with considering the challenges and realities of the contemporary economics. |
| Abstract: | Grâce à ses succès scientifiques, la physique a révolutionné les sciences de la nature, qui bénéficient désormais d'un statut de référence au sein de la communauté scientifique. D'autres disciplines telles que l'économie se tournent vers les sciences de la nature, dans leur démarche scientifique. Toutefois, les épistémologues des sciences ont du mal à élaborer le statut scientifique de l'économie, en se référant aux sciences de la nature. Partant de là, l'on a assisté à un certain éloignement de l'économie de sa démarche politique et normative, dans le but de constituer 'une physique économique'. Ce qui, pour nous, ne semble pas répondre aux attentes d'une étude propre aux phénomènes économiques et ne permet pas de justifier une identité scientifique authentique de l'économie, qui, de par son fondement axiologique, est politique. Par le constat des crises socio-économiques et environnementales que connaît le monde économique, nous trouvons que l'économie des biens communs, constitue une opportunité à saisir pour redéfinir l'identité épistémologique réelle de l'économie, de nos jours. Notre démarche d'analyse épistémologique portée sur la science économique n'est nullement de jeter le discrédit sur la scientificité des sciences économiques, mais de jeter un regard critique sur la signification de cette scientificité aux regards des enjeux et réalités économiques contemporaines. |
| Keywords: | épistémologie scientifique sciences économique économie des biens communs epistemology scientist economic sciences economics of commons, épistémologie, scientifique, sciences économique, économie des biens communs epistemology, scientist, economic sciences, economics of commons, économie des biens communs. |
| Date: | 2025–09–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05359546 |
| By: | Patrice Bougette (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France); Frédéric Marty (CNRS, GREDEG, Université Côte d'Azur, France) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) paradigm that dominated U.S. antitrust policy until the 1970s, before being displaced by the Chicago School and, from the 1980s onwards, by Post-Chicago analysis, i.e., modern industrial organization. Long portrayed as indifferent to firms' conduct and to economic efficiency, structuralism has been subject to a persistent "black legend." This contribution reassesses that critique by examining: (i) the evolution of structuralism between the 1940s and the 1970s; (ii) the influence of a deconcentrationist perspective embedded in a particular legal interpretation of U.S. antitrust rules; (iii) the implications of the digital economy for contemporary analyses of market structures; and (iv) the SCP paradigm's legacy in Neo-Brandeisian and conservative antitrust thought. |
| Keywords: | Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) paradigm; Structuralism; U.S. antitrust; Chicago School; Post-Chicago industrial organization; Merger control; Digital markets; Neo-Brandeisian antitrust; Market structure; Structural remedies |
| JEL: | L10 L12 L13 L41 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2026-03 |
| By: | Agata Mirowska (NEOMA - Neoma Business School); Jbid Arsenyan (Rennes SB - Rennes School of Business) |
| Abstract: | The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) decision-making in the workplace poses a moral issue beyond mere technology acceptance, considering the potential consequences of algorithmic management to individuals' professional well-being. In view of its pluralistic approach to human morality, we adopt Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) as our theoretical lens through which to study reactions to AI-led decision-making in selection. Using a qualitative approach, we explore individuals' reactions to the idea of AI-evaluated interviews, mapping these reactions onto moral foundations, identifying novel sub-themes specific to the context of AI in selection. Using 33 interviews with working adults, we find that all six moral foundations -care, fairness, authority, loyalty, sanctity, and liberty -are evoked when discussing the implementation of AI in selection. We discuss how these moral foundations manifest themselves in this AI decision making context, and articulate theoretical and practical implications. |
| Keywords: | selection, reactions to artificial intelligence, moral foundations theory, job interviews, artificial intelligence, algorithmic decision-making |
| Date: | 2025–12–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05444056 |
| By: | Antoinette Baujard (Université Jean Monnet, Université Lyon 2, emlyon GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne, CNRS, 42 100, Saint-Etienne, France); Nathalie Moureau (Université de Montpellier Paul Valéry, RiRRa21) |
| Abstract: | Dans un cadre welfariste strict, les objectifs poursuivis par une politique publique se concentrent sur un objectif d’efficacité. Le plus souvent, il s’agit de valoriser au mieux l’utilité des individus, avec la plus grande économie de moyens, tout en négligeant d’autres critères potentiellement désirables. Les approches dites non welfaristes, auxquelles Daniel Serra a apporté plusieurs contributions, ont permis de questionner plus largement les politiques publiques en introduisant de nouveaux arguments liés à la justice sociale : l’égalité, la liberté, le non-paternalisme. Dans cet article, nous proposons de montrer l’apport de ces approches alternatives à travers deux études de cas : celle du taux de remplissage des trains et celle de la gratuité dans les musées. Nous en tirons deux conclusions générales. Conformément à la démarche de l’économie normative, la priorité accordée à un critère éthique plutôt qu’à un autre conduit à suggérer des politiques publiques différentes. La mesure de politique qui satisfait un critère éthique donné diffère selon le contexte du cas étudié. |
| Keywords: | justice, liberté, égalité, efficacité, welfarisme, post-welfarisme, analyse normative, gratuité des musées, remplissage des trains |
| JEL: | A13 D63 I31 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gat:wpaper:2602 |
| By: | Simon Deakin; Linda Shuku |
| Abstract: | The use of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to analyse the structure of legal texts is a fast-growing field. While much attention has been devoted to the use of these techniques to predict case outcomes, they have the potential to contribute more broadly to research into the nature of legal reasoning and its relationship to social and economic change. In this paper, we use recently developed NLP and ML methods to test the claim that judicial language is systematically shaped by economic shocks deriving from the business cycle and by long-run trends in the economy associated with technological change and industrial transition. Focusing on cases decided under the Anglo-Welsh poor law between the 1690s and 1830s, we show that the terminology used to describe the right to poor relief shifted over time according to economic conditions. We explore the implications of our results for the poor law, the theory of legal evolution, and socio-legal research methods. |
| Keywords: | Law and computation, poor law, legal evolution, natural language processing |
| JEL: | J41 K31 N33 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbr:cbrwps:wp546 |
| By: | Jimmy Graham; Horacio Larreguy; Pablo Querubín |
| Abstract: | This chapter surveys the economics and political science literature on clientelism. We define clientelism as the exchange of votes or electoral participation for targeted material benefits and argue that it undermines electoral accountability, fostering rent-seeking and the underprovision of public goods. We document the prevalence of clientelism across countries and over time and examine how economic underdevelopment both facilitates clientelistic practices and may be perpetuated by them. We then analyze the agency problems that characterize clientelistic exchanges, focusing on broker–voter and politician–broker relationships, and review evidence on the roles of monitoring, selection, and social networks in sustaining these relationships. Finally, we discuss how clientelistic machines are financed, assess interventions aimed at weakening clientelism and promoting programmatic competition, and outline directions for future research. |
| JEL: | D72 |
| Date: | 2026–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:34761 |