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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Becker, Sascha O. (University of Warwick and Monash University) |
| Abstract: | This chapter explores the intersection of religion and economics on the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, first published in 1776. While Smith is often viewed as a secular figure in economics, his work was deeply influenced by the moral philosophy of his time, which was shaped by Christian thought. I discuss how economists think about the religious themes in Smith’s work in the 21st century and review what we know today about the connection between religion and economic outcomes. JEL codes: B1 ; B2 ; N3 ; N9 ; P5 ; Z12 |
| Keywords: | Adam Smith ; religion |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1598 |
| By: | Ulle Endriss (ILLC - Institute for Logic, Language and Computation - UvA - Universiteit van Amsterdam); Nicolas Maudet (SMA - Systèmes Multi-Agents - LIP6 - SU - Sorbonne Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | On the occasion of his 60th birthday, we review some of Jérôme Lang's influential contributions to the study of collective decision making, bringing together ideas from Economic Theory and Artificial Intelligence. Over the past two decades, his work in this domain—often inspired by fundamental questions regarding the most appropriate way of modelling the preferences of individual agents and how answers to those questions might impact the design of algorithms to support decision making—has significantly shaped the interdisciplinary field of Computational Social Choice. |
| Date: | 2026–01–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05519686 |
| By: | Luc Marco (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - UP13 - Université Paris 13 - USPC - Université Sorbonne Paris Cité - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Anis Gnichi (IHEC Sousse - IHEC) |
| Abstract: | The authors of this book, pioneers of modern finance, were the Sala brothers. The elder, Eugène, became the accountant and then the manager of the Bazar Bonne-Nouvelle in Paris. The younger, Adolphe, was a former career soldier who ended his professional life as the general manager of the Suez Canal, where he was killed by local inhabitants. The editor of this work is Luc Marco, honorary professor of management science at Sorbonne Paris Nord University, a member of the CEPN-CNRS laboratory, and president of the Institute for the History and Foresight of Management, based in Castres (Tarn). The afterword is written by Anis Gnichi, lecturer at the University of Sousse in Tunisia. |
| Abstract: | Les auteurs de ce livre, précurseurs de la finance moderne, étaient les frères Sala. L'aîné, Eugène, deviendra le comptable puis le gérant du Bazar Bonne-Nouvelle à Paris. Le cadet, Adolphe, était un ancien militaire de carrière qui finira son activité professionnelle comme intendant général du Canal de Suez où il mourra tué par les indigènes. L'éditeur de cet ouvrage est Luc Marco, professeur honoraire de sciences de gestion à l'Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, membre du laboratoire CEPN-CNRS, et président de l'Institut d'histoire et de prospective du management, basé à Castres (Tarn). La postface est signée par Anis Gnichi, maître-assistant à l'Université de Sousse en Tunisie. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Transformation, July Monarchy, Emerging Technologies, Economic History, Industrial Values, Monarchie de Juillet, Technologies émergentes, Transformation industrielle, Histoire économique, Valeurs industrielles, France |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05511951 |
| By: | Sara Caicedo-Silva (Universidad de los Andes) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines if and how economic ideas spread across political language. The publication of the TV Series and the book Free to Choose (FC) by Milton and Rosa Friedman in 1980 serves as a tool to understand how economic ideas are popularized and adopted by politicians. Using natural language models, I compute the semantic similarity between FC and the interventions in congressional records from 1975 to 1985 to assess the change in political debate speeches in the US. I find that Democratic legislators increasingly adopted the rhetorical framing of FC, reaching or even surpassing Republicans in the similarity of their speeches relative to FC. This convergence was especially strong in debates on macroeconomic policy and foreign trade. These results suggest that FC amplified existing liberal ideas and transformed them into a shared language of both advocacy and critique within Congress. |
| Keywords: | Political Discourse, Text-as-Data, Semantic Similarity, U.S. Congress |
| JEL: | B25 B41 D72 P16 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000089:022309 |
| By: | Fabio Petri |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts a pedagogical explanation of what the debates in capital theory around Sraffa’s results are about, and why they have profound implications for the theory of income distribution. First it is pointed out that the classical or surplus approach does not suffer from the inconsistencies it was accused of. Then the difference is stressed between traditional neoclassical theory which attempted the determination of long-period general equilibria, and the neo-Walrasian versions. A simple model illustrates the need for a given endowment of value capital for the determination of long-period equilibria; the impossibility of specifying this endowment is pointed out; the abandonment of that treatment of capital in the neo-Walrasian versions is shown to render those versions incapable of indicating the behaviour of actual economies Jel Classification: B21 B51 D50 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:939 |
| By: | Dominic Rohner; Oliver Vanden Eynde; Philine Widmer |
| Abstract: | Academic freedom has come under growing strain across the world. To study whether and how academics react to political pressure, we exploit a natural experiment: the U.S. government's ``blacklist'' of undesirable words released in early 2025. We find that the release of this list leads to a sharp reduction in the use of banned words in sensitive contexts among economists working at universities that rely heavily on NSF funding. The drop is particularly marked for content related to gender, race, and environment. Our findings are consistent with scholars responding strongly to political pressure through career incentives. |
| Keywords: | censorship, science, academic freedom, science funding |
| JEL: | D73 I23 O38 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12498 |
| By: | Mohamed Ali Abdelwahed (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord) |
| Abstract: | This course offers an in-depth exploration of the major theories of organizations and the firm, articulating their historical foundations, epistemological assumptions, and contemporary managerial implications. It traces the evolution of the main paradigms—classical and rationalist, human relations, contingency, systems, environmental, and neo-institutional—through to critical and culturalist approaches. Particular attention is devoted to theories of the firm (transaction cost theory, agency theory, the resource-based view, and dynamic capabilities) and their contemporary extensions. The course brings into dialogue foundational authors and recent developments in order to demonstrate that organizational theories constitute complementary analytical frameworks rather than competing ones. The analysis is conducted from an applied perspective, with particular reference to the health and medico-social sector, where tensions between rationalization, professionalization, and institutional legitimacy are especially salient. The pedagogical objective is twofold: to provide students with a structured theoretical foundation and to develop their critical capacity to mobilize these frameworks in analyzing complex organizational situations. |
| Abstract: | Ce cours propose une exploration approfondie des principales théories des organisations et de la firme, en articulant leurs fondements historiques, leurs présupposés épistémologiques et leurs implications managériales contemporaines. Il retrace l'évolution des paradigmes majeurs - classique et rationaliste, relations humaines, contingence, systémique, environnemental et néo-institutionnel - jusqu'aux approches critiques et culturalistes. Une attention particulière est portée aux conceptions de la firme (théorie des coûts de transaction, théorie de l'agence, approche par les ressources, capacités dynamiques) et à leurs prolongements contemporains. Le cours met en dialogue les auteurs fondateurs et les développements récents afin de montrer que les théories des organisations constituent des grilles d'intelligibilité complémentaires plutôt que concurrentes. L'analyse s'inscrit dans une perspective appliquée, notamment au secteur sanitaire et médico-social, où les tensions entre rationalisation, professionnalisation et légitimité institutionnelle sont particulièrement saillantes. L'objectif pédagogique est double : fournir aux étudiants un socle théorique structurant et développer leur capacité critique à mobiliser ces cadres pour analyser des situations organisationnelles complexes. |
| Keywords: | organization theory, Theory of the firm, Governance, Coordination, Théorie de la firme, Paradigme organisationnel, Gouvernance, Théorie de l'organisation |
| Date: | 2026–01–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05508521 |
| By: | Jean-Marie Baland (Development Finance and Public Policies, University of Namur); Giorgio Ferroni (Development Finance and Public Policies, University of Namur) |
| Abstract: | Dewatripont and Tirole (2024) show that firms’ moral conduct in the market is independent of competitive pressure. We argue that such a result critically hinges on the assumption of perfect information about the firms’ moral actions —an assumption that is, in general, unlikely to hold. Specifically, the number of firms and their size matter if consumers have only a general perception of morality in the market. In such a setting, morality becomes a public good: firms bear the full cost of their moral behaviour while capturing only a fraction of the benefits from increased consumer willingness to pay. |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nam:defipp:2603 |