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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Eva Ivan-Haintz (CCIIF - Research Center for the History of Philosophical Ideas, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Romania) |
| Abstract: | This review of Handbook of Teaching Philosophy to Economists focuses on the relationship between philosophy and economics, with particular attention to the pedagogical challenges of teaching philosophy to economists, understood as essential for cultivating critical thinking and intellectual autonomy. |
| Keywords: | economic methodology, philosophy, economics students, critical thinking, pedagogy, philosophy of economics |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05501532 |
| By: | Heise, Arne |
| Abstract: | Following Lawrence Klein's designation of a 'Keynesian Revolution', the impact of John Maynard Keynes's The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money has remained contested. While early interpretations viewed it as a refinement of neoclassical equilibrium theory, later accounts increasingly characterized it as revolutionary break. Drawing on a meta- synthesis of journal articles explicitly addressing the Keynesian Revolution, this paper shows that such claims are typically justified intuitively rather than on explicit philosophy-of-science grounds, even after Thomas S. Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Where analytical criteria are applied, conclusions hinge on whether Keynes's theory transforms the ontological and epistemological foundations of economics or merely modifies them. The findings suggest that most interpretations reflect intra-paradigmatic variation rather than a genuine scientific revolution suggesting 'a revolution that never was'. |
| Keywords: | Keynesian Revolution, Thomas S. Kuhn, Say's Theorem, Walras's Law |
| JEL: | A11 B20 B31 E12 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:341982 |
| By: | Pooley, Jefferson (University of Pennsylvania) |
| Abstract: | The Behavioral Models project (1952–1957) at Columbia University had a clear mission: to make mathematics legible to social scientists. The project, funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), enlisted mathematicians and philosophers to demonstrate how mathematical models could be applied to the study of human behavior. Measured against this aim, the project was a failure. The flavors of mathematical modeling promoted by the project were rarely adopted by mainstream social scientists, the target audience. If anything, the disciplines embraced (or re-embraced) the correlational tradition of inferential statistics—an approach that the project had defined itself against. The paper argues that the Behavioral Models Project (BMP) is an expression of aspirational mathematics. The postwar behavioral sciences movement imagined itself, in a gauzy, rhetorical sense, in the image of the natural sciences. But its more proximate reference discipline was economics, which was already self-segregating by the early 1950s. Economists’ mix of mathematical rigor and policy influence, on early and notably partial display in these years, made their discipline an object of envy and qualified emulation. The BMP—framed as a maths booster shot for the behavioral sciences—was a high-profile index of that dynamic. Mathematical sophistication, if not necessarily the economists’ variety, was something to cultivate. As the BMP case helps to show, the aspiration went unfulfilled. |
| Date: | 2026–06–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:uxpvy_v1 |
| By: | Rodrik, Dani |
| Abstract: | Economics students today learn about mercantilism through Smith’s prism, as a series of logical and policy errors that Smith clarified and settled for good. But far from settled doctrine, mercantilism encapsulated a variety of pragmatic practices that survived Smith’s critique, often to good effect. It found echo in a continuous tradition of what later came to be called “developmentalism, †running from Alexander Hamilton and Friedrich List’s advocacy of trade protection to Hans Singer and Raul Prebisch’s ideas on import-substitution and, more recently, to East Asian models of export-oriented industrialization. Three of its core tenets hold continued appeal: the primacy of production and jobs (and of their composition) over consumption; preference for close, collaborative relationship between business and government over an arms’ length relationship; and the need for contextual, pragmatic, and often unorthodox policies over universal remedies and “best-practices.†|
| JEL: | B1 O1 F1 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20710 |
| By: | Felix Bierbrauer; Mattias Polborn; Marten Ritterrath; Georg Weizsäcker |
| Abstract: | We study the political economy of carbon taxes when neoclassical consumers take all other agents' emissions as given and socially responsible consumers internalize damages in a group-rule-utilitarian way, taking neoclassical consumers' behavior as given. We characterize political equilibrium taxes with a focus on deviations from first-best Pigouvian taxation. Welfare falls further if arguments on moral obligations to reduce carbon footprints polarize the debate in society. Finally, we present survey evidence that supports our theory: social responsibility correlates with lower consumption of brown goods, higher preferred carbon taxes, and support for moral arguments. |
| Keywords: | political economy of taxation, carbon taxes, ethical behavior |
| JEL: | C9 D11 D72 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12758 |
| By: | Bénabou, Roland; Henkel, Luca |
| Abstract: | We review the economic literature on self-image, which conceptualizes identity as a set of beliefs about one’s core traits, values, goals, and social ties. Self-image concerns lead individuals to process information and make choices in non-standard ways that help affirm and protect certain valued identities. We first present the main cognitive mechanisms involved within a simple unifying framework. We then survey the extensive laboratory, online, and field experimental literature on the nature and behavioral implications of self-image concerns. We discuss in particular how they give rise to information and decision avoidance, motivated memory and beliefs, excuse-driven behavior, preferences for truth-telling, hypothetical bias, moral cleansing and moral licensing, collective identities, political preferences, and other forms of self-signaling or self-deception. We subsequently discuss common empirical strategies used to identify self-image concerns, as well as the threats to their validity and how to alleviate them. We conclude by outlining open questions and directions for future research on the belief-based approach to identity. |
| Keywords: | Self-image; Identity; Motivated beliefs; Belief-based utility; Behavioral economics; Experimental economics |
| JEL: | D64 C90 D83 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20663 |
| By: | Kevin Leportier (CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, INSPÉ Normandie Caen - Institut national supérieur du professorat et de l'éducation - Normandie Caen - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université) |
| Abstract: | Providing public goods is often viewed as a core function of the state, since the private sector would necessarily fail to do so efficiently: this is what is known as the public good argument. One may object to this argument either by claiming, as libertarians do, that state coercion is not in fact necessary, or by arguing that its necessity does not make it acceptable. By exploring and discussing the somewhat overlooked theory of the liberal social contract developed by Serge-Christophe Kolm, this article shows how the public good argument can be reformulated to address these objections. |
| Date: | 2025–09–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05224910 |
| By: | Galbiati, Roberto; Henry, Emeric; Jacquemet, Nicolas |
| Abstract: | What actions other people judge appropriate drives pro-social behavior. We show that such judgments depend on whether the observers previously faced the situation they judge (active observers) or not (passive observers). In an online giving experiment, active observers make more polarized judgments than passive ones — those who acted pro-socially judge selfish behavior more harshly and praise pro-social actions more. Moreover, active observers persistently avoid payoff-relevant information, both as dictators, likely to maintain their self-image, and then as observers. Our results imply a new link between descriptive (what most people do) and injunctive norms (what groups deem appropriate). |
| Keywords: | Injunctive norms |
| JEL: | C90 D64 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20355 |
| By: | Vanberg, Viktor |
| Abstract: | This paper summarizes the core tenets of James M. Buchanan's research program, its contractarianism, dealing with the source from which political orders are to derive their legitimacy, and its contractarianism, specifying the requirements for a political order to operate for the mutual advantage of all participants. |
| Keywords: | Political economy, contractarianism, constitutionalism, legitimacy, mutual advantage, ethics of citizenship |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:aluord:341979 |
| By: | Galbraith, James; Kanbur, Ravi; Sen, Kunal; Sumner, Andy |
| Abstract: | Seven decades ago, Simon Kuznets put forward the hypothesis that as economies developed, national inequality would first increase and then decrease—an inverted U-shape. He provided preliminary evidence for the hypothesis on the basis of the limited data available at the time, and theorized the genesis of the curve as arising from the twin forces of structural transformation of the economy and political economy pressures. Seven decades on, the Kuznets curve still has a hold on the development discourse as new data is used to test the hypothesis, new theories are elaborated to explain the evolution of inequality, and the metaphor of an inverse U-shape is extended beyond its original realm of national inequality. With this rich history and background, the time is right to examine the Kuznets curve literature broadly construed. This overview takes stock of what has been learned and highlights emerging research and policy questions. |
| Keywords: | Kuznets; structural transformation |
| JEL: | D31 O15 O40 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20474 |
| By: | Bilal, Adrien; Stock, James |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys the literature that links macroeconomics and climate change. We organize our review into three categories: (i) loss and damage, which assesses long-run economic costs and non-market impacts from climate change; (ii) mitigation and the energy transition, which evaluates the macroeconomic consequences of shifting away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy; and (iii) adaptation, which explores the economic adjustments necessary to manage heat stress, more frequent severe weather events and rising seas. We discuss macroeconomic frameworks that quantify these structural shifts as well as empirical estimates that guide their calibration. We suggest areas in which macroeconomic research on climate is needed. |
| Keywords: | Macroeconomics |
| JEL: | E60 F55 H23 H41 Q43 Q50 R10 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20659 |
| By: | Minh Ha-Duong (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris) |
| Abstract: | This data paper presents a curated, multilingual corpus of 31, 713 works on climate finance published between 1990 and 2024. The dataset is assembled from 6 complementary sources that combine academic databases, institutional repositories, and grey literature, enabling broader coverage than single-source bibliometric studies. A multilingual retrieval strategy based on an eight-language keyword taxonomy is used to capture relevant works across linguistic contexts, while a reproducible pipeline integrates deduplication, metadata harmonisation, and quality filtering. The resulting corpus includes a citation network derived from Crossref and OpenAlex, as well as pre-computed multilingual embeddings to support cross-lingual analysis. |
| Keywords: | history of economic thought, scientometrics, sentence-transformer embeddings, multilingual, bibliometric corpus, climate finance |
| Date: | 2026–03–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:ciredw:hal-05570600 |
| By: | Margarita Gatsou; Uwe Sunde |
| Abstract: | We reconsider some of the central aspects in Adam Smith's work in light of advances in research on long-run development. The main argument is that future orientation - "patience" - represents a key unifying feature in the mechanisms of long-run development. This feature appears to have been part of Smith's argument in various manifestations. We develop the argument along the lines of a simple conceptual framework and discuss the consequences of the influence of life expectancy and institutional quality on the patience embodied in the population for the emergence of development traps. We then illustrate how a feedback from patience to improved life expectancy and institutions can initiate a process of sustained development. |
| Keywords: | Adam Smith, long-run growth, comparative development |
| JEL: | O10 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12764 |
| By: | Eden, Maya; Piacquadio, Paolo G. |
| Abstract: | Are people's ethical views informative about what is actually ethical? We show that, when the social preference relation is Paretian, it must closely mirror people's ethical views. In particular, people's aversion to income inequality among strangers places tight bounds on the admissible inequality attitudes of the social welfare function. Our results also suggest a new rationale for paternalism: if people are paternalistic about the choices of others, then the social welfare function must be paternalistic as well. |
| Keywords: | Paternalism; Pareto; Inequality aversion |
| JEL: | D30 D60 D90 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20624 |