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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Gyun Cheol Gu |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes neoclassical reactions to Gardiner Means's administered price thesis during 1980-2000. It shows that his original idea has been continuously denied by mainstream economists. At the same time, it has been transformed through a multiplicity of rationalization processes into one or another bastardized form. However, their attempts to deny and/or rationalize the thesis are unsuccessful as their sanitized versions of Means’s theory turn out to be self-contradictory in the neoclassical framework. |
| Keywords: | Gardiner Means, Price rigidity, Administered price |
| JEL: | B21 B50 D43 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pke:wpaper:pkwp2603 |
| By: | Patel, Krish Chetan |
| Abstract: | Problems such as persistent inequality, institutional decay, performative governance, and large scale economic costs from global conflicts suggest a deeper structural flaw within the economic reasoning itself, one that cannot be adequately explained by technical inefficiencies or policy errors alone. This paper conceptualizes miseconomics as the practice of conducting economic activity that generates cumulative social harm through normalized societal losses, and misaligned incentives that erode moral responsibility while remaining internally consistent within an institutional framework. Drawing on classical moral philosophy, normative economic critiques, and cases from governance failures across multiple political systems, the study analyses moral entropy to describe a pattern of progressive institutional disorder. Governmental failure is examined through the conceptual framework of Lazeez Fair governance, wherein symbolic, performative, and indulgent interventions substitute substantive reform, allowing dysfunction to persist despite visible action. The paper further illustrates these dynamics though global patterns of corruption, institutional capture, and the selected cases of proxy warfare, showing patterns through which costs appear externalized onto vulnerable populations while benefits accrue narrowly. It concludes that without a structural realignment of incentives and a reintegration of moral responsibility into mainstream economic thought and governance- stability, sustainability, and development- risk remaining structurally unattainable. The central claim is that economic failure is not primarily a shortage of analytical tools and normative ideologies, but a failure of moral alignment embedded within decision making systems. Recognizing and correcting miseconomics is therefore presented as a necessary condition for restoring coherence between economic theory, development of society, and human wellbeing. |
| Date: | 2026–02–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:sdpn2_v1 |
| By: | Elkmann, Janek; Schrimpf, Tobias |
| Abstract: | Research on conspiracy theories and predictors that explain susceptibility to believing in conspiracy theories (conspiracy mentality) has already led to a considerable body of academic contributions. Nevertheless, we see the necessity to continue working on higher-level frameworks that summarize and explain various of these predictors under one umbrella. Only focussing on individual correlates can certainly make well-founded statements about individual susceptibility to conspiracy theories, but cannot formulate a holistic explanation due to the supposed lack of connection between the predictors. This means that, for example, only very fragmentary recommendations can be derived for preventive concepts. The present research proposes a metatheoretical framework for conspiracy mentality based on 'Moral Politics Theory' (Lakoff, 2016). The central thesis of this paper is that conspiracy mentality can be understood as an inherent component of so-called 'Strict Father Morality', i.e. the conservative ideology in Moral Politics Theory. This not only has implications for research theory, but also concrete imperatives for action for socio-political actors. |
| Keywords: | Conspiracy theories, conspiracy mentality, Moral Politics Theory, Strict Father Morality, ideology |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohdps:335888 |
| By: | Colvin, Christopher L.; Dorman, Andrew; Jordan, David; Needham, Duncan |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how applied history can contribute to policymaking when understood as a way of structuring judgement under uncertainty rather than as a source of policy lessons or predictions. It argues that economic history is particularly well suited to facilitating this role because it combines institutional analysis with disciplined comparison of plausible alternatives and close attention to temporal constraints. Distinguishing between micro-pedagogical and macro-institutional applications, the paper analyses two sites of practice: (1) a historically grounded policy simulation used to train early-career civil service economists delivered by the Centre for Economics, Policy and History, a research centre based in Belfast and Dublin; and (2) longer-term engagement between historians and policy advisers in Whitehall organised through History & Policy, an applied history forum. The paper concludes by clarifying the possibilities and limits of applied economic history as a contribution to reflective policy practice. |
| Keywords: | applied economic history, historical uncertainty, policy pedagogy, practical historicism |
| JEL: | A20 B40 N01 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qucehw:335908 |
| By: | Franz Dietrich (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics, CNRS); Kai Spiekermann (London School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Most recent theorists take social norms to arise from certain attitudes, such as expectations on others, perhaps along with conforming practices. Challenging this view, we argue that social norms are instead grounded in a social norming process: an (often non-verbal) social communication process that institutes or ‘makes’ the norm. We present different versions of a process-based account of social norms and social normativity. The process-based view brings social norms closer to legal norms, by taking social norms to arise through ‘expressive acts’, just as some laws and contracts arise through acts of voting or signing, not through mere attitudes |
| Keywords: | social norms; normativity |
| JEL: | D70 D71 |
| Date: | 2024–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:24009r |
| By: | Constance Frohly; Roberto Galbiati; Emeric Henry; Nicolas Jacquemet (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | Moral reminders, also referred to as moral appeals or moral nudges, are widely used by governments, companies, and NGOs to promote pro-social behavior. These appeals function by either increasing the salience of moral concerns or the cost of diverting attention away from relevant information on payoffs or social norms. Drawing on over 400 studies across psychology, sociology, management and economics, we present a meta-analysis of their effects. Our findings reveal that, on average, moral reminders are effective, with an effect size (Hedge's g) of 0.24 in a random-effects model, but with significant backfiring occurring in 12% of studies. We identify sources of heterogeneity based on disciplinary focus and design choices. Crucially, we introduce a taxonomy of moral reminders: we distinguish those that provide information on consequences, those that highlight descriptive or injunctive norms, and those that prime moral awareness. Our analysis shows that all of these instruments are effective, particularly those providing information on consequences, whereas information on injunctive norms is more likely to backfire. |
| Keywords: | Meta-analysis, Behavioral ethics, Moral reminders, Pro-social behavior |
| Date: | 2026–01–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-05456784 |
| By: | Franz Dietrich (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris School of Economics, CNRS) |
| Abstract: | Economists routinely measure individual welfare by (von-Neumann-Morgenstern) utility, for instance when analysing welfare intensity, social welfare, or welfare inequality. Is this welfare measure justified? Natural working hypotheses turn out to imply a different measure. It overcomes familiar problems of utility, by faithfully capturing non-ordinal welfare features, such as welfare intensity ?despite still resting on purely ordinal evidence, such as revealed preferences or self-reported welfare comparisons. Social welfare analysis changes when based on this new individual welfare measure rather than utility. For instance, Harsanyi?s ?utilitarian theorem?now supports prioritarianism. We compare the standard utility-based versions of utilitarianism and prioritarianism with new versions based on our welfare measure. We show that utility is a hybrid object, determined by two rival in?uences: welfare, and the attitude to intrinsic risk, i.e., to risk in welfare. A new version of Harsanyi?s theorem shows that Harsanyi implicitly makes the questionable assumption that society is neutral to intrinsic risk, even when all individuals are averse to intrinsic risk |
| Keywords: | welfare; utility; risk attitude; social welfare; utilitarianism; Harsanyi-Sen debate; Harsanyi's Theorem |
| JEL: | D00 D60 D63 D69 D70 D80 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:25003r |
| By: | Goodhart, C. A. E.; Postel-Vinay, Natacha |
| Abstract: | The City of Glasgow Bank failure in 1878, which led to large numbers of shareholders becoming insolvent, generated great public concern about their plight, and led directly to the 1879 Companies Act, which paved the way for the adoption of limited liability for all shareholders. In this paper, we focus on the question of why the opportunity was not taken to distinguish between the appropriate liability for ‘insiders, ’ i.e. those with direct access to information and power over decisions, as contrasted with ‘outsiders.’ We record that such issues were raised and discussed at the time, and we report why proposals for any such tiered liability were turned down. We argue that the reasons for rejecting tiered liability for insiders were overstated, both then and subsequently. While we believe that the case for such tiered liability needs reconsideration, it does remain a complex matter, as discussed in Section 4. |
| Keywords: | corporate governance; limited liability; bank risk-taking; financial regulation; financial crises; senior management regime; banks; banking |
| JEL: | G21 G28 G30 G32 G39 N23 K22 K29 L20 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:130243 |
| By: | Shengwu Du; Flora Haberkorn; Isabel Kitschelt; Seung Jung Lee; Anderson Monken; Dylan Saez; Kelsey Shipman; Sandeep Thakur |
| Abstract: | We apply various natural language processing tools to see if the Beige Book is helpful in understanding economic activity. The Beige Book is a gathering of anecdotal compilations of current economic conditions from each Federal Reserve Bank, which is released to the public prior to FOMC meetings. We find that even controlling for lagged GDP growth and other metrics, the Beige Book sentiment provides meaningful explanatory power in nowcasting GDP growth and forecasting recessions, even more so than the yield spread or other news sentiment measures. The results on economic activity even hold in regional panel analysis. The Beige Book offers many more insights on the economy that can be gathered from even simple keyword tabulations. Topic modeling can also inform us about the different factors driving the narrative across particular periods of interest. |
| Keywords: | Now-casting; Business fluctuations and cycles; Recessions; Sentiment |
| JEL: | E32 E37 |
| Date: | 2026–01–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedgfe:102374 |