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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Motonori Ishii (Graduate School of Economics, Waseda University) |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to reconsider F. A. Hayek's liberalism not primarily as a form of neoliberalism, but as an attempt to revive classical liberalism. Recent advances in neoliberalism studies have increasingly clarified Hayek's role within the personal and institutional networks of neoliberalism, as well as the affinities between Hayek and neoliberalism in their affirmation of a positive role for the state in maintaining a competitive order and their criticism of classical liberalism understood as laissez-faire. At the same time, however, Hayek proposed naming the Mont Pèlerin Society after Lord Acton or Alexis de Tocqueville, both of whom he regarded as leading representatives of the classical liberal tradition. Moreover, during the very period in which the Walter Lippmann Colloquium and the Mont Pèlerin Society marked the emergence and consolidation of neoliberalism, Hayek was actively engaged in rereading and reinterpreting classical liberalism. This suggests that the central aim of Hayek's project for the revival of liberalism should be understood not as the reconstruction of classical liberalism, but as its recovery and restatement under modern conditions. This paper develops this argument from three perspectives: Hayek's sustained interest in the history of British thought since the 1920s; the fact that, while sharing with neoliberals a concern with the competitive order and the positive role of the state, he traced the intellectual foundations of these ideas back to classical liberal thinkers; and his strategic use of Whig historiography as part of a broader intellectual project aimed at reviving liberalism. |
| Keywords: | Hayek, neoliberalism, classical liberalism, Whig historiography, Old Whig, intellectual history |
| JEL: | B25 B31 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wap:wpaper:2613 |
| By: | Sergio Cesaratto |
| Abstract: | Students of ancient societies critical of New Institutional Economics (NIE) seem ineAective or intimidated in expressing a full alternative to its current hegemony. Yet a conceptual ghost continues to haunt many works in this field: that of economic surplus. The notion of social surplus is indeed distinctive of the classical economists’ approach, continued by Marx, and more recently revived by Piero SraAa and Pierangelo Garegnani, after having been ‘submerged and forgotten’ by the Marginalist revolution of the late Ninetieth century. This paper builds upon the familiarity that students of precapitalist societies have with the concept of surplus to delineate a robust economic alternative to NIE. After a brief presentation of the surplus approach, the paper examines some motives of unsatisfaction with NIE and with some more recent mainstream studies of the onset of inequality we label ‘marginalist materialism’. The criticism Karl Polanyi has moved to the surplus approach is then constructively reconsidered. The paper underlines the bidirectionality of the interest in communication between economic history studies and surplus theory. |
| Keywords: | Surplus Approach, Marginalism, New Institutional Economics, Samuel Bowles, Sraffa, Marginism Jel Classification: A12, B51, B52, N01, Z13 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:946 |
| By: | Nandagiri, Rishita; Senderowicz, Leigh; Sigle-Rushton, Wendy |
| Abstract: | This special issue focuses on reproductive justice (RJ) as a framework for feminist research and activism. The introduction provides an overview of when and why the RJ framework was developed, outlines the ways it challenged and extended the way reproductive rights were understood and approached by feminist scholars and activists, and articulaties its productive potential. RJ’s relevance for identifying and responding to the breadth of rights violations taking place across the globe today can only be grasped with a firm understanding of its scope and foundational concepts, such as intersectionality. Its expanded scope, conceptual complexity, and epistemological orientation make RJ incompatible with the neoclassical rational-choice paradigm, but points of resonance with other frameworks provide possibilities for its integration and contribution both to knowledge and to the development of a feminist methodology in economics. The contributions to this special issue represent some of the first efforts to take forward this important project. |
| Keywords: | reproductive justice;intersectionality;feminist methodology;feminist economics;public policy;Reproductive justice |
| JEL: | I30 B54 J13 |
| Date: | 2025–03–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:127175 |
| By: | Tomasz Kopczewski (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences); Jan Lisicki (University of Warsaw, Faculty of Economic Sciences) |
| Abstract: | This article reconsiders equilibrium as a representation of economic order. It separates five properties often treated together—existence, uniqueness, stability, convergence, and predictability—and shows that fixed-point results in general equilibrium establish existence without guaranteeing the other four. When uniqueness, stability, convergence, or predictability fails, the relevant object of analysis may shift from a single point to an equilibrium-selection process, a regime, an adjustment path, or a distribution. The same distinction matters empirically because equilibrium is not directly observed but inferred from a maintained model and identification assumptions. We therefore distinguish two ideal-typical orientations: a solution-centred approach, which seeks an object that closes the model, and a temporal-statistical approach, which locates order in persistent patterns of dynamics and distributions. The article argues that the continued appeal of point-based equilibrium reflects its tractability and explanatory simplicity as well as its theoretical role. |
| Keywords: | equilibrium, general equilibrium, stability, nonlinear dynamics, chaos, economic methodology |
| JEL: | C62 D50 B41 B23 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:war:wpaper:2026-29 |