nep-hpe New Economics Papers
on History and Philosophy of Economics
Issue of 2020‒06‒15
seven papers chosen by
Erik Thomson
University of Manitoba

  1. Le Traité d’économie hérétique ou l’économiste révolté By Jacques Fontanel
  2. The behavioral and neoliberal foundations of randomizations By Jean-Michel Servet; Bruno Tinel
  3. Solidarity and Fairness in Times of Crisis By Cappelen, Alexander W.; Falch, Ranveig; Sørensen, Erik Ø.; Tungodden, Bertil
  4. Perceived Fairness and Consequences of Affirmative Action Policies By Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah; Trieu, Chi; Willrodt, Jana
  5. Poisson-Cournot Games By Francesco De Sinopoli; Christopher Kunstler; Claudia Meroni; Carlos Pimienta
  6. « Peut-on parler d’une “pensée” managériale issue du réseau des Grands Corps d’État (Inspection des Finances, Corps des Mines), à travers leur vision modernisatrice des années 1960-1970 ? » By Alexandre Moatti
  7. Les nombres structuraux By Olivier Rocca

  1. By: Jacques Fontanel (CESICE - Centre d'études sur la sécurité internationale et les coopérations européennes - UPMF - Université Pierre Mendès France - Grenoble 2 - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes - IEPG - Sciences Po Grenoble - Institut d'études politiques de Grenoble)
    Abstract: Economics is not a science, even if it uses scientific methods. It is first and foremost part of the world's political order. Today, economic globalization organized around the competition of firms on international markets is characterized by the weight of international finance, the difficulties of States to satisfy the production of public goods and services without debt, the excessive place given to GDP growth in national economies, the negative influence of greenhouse gas emissions which are at the heart of today's economic development, the excessive exploitation of the Earth, and a social justice that is lacking to say the least.
    Abstract: L'économie n'est pas une science, même si elle utilise des méthodes scientifiques. Elle s'inscrit d'abord dans l'ordre politique du monde. Aujourd'hui, la globalisation économique organisée autour de la compétition des firmes sur les marchés internationaux est caractérisée par le poids de la finance internationale, les difficultés des Etats à satisfaire la production de biens et services publics sans endettement, la place excessive accordée à la croissance du PIB dans les économies nationales, l'influence négative des émissions de gaz à effets de serre qui sont au cœur du développement économique d'aujourd'hui, l'exploitation excessive de la Terre, et une justice sociale pour le moins défaillante.
    Keywords: state indebtedness. heretic economics,Economic science,political economy,social justice,GDP,ecology,international finance,économie politique,justice sociale,Science économique,PIB,écologie,finance internationale,endettement des Etats,économie hérétique.
    Date: 2020–05–26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02626350&r=all
  2. By: Jean-Michel Servet (IHEID - Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement - University of Geneva [Switzerland]); Bruno Tinel (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
    Abstract: One-sentence summary : Randomized controlled trials by behavioural economists pretend to be pragmatic and only interested in what really works to solve practical problems but in reality they have notorious normative and ideological aspects. Key points: Behavioural RCTs ignore contexts and composition effects and reflect the biases of those who perform assessments. Behavioural randomizers presume without demonstrating that market exchanges are the most effective form of regulation for societies in all situations of social life. The positive or negative incentives ("nudges") offered by behavioural economics aim to normalize the behaviour of consumers, users, employees or small/independent producers. They are part of a set of power devices by which individual behaviours are shaped and forced, without their knowledge, to conform to dominant class interests.
    Date: 2020–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02562758&r=all
  3. By: Cappelen, Alexander W. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Falch, Ranveig (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Sørensen, Erik Ø. (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Tungodden, Bertil (Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration)
    Abstract: In a large-scale pre-registered survey experiment with a representative sample of more than 8,000 Americans, we examine how the COVID-19 pandemic causally affects people’s solidarity and fairness. We randomly manipulate whether respondents are asked general questions about the crisis before answering moral questions. By making the pandemic particularly salient for treated respondents, we causally identify how the crisis changes moral views. We find that the crisis makes respondents more willing to prioritize society’s problems over their own problems, but also more tolerant of inequalities due to luck. We show that people’s moral views are strongly associated with their policy preferences for redistribution. The findings suggest that the pandemic may alter the moral and political landscape in the United States and, consequently, the support for redistribution and welfare policies.
    Keywords: Fairness; inequality; COVID-19
    JEL: D63 D64
    Date: 2020–05–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2020_006&r=all
  4. By: Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf); Trieu, Chi (Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE)); Willrodt, Jana (Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE))
    Abstract: Debates about affirmative action often revolve around fairness. Accordingly, we document substantial heterogeneity in the fairness perception of various affirmative action policies. But do these differences translate into different consequences? In a laboratory experiment, we study three different quota rules that favor individuals whose performance is low, either due to bad luck (discrimination), low productivity, or choice of a short working time. Higher fairness perceptions coincide with a higher willingness to compete and less retaliation against winners. No policy harms overall efficiency or post-competition teamwork. Furthermore, individuals seem to internalize the normbehind the policies that are perceived as fairest.
    Keywords: experiment, fairness ideals, affirmative action, tournament, real effort
    JEL: C91 D02 D63
    Date: 2020–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13202&r=all
  5. By: Francesco De Sinopoli (Department of Economics, University of Verona); Christopher Kunstler (Institute of Energy and Climate Research, FZ Julich); Claudia Meroni (Department of Economics, University of Verona); Carlos Pimienta (School of Economics, UNSW Business School, UNSW)
    Abstract: We construct a Cournot model in which firms have uncertainty about the total number of firms in the industry. We model such an uncertainty as a Poisson game and we characterize the set of equilibria after deriving some novel properties of the Poisson distribution. When the marginal cost is zero, the number of equilibria increases with the expected number of firms ( n) and for n ≥ 3 every equilibrium exhibits overproduction relative to the model with deterministic population size. Overproduction is robust to sufficiently small marginal costs, however, for a fixed marginal cost, the set of equilibria approaches the equilibrium quantity of the deterministic model as n goes to infinity.
    Keywords: Cournot competition, Population uncertainty, Poisson games, Poisson distribution
    JEL: C72 D43 L13
    Date: 2020–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:swe:wpaper:2020-07&r=all
  6. By: Alexandre Moatti (SPHERE (UMR_7219) - Sciences, Philosophie, Histoire - UPD7 - Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
    Date: 2020–03–26
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02548690&r=all
  7. By: Olivier Rocca (AMU DSP - Aix-Marseille Université - Faculté de droit et de science politique - AMU - Aix Marseille Université, SCD-BU UNS - Bibliothèques universitaires de l'université Nice Sophia Antipolis - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (... - 2019) - UCA - Université Côte d'Azur)
    Abstract: En s'appuyant sur des recherches étymologiques et philosophiques, l'auteur nous montre que parallèlement aux nombres ordinaux et cardinaux, il existe une troisième catégorie de nombres qu'il appelle les nombres structuraux. Ces nombres, qui étaient connus des civilisations romaine et grecque, ont un nom et une existence historique, qu'il nous appartient de reconnaître pour en faire une analyse scientifique, et savoir en quoi ils peuvent compléter la théorie mathématique existante. Pour réaliser l'intégration de ces nombres dans les théories modernes, l'auteur en appelle à une réforme des catégories grammaticales existantes, et nous montre en quoi les ressources de la grammaire et de la linguistique peuvent contribuer à renouveler la définition des nombres, et apporter aux mathématiques de nouvelles méthodes basées sur une approche philosophique des nombres.
    Keywords: nombre,structure,mathématique,grammaire,linguistique,analyse,catégorie
    Date: 2020–05–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02593190&r=all

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