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on History and Philosophy of Economics |
| By: | Betancourt, Rebeca Gómez |
| Abstract: | Review of “A Herstory of Economics” by Edith Kuiper. |
| Date: | 2024–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:yc5nb&r=hpe |
| By: | Basile Clerc |
| Abstract: | Why do some economists support price controls in the face of inflation during peacetime? Our thesis is that, in the history of economic thought, understanding the role of profits in inflationary dynamics is the crucial variable. To demonstrate this, we investigate the extensive literature on incomes policy, insofar as much of the thinking on macroeconomic price controls in peacetime is part of this literature. This corpus is crossed by a major schism: some advocate price and wage controls while others limit control to wages alone. We show that the defense of price controls is always based on the thesis that profits play an autonomous role in inflationary dynamics. Conversely, the advocates of an incomes policy reduced to wage controls see margins as mere transmission belts for excessive wage increases into prices. Price controls are thus rejected ex ante, even before any criticism of the consequences of their application. |
| Keywords: | Price controls - Wage controls - Incomes policy - Inflation - Unemployment |
| JEL: | B22 E64 E12 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:drm:wpaper:2024-11&r=hpe |
| By: | Emmanuel Petit (BSE - Bordeaux Sciences Economiques - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | In economic theory, the term « interaction » is used to describe the exchange relationship between agents in the market. In semantic terms, the word is used in different ways depending on whether one is in a classical model of pure and perfect competition, in a game theory model or in institutional economics. The polysemous use of the term interaction reveals different methodological positions. Among economists, however, the meaning of the term interaction does not fully overlap with that of « transaction », identified by John Dewey, in which the entities that participate in the exchange are themselves transformed – thus suggesting an extension of the analysis of interaction in economics. |
| Abstract: | En théorie économique, le terme d'interaction est utilisé pour qualifier la relation d'échange entre des agents sur le marché. Sur le plan sémantique, l'usage du mot recouvre des significations différentes selon que l'on se trouve dans un modèle classique de concurrence pure et parfaite, dans un modèle de théorie des jeux ou encore à l'intérieur de l'économie institutionnelle. L'usage polysémique du terme d'interaction révèle notamment des postures méthodologiques différentes. Chez les économistes, cependant, la signification du terme d'interaction ne recouvre pas totalement celle de « transaction », identifiée par John Dewey, dans laquelle les entités qui participent à l'échange sont elles-mêmes transformées – laissant ainsi entrevoir un prolongement de l'analyse de l'interaction en économie. |
| Keywords: | Economic exchange, Semantics, Influence, Trans-action, Inter-action, échange économique, inter-action, trans-action, influence, sémantique |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04493593&r=hpe |
| By: | Raphaël Orange-Leroy (AGORA - EA 7392 - Laboratoire AGORA - CY - CY Cergy Paris Université, IDHES - Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l'Économie et de la Société - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ENS Paris Saclay - Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, CRHIA - Centre de recherches en histoire internationale et Atlantique - UR 1163 - ULR - La Rochelle Université - Nantes Univ - UFR HHAA - Nantes Université - UFR Histoire, Histoire de l'Art et Archéologie - Nantes Université - pôle Humanités - Nantes Univ - Nantes Université) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the group of 77 developing countries (G77) participated in the 1960s international monetary negotiations. This involvement was based on the agenda built by a group of experts gathered by UNCTAD in 1965. The group was composed of academic and practitioner economists from all over the world, including some famous names, such as Richard Kahn, Tibor Scitovsky, and Trevor Swan, as well as less-known though influential figures, including I. G. Patel, Gamani Corea, and Jorge Gonzalez del Valle. UNCTAD served as an "institutional infrastructure" (Gasper 2011) that allowed for the emergence of new analyses and narratives on the interests of developing countries in the international monetary reform that was being discussed among the wealthy countries of the Group of Ten (G10). The report of the experts proved influential. At the intellectual level, it convinced IMF economists, including Jacques Polak, to change their frame of analysis for a more global vision. At the political level, it was endorsed by G77 and participated in the G10 agreement for universal distribution of the newly created Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). Based on international organizations' archives, this paper, therefore, challenges the invisibilization process of the G10 over G77 ideas. Multilateral negotiations also offer a "keyhole" to study new economist figures from developing countries. Thanks to prosopographic methodology, this paper attempts to follow the national and international connections of the experts as a way to open new research areas for the history of economics. |
| Keywords: | Diplomatic History, Economic History, International Relations, History of Political Economy, United Nations, UNCTAD, IMF, World Bank, G77, G10, G24, Global South, Periphery, Third World, Money, Finance, Development, Development Finance, Special Drawing Rights, SDRs, economists, 1960s, 1970s |
| Date: | 2023–06–19 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04498357&r=hpe |
| By: | Leonard, Robert |
| Abstract: | Review of “La science est un jeu: La théorie des jeux dans la France des années 1950” by Tarik Tazdaït. |
| Date: | 2024–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:3bd4r&r=hpe |
| By: | Alain Béraud (CREST-THEMA - CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CY - CY Cergy Paris Université); Guy Numa (CSU - Colorado State University [Fort Collins]) |
| Abstract: | In a note published in the latest issue of History of Economic Ideas, James Ahiakpor rehashes previously debunked claims. After stating that our arguments were "misleading" and fantasizing about Jean-Baptiste Say's "retrogression, " Ahiakpor now claims to have uncovered "mistaken bases of [Fred Manville] Taylor's deviations from Say's own law." Using cherry-picked evidence, selective quotations, and irrelevant sources, his latest note is another desperate attempt to manipulate the historical record. Our peer-reviewed research on Say and Say's Law stands. We have engaged the totality of the textual and archival evidence, a task that Ahiakpor is still unwilling or unable to perform. An honest and comprehensive reading of Say and Taylor's original writings completely invalidate Ahiakpor's fallacious conclusions. The present essay shows that his claims have no merit. Fred Taylor did correctly analyze Say's message. |
| Keywords: | Jean-Baptiste Say, Demand, Money, Outlets, Production |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04482952&r=hpe |
| By: | Gehlbach, Scott; Luo, Zhaotian; Shirikov, Anton; Vorobyev, Dmitriy |
| Abstract: | In his seminal work on the political economy of dictatorship, Ronald Wintrobe (1998) posited the existence of a "dictator's dilemma, " in which repression leaves an autocrat less secure by reducing information about discontent. We explore the nature and resolution of this dilemma with a formalization that builds on recent work in the political economy of nondemocracy. When the regime is sufficiently repressive, and the dictator's popularity correspondingly unclear to opposition as well as autocrat, the ruler faces two unattractive options: he can mobilize the repressive apparatus, even though there may be no threat to his rule, or he can refrain from mobilizing, even though the threat may be real. Semicompetitive elections can ease the dilemma through the controlled revelation of discontent. Depending on the ease of building a repressive apparatus, autocrats who manage information in this way may prefer more or less repression than Wintrobe's dilemma alone implies. |
| Date: | 2024–03–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:b94fc&r=hpe |
| By: | Lise Arena (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur); Richard Arena (UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur) |
| Abstract: | This article seeks to analyse the circumstances and the nature of the emergence of management research from economic analysis in the 1950s in Britain and France. It also looks at the more recent shifts in the boundaries between these two social sciences; and to understand their analytical and methodological significance by taking into account the different historical and cultural contexts within which they were embedded. |
| Keywords: | Microeconomics, Management research, Intellectual traditions, Methodology |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04489596&r=hpe |
| By: | Ravi Kanbur (Cornell University) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows the power of applying Shannon’s (1948) information theory perspective to inequality measurement by considering the thought experiment of drawing a dollar at random from an income distribution and asking who the dollar came from. The surprise at being told who the dollar came from, and the task of designing a set of questions with yes/no answers which will get us to the person, are two sides of the same coin but with interesting interpretations. The Theil index of inequality, which Theil (1967) himself derived with reference to information theory and entropy but did not then explore further, is shown to have interpretations beyond its simple Daltonian properties such as satisfying the principle of transfers or being sub-group decomposable. It can be interpreted as a statistical test of the hypothesis of fairness, and as a quantitative measure of the difficulty of achieving Rawls’s (1971) original position behind the veil of ignorance. |
| Keywords: | Information Theory, Inequality, Veil of Ignorance |
| JEL: | D31 D63 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2024-669&r=hpe |
| By: | Andre Moulin (CPN - Centre Pierre Naville - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - Université Paris-Saclay) |
| Abstract: | Nos articles des rubriques Caractérisation de l'économie capitaliste et évolutions possibles et Analyse du capitalisme actuel au prisme des moyens de production de nos carnets de recherche mobilisent les propos de Marx sur l'acquisition des moyens de production par le capitaliste et plus généralement sur sa totale contribution financière et soulignent la prise en compte littérale de ces propos ou l'ignorance de leur non-actualité par les militants marxistes et les économistes « de gauche » actuels, alors même que la littérature financière décrit sans détours des procédés ou des astuces permettant à l'actionnaire d'investir le moins possible pour posséder exclusivement les moyens de production. Cet article commente dix propositions de E. Mandel, économiste marxiste reconnu, qui fondent son ouvrage majeur Le troisième Age du capitalisme, dans lequel il s'attache à montrer la pertinence de l'analyse marxiste, dont celle à propos de l'acquisition des moyens de production, pour prendre en compte d'autres théories de référence comme celles de Kondratieff (théorie des ondes longues), Schumpeter (les cycles d'innovation), Rostow (Les cinq étapes de la croissance économique). Ces dix propositions de E. Mandel embrassent les sujets les plus importants à propos du capitalisme et nos commentaires permettent ensuite de souligner l'obstacle stratégique à toute remise en cause durable du capitalisme, à savoir une remise en cause qui soit in fine acceptée par tous sans nécessité de coercition permanente. Cet obstacle stratégique est la non-dénonciation de la méthode capitaliste d'appropriation des moyens de production, méthode à remplacer, en première étape, par l'appropriation libérale de ceux-ci par le collectif de salariés, enfin sujet de droit. |
| Keywords: | sciences humaines, économie, moyens de production, finance, spéculation |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04481201&r=hpe |