What was wrong with the old institutional economics (and what is still wrong with the new)?

This paper is a comparison and critique of the old and the new institutional economics, with principal focus on the former. The paper argues that the old institutional economics (OIE) lacks methodological consistency and overall persuasiveness because of the preconceptions it took from the philosophy of pragmatism and its late nineteenth-century attitude towards science. The paper starts from the methodological problem posted by Thorstein Veblen; argues that the OIE was never able to solve that problem; and then poses a resolution of Veblen's dilemma in terms of a ‘benchmark’ programme useful in appraising both the OIE and the NIE. The paper also argues that the most appealing areas of OIE rhetoric–institutions and evolution–do not distinguish that programme from the NIE. What distinguishes the OIE are the less appealing doctrines of holism and instrumental valuing. The paper closes with a brief critique of the neoclassical core of the NIE.     

Technology Shocks or Coloured Noise? Why real-business-cycle models cannot explain actual business cycles

It is one of the objectives of this paper to respond to the self-proclaimed superiority of the new institutionalists over the old. New institutionalists have found little of value in the old, largely dismissing its approach and its concerns in favour of a more purely individualistic approach and one emphasizing invisible-hand and evolutionary processes. Nevertheless, it is the argument of this paper that in terms of the development of an adequate treatment of institutions it is far from obvious that the NIE, if it remains so narrowly constituted, can provide more than a part. The emphasis of the OIE on particular institutional histories, collective decision-making processes, and institutional failures retains its place, even in the face of the self-assured assault of the new.     

Institutions and Values: A Methodological Inquiry

Economics entails a study of institutions regardless of the school of thought, and it is inherently an analysis of institutional transformation with a vision toward creating positive social change through economic arrangements. However, the conceptions of institutions, identity of individuals, human nature as it pertains to economics, identification of the economic sphere, its concerns, and studying its evolution, all vary substantively across schools of thought. We examine the following issues: (i) the differences in the ontological identity of the individual between heterodox approaches, new institutional economics (NIE), and the neoclassical school; (ii) the central point of divergence between original institutional economics (OIE) and NIE, despite both schools being committed to the project of an “institutionally” centered approach to economics; and (iii) the absence of a cohesive project to explore foundational theoretical congruencies among those heterodox approaches that have a shared vision, values, and a common ontological identity of socially embedded people.     

Thinking Things Through: The Value and Limitations of James Buchanan's Public Choice Theory

Abstract

James Buchanan, one of the founders of Public Choice theory, applies the conceptual apparatus of economics to the public domain. This article investigates which assumptions are crucial to Buchanan's project, concentrating on methodological individualism and the Homo Economicus model. It shows that Buchanan from time to time moves away from these economic concepts, though only in minor ways. The article also focuses on Buchanan's normative emphasis on the role of institutions in coordinating self-interested individual actions in mutually beneficial ways. Criticizing Buchanan's analysis, the article argues that a broader view of the individual and of the role of institutions is necessary in a theory of constitutional choice.     

Skidelsky's Keynes: a review essay

Abstract

The paper examines the pro-work doctrines of four writers who were connected with the ‘utopian’ and ‘romantic’ critique of classical economics in the nineteenth century. These authors are Charles Fourier, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and William Morris. All four argued that the problem of work aversion stemmed from the existing institutions of capitalist society, and could be overcome by the creation of an alternative system of production. Their aim was to create a future society in which work could be experienced as a positive activity. The paper argues that the views of the aforementioned authors provided an important counterchallenge to the classical economists' conception of work as a disutility.     

Jules Dupuit,Société d'économie politique de Paris and the issue of population in France (1850 – 66) ∗

Abstract

The tradition that views Dupuit only as a brilliant engineer-economist who trained at the École nationale des Ponts et Chaussées remained strong in the fifty years that followed World War II. Within this tradition, research on Dupuit mostly was focused on his publications on surplus theory, road tolls and discriminating monopoly. His participation in the debates about other issues taking place within the various learned societies to which he belonged (Société d'économie politique de Paris, Société d'économie sociale, Société de statistique de Paris) long remained unexplored. But recent research has begun filling the gap. This paper follows on these latter research efforts. It aims at uncovering a largely unknown facet of Dupuit, endeavouring to fully elicit his role in the various controversies that took place in France between 1850 and 1866 on the issues of population and the Malthusian principle of population.     

Keynes and probability: An assessment

Abstract

Most interpreters agree that Keynes had a wide-ranging, complex, ‘vision of the world’, which underlies his theoretical contributions. Whenever this is forgotten, as happens in the so-called neoclassical synthesis, not only the original Keynesian spirit goes lost but also, and especially, we lose substantive bricks for our theoretical constructions. The paper considers an important instance of this general rule; namely Keynes's views on the logic of probability, meant as the field concerning human behaviour in an uncertain world (hence connected to, but distinct from, the pure theory of probability, meant as a field of mathematics). The paper begins by recalling the main aspects of the classical and frequentist approaches to probability and the main criticisms they received, pertaining among other things to the limits of their applicability. We then consider Keynes's own views, stressing three aspects: the definition of probability as pertaining to the field of logic, the notion of uncertainty and of the ‘weight of the argument’, the ‘theory of groups’. We then discuss the subjective approach of de Finetti, Ramsey and Savage, and contrast it with Keynes's own views. Finally, we consider the implications of our analysis for the interpretation of Keynes's General Theory, and of his attitude towards econometrics.     

Limits of the New Institutional Economics Approach to African Development

In the last two decades, there has been a marked shift in the research on Sub-Saharan Africa from standard neoclassical analysis to new institutional economics (NIE). The increasing emphasis on NIE is reflected in a wide range of works by international financial institutions and scholars. However, the NIE approach retains fundamental limitations due to its narrow interpretation of institutions, its over-reliance on analysis of transactions costs and property rights, and its ahistorical attachment to markets and private sector firms as major engines of development. Furthermore, NIE typically fails to look “inside institutions” to identify the complex cultural factors that shape the interests and behaviors of the members of institutions. This paper engages in a critique of NIE analysis of Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic development, and suggests the need for a nuanced analysis of property rights and culture, along with development programs to address inequality and poverty and to foster state-led development.     

Emerging Consensus on Labour Market Institutions and Implications for Developing Countries: From the Debates in India

Abstract

This paper makes a critical intervention to on-going theoretical and policy debates in the economic analysis of labour market institutions (LMIs) in the context of recent debates in India. It focuses on the internal inconsistency of mainstream economic analyses of LMIs, in particular those based on the new institutional economics (NIE) approach, and what appears to be an emerging policy consensus on LMIs within the World Bank and the International Labour Organization (ILO). The paper draws out the possible ideological parallels in these two developments, despite different intellectual origins and intentions of those engaged in these debates. A corresponding modification in policy debates in India is observed in the shifting perspectives from the Second National Commission on Labour (SNCL) to the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS). The apparent emerging consensus in both the theoretical literature and policy debates reveals the tendency for researchers to focus on labour market outcomes and phenomenal forms of LMIs rather than the structures, processes, agencies and relations that underpin them. While this can be seen as an advancement from the traditional distortionist-institutionalist dichotomy, the tendency of this consensus to explain the persistence of seemingly inefficient institutions within the micro-level choice theoretic framework and its appeal to policy agendas on good governance, social capital, trust and civil society, render it vulnerable to appropriation by the mainstream. The paper argues that the emerging consensus on LMIs is an inadequate framework to inform effective policy propositions, and highlights the scope and opportunity for a political economy alternative.     

Preaching to the choir: A response to Kaplow and Shavell's Fairness Versus Welfare

This note is a critical response to Louis Kaplow and Steven Shavell's recent treatise on law and economics, Fairness Versus Welfare, in which they argue that legal decision-making should be conducted with the sole goal of welfare-maximization. After a brief summary of the book, this paper focuses on three primary problems with its contents and approach. First, the tautological nature of the authors' argument, which they acknowledge but downplay is discussed. Second, it is argued that while the authors give lip-service to 'tastes for fairness,' they refuse to acknowledge the implications of such preferences for their conclusions and then minimize their possible importance. Finally, this paper addresses what is possibly the most disappointing aspect of this work: the arrogance, condescension, and intolerance displayed throughout the book toward those with dissenting views.     

The political opposition of Rousseau to Physiocracy: government,interest, citizenship

Abstract

Rousseau's relation to the Physiocrats has long been described as a “missed encounter” of which the Rousseau's letter to Mirabeau would serve as evidence. In opposition to this statement, I show in this article that this letter may offer a reliable prism which sheds light on Rousseau's meaningful opposition to physiocratic views. This opposition can be analyzed along three distinct conceptual lines, each interesting in its own right, and with regard to the birth of our political modernity. These are the theory of government, the definition of interest, and the interaction between public opinion and the formation of citizenship.     

R.G. Hawtrey on the national and international lender of last resort

Abstract

This paper traces R.G. Hawtrey's main contributions to the theory of the lender of last resort (LLR), both national and international (ILLR). This theory is a continuation of one of the traditions of the classical period, started by Henry Thornton, which differs in important points from that of Walter Bagehot. In their treatment of the classical concepts the authors partly depart from the interpretation of Thomas M. Humphrey, who considers that Thornton and Bagehot have basically the same approach about LLR. Hawtrey renewed Thonton's views and extended the concepts to new problems, including the ILLR. Hawtrey built a model of LLR in a dynamic macroeconomic model that includes the Cambridge market for cash balance and introduces the bases of a theory of ILLR, describing the sequence of twin crisis, exchange and banking crisis, thus explaining the difficulties for an ILLR to act on the currency market without taking the risks involved, in a situation completely different to the one faced on the money market by the national LLR.     

新制度经济学的兴起与公共财政论的发展

中国财政学的发展趋势是在社会共同需要论的基础之上发展公共财政论。近年来, 新制度经济学的兴起对正统经济理论（ 新古典经济学） 提出了挑战。新制度经济学的兴起对公共财政论产生了较大的影响, 本文拟对此进行分析, 以期更为全面地认识公共财政论。     

‘Marxism Gone Mad’: Tugan-Baranovsky on crises,their possibility and their periodicity

Abstract

Tugan-Baranovsky's theory of crises has two components: a theory of markets, defining the condition under which expanded reproduction can take place, and a theory of crises proper, explaining how any rupture of equilibrium is amplified and extended to the whole system and gives rise to periodical fluctuations. The former, based on the Marxian schemes of reproduction, is logically preliminary to the latter, which relies on the accumulation and depletion of loanable funds. In spite of Tugan's insistence on this nexus, academic commentators have ignored Tugan's theory of markets, while Marxist critics have focused exclusively on this aspect and charged Tugan with upholding Say's Law. While this reading is not entirely justified, there is indeed a deep difference between Tugan's and Marx's interpretation of crises. While Marx considers crises as the necessary corrective to the systematic and necessary breaches of equilibrium, Tugan sees equilibrium as the norm and crises a deviation from it, albeit recurring and periodical.     

Subjectivism,joint consumption and the state: Public goods in Staatswirtschaftslehre *

Abstract

On the basis of F.B.W. Hermann's Staatswirthschaftliche Untersuchungen and of major German, Austrian and Swedish contributions to public economics, two specific claims with regard to the Germanic influence in the development of public expenditure theory are put forward in this paper. It is contended that the German achievements concerning the conceptual clarification of public goods are: (i) important as conceptual ingredients of the modern ‘micro-based’ theory of the public sector: (ii) less closely linked to some historical and intellectual German Sonderweg (culminating in historism, a collectivistic view of social entities and a mystical glorification of the State) than is often suggested.

It is argued that these achievements rather were to a large extent inspired by the more cosmopolitan tendencies in German thought. An important influence is Kantian liberalism. Kant construed a kind of foundational interdependence between the public and the private sector. This prepares the ground for a framework of complementary institutions instead of explaining public institutions in terms of a market failure-perspective based on non-excludability: the view developed in German Idealism gives non-rivalry the pivotal role: the explanation of public institutions systematically hinges upon the existence of goods, the benefits of which are necessarily universal and hence are necessarily made available in a non-rival mode.     

Augusto Graziani and the Marx-Schumpeter-Keynes ‘Cycle of Money Capital’: A Personal Look at the Early Italian Circuitism from an Insider

ABSTRACT

The paper goes back to the origins of the theory of the monetary circuit in its Italian incarnation. Focus is on the evolution of Augusto Graziani's thinking between mid-1970s and mid-1980s, considering: (i) how Graziani connected (positively or polemically) with Keynesianism and Post-Keynesianism, both in its Cambridge and US incarnations; (ii) how Graziani interpreted the contributions of Keynes proposing a continuity between the Treatise on Money, the General Theory, and the articles on finance published after the 1936 book; (iii) how beneath the research programme of Italian circuitism (Graziani) we may recognise a peculiar Marxian inspiration, later on pursued for a while by some participants to the Seminar in Monetary Theory that Graziani coordinated in Naples (1981–85). Since the mid-1970s Graziani — who already had a profound knowledge of Neoclassical Theory; and who was deeply aware of the role of institutions — developed more and more his heretical stance into what we may label as a ‘structural Keynesian' approach, inserting Keynes’ views about finance to production and effective demand into a Schumpeterian vision of the capitalist process, and leading to Marxian conclusions about value and distribution. The early forays into circuitism by Graziani were not only critical towards the Neoclassical Synthesis, Monetarism, or New Classical Macroeconomics. They were also grounded in an intense confrontation with other contemporary heterodox currents. The outcome was the construction of an original scheme of thought which amounted to nothing less than a macro-monetary theory of capitalist production.     

Turgot: a critic of physiocracy? An analysis of the debates in Éphémérides du Citoyen and in correspondence with Dupont

Abstract

Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot (1727–1781) is one of the few French economic theorists who led a political career and held ministerial office. He continues to intrigue both historians and historians of economic thought where his relationship with the physiocrats is concerned. Does Turgot fully share their belief system, or does he only borrow a few elements from it? Is he a critical author of this school of thought? To date, no agreement has been reached on this subject. This paper attempts to answer some of these questions in an objective manner, drawing on the evidence provided by texts and therefore minimising the interpretations. The sources we will primarily refer to are the Éphémérides du citoyen and Turgot's correspondence with Dupont. We will revisit the economic themes of large- and small-scale farming, as well as savings, and discuss Turgot's views on slavery and the “sectarian spirit” of the physiocrats.     

A calm investigation into Mr Ricardo's principles of international trade

Abstract

This paper deals with some difficulties presented by Ricardo's texts on international trade, taking seriously Ricardo's account of the systematic interaction of real and monetary phenomena. After a brief reassessment of the main features of Ricardo's views on foreign trade, some basic questions are examined, concerning the method of analysis and the alleged invalidity of the labour theory of value at the international level. The enquiry goes on to state that, for Ricardo, there are no significant differences between domestic and international exchanges, and on this basis, proposes a simple and general rule explaining the flows of trade. The “principle of comparative advantage” and the “gains from trade” thus appear as simple unintended consequences of the decisions of agents in free markets. Finally, the characteristics of an international equilibrium and the nature and impact of destabilising shocks are analysed.     

Are We Forgetting Something? Remarks on the Connections Between Douglass North’s Contributions and Original Institutional Economics

Douglass North’s latest works have become central to the current discussion regarding the differences and similarities between new institutional economics (NIE) and original institutional economics (OIE). We seek to contribute to this debate by offering a specific analytical perspective to evaluating North’s contributions. After defining a set of philosophical and methodological principles that specifies OIE, we endeavor to verify if and how North’s work relates to these foundations. We believe that this methodological perspective brings to light a fundamental issue not stressed by earlier analyses: the profound difference between the institutionalisms regarding the role of market order as a mechanism of human sociability.