Interdependence and independence in Cantillon's Essai

Abstract

Cantillon's contribution to economic thought is widely understood to lie in his systematic examination of economic interconnectedness. The model developed here brings profits fully into price determination, casts additional light on Cantillon's treatment of distribution, and provides the first extended analysis of the policy recommendations found in part one of his Essai. These anti-urban policies are examined in relation to French urbanization and William Petty's analysis of Irish economic development.

Entrepreneurial risk-bearing is central to the Essai and this model, yet for Cantillon landlord tastes determine the economy's equilibrium position. This view is mirrored in his treatment of class mobility: only by becoming landed proprietors can entrepreneurs escape dependence and become independent or autonomous determiners of society. Indeed, social mobility actually accounts for the ‘independence’ of the landed proprietors as a group. Rent's special role stems not so much from the nature of land or agriculture – as Physiocracy would emphasize – as from the nature of the social forces determining its ownership.     

Stabilizing consumer choice: the role of ‘true dynamic stability’ and related concepts in the history of consumer choice theory

Abstract

It is often argued that the inability of Arrow–Debreu general equilibrium theory to produce an adequate proof of the stability of the Walrasian price adjustment mechanism was one of the program's most significant failures. This paper will not question this standard interpretation of the history of general equilibrium theory, but makes the case that characterizing the ‘stability’ question in terms of market stability– in particular the stability of the equilibrium price vector in the Walrasian general equilibrium model – actually helped to stabilize the standard model of consumer choice in general equilibrium theory and elsewhere within microeconomics. The problem of the stability of ‘consumer's equilibrium’ was much discussed early in the twentieth century, and it has recently re-emerged in a different guise as the ‘endowment effects’ and ‘reference dependencies’ of contemporary behavioral economics, and yet it disappeared from mainstream discussion during the period 1950 to 1980. This paper argues that shifting the discussion from the intra-agent stability of the individual consumer to the inter-agent stability of the competitive market contributed – despite its ultimately negative impact on general equilibrium theory – to the long period of stable normal science consumer choice theory enjoyed during the middle of the twentieth century.     

The interdependence between economic analysis and methodology in the work of Joseph A. Schumpeter ∗

Abstract

This paper offers an overview of Schumpeter's entire economic work from a methodological perspective. Only from this ‘birds-eye’ view do all the well-known parts of his work become part of a mosaic which – from a distance – forms a picture of logical succession: It tells the story of an intensive search for an appropriate analytical understanding of the phenomenon of economic change. As a result, this paper argues that, from a methodological perspective, Schumpeter's work appears to be anything but a monolithic unit.     

The arrow of time in economics: from Robinson's critique to the new historical economics

Abstract

How time is comprehended in economics is central to the type of discipline to which economics is analogized. Rejecting the symmetrical notion of time in classical physics, Joan Robinson emphasized the importance of ‘historical time’, and hence history. A new generation of economists – including Paul Krugman, Paul David, and Brian Arthur – took up Robinson's challenge, seeking to create a new historical economics by relating random or ‘accidental’ historical events in different ways to the necessity of economic rules, and finding that, as Robinson saw, scale effects were crucial. Their efforts, however, fell short of integrating history into economics.     

Women,Real Estate,and Wealth in a Southern US County, 1780–1860

Abstract

In her 1986 book Women and the Law of Property in Early America, Marylynn Salmon concludes that the legal and economic changes experienced by early national and antebellum (pre–Civil War) United States women – which culminated in the passage of married women's property acts – were evolutionary rather than revolutionary. This paper examines changes in the economic status of women preceding the enactment of these statutes by analyzing new and valuable information: real-estate deeds and probate records in Henrico County, Virginia. Supplementing the diverse, yet limited, international and historical evidence on women's wealth holdings, this exploration of the asset accumulation of elite, free women in the southern US reveals that women's property holdings, personal and real, rose substantially over the 1780–1860 period. Thus, these results are consistent with those of other scholars, such as Marylynn Salmon, who document an increase in early national and antebellum women's economic status.     

Adding links,adding persons,and adding structures: Using Sen's frameworks

Abstract

This essay is a comment on “Sen on Freedom and Gender Justice,” by Mozaffar Qizilbash, which appeared in Feminist Economics Volume 11, Number 3, November 2005.

Building on the 2003 double special issue of Feminist Economics entitled “Amartya Sen's Work and Ideas,” this paper responds to the review essay by Mozaffar Qizilbash. It identifies and illustrates various possible evaluations of a theoretical system, including that it has acknowledged strengths, unrecognized strengths, remediable gaps or failings, or structural faults. The paper then looks at Sen's system as a theoretical basis for “human development”– in particular in relation to personhood, emotions, and psychological interdependence – and argues that it points in directions required for economic and social analysis, including towards theories of care, but is not itself a sufficient treatment. The paper suggests deepening Sen's system by connecting to other important languages of analysis concerning the structuring of attitudes, emotions, felt well-being, public reasoning, and politics.     

Enrico Barone's ‘Ministry of Production’: Content and Context

Abstract

Enrico Barone's famous article on economic planning, ‘Il Ministro della Produzione nello Stato Collettivista’ (‘The Ministry of Production in the Collectivist State’), which showed the theoretical possibility of an economically efficient collectivist planned economy, was published in Giornale degli Economisti in 1908. Barone's article has been widely cited, particularly in the comparative economic systems literature, but it has not been very widely read or analysed in recent years, and there is not much literature that places Barone's ‘Ministry’ model in the context of his other works or in its historical, social, or ideological context. The aims of this article are: (a) to analyse and clarify Barone's model in depth; (b) to place it in the context of Barone's other writings and the literature on the subject; and (c) to examine the apparent contradiction between Barone's hostility to socialism and his attempt to formulate the pure theory of the collectivist economy.     

Alfred Marshall's critical analysis of scientific management∗

Abstract

In Industry and Trade, ‘A study of industrial technique and business organization; and of their influences on the conditions of various classes and nations’ (1919), Alfred Marshall develops a detailed analysis of scientific management, emphasizing not only its unquestionable advantages but also its dangerous limits. Although in the literature Marshall's evaluation of scientific management has been considered rather positive, the author has found it sceptical and definitively critical in many passages of his book. This paper deals with Marshall's analysis in order to underline the reasons why he criticizes Taylor's system, which, at that time, sounded like the greatest expression of modernity.     

Gender and Network Formation in Rural Nicaragua: A Village case study

Abstract

This contribution examines the relation between gender and network formation in rural Nicaragua in 2007 and studies differences in the structure and contents of men's and women's networks. Such differences are relevant, as network theory suggests that structural characteristics – as well as the contents of networks – strongly influence the type and amount of benefits generated. Through the application of dyadic regression techniques, this study examines the determinants of the size and socioeconomic heterogeneity of individual networks. Research findings suggest gender segregation of networks and considerable differences in the structure and content of men's and women's networks. These differences relate to the gendered division of labor and to women's time poverty in particular. Our results are relevant in a context where policy makers increasingly consider social networks an important policy tool. We caution against a gender-blind alignment on existing social networks and argue for detailed mapping and unpacking of social networks through a gender lens.     

ECONOMIC RELATIONS BETWEEN WOMEN AND THEIR PARTNERS: AN EAST AND WEST GERMAN COMPARISON AFTER REUNIFICATION

abstract

This article compares women's and men's economic relations in East and West Germany following the 1990 reunification to exemplify the impact of varying opportunity structures on women's relative contribution to family income. West Germany's takeover set in motion a rapid transformation of East German institutions and employment structures. The analysis shows that women in West Germany became less dependent on their partners in the 1990s, largely because fewer women were housewives without earnings. In contrast, the contributions of women to the family economy in East Germany fell between 1990 and 1996. Afterwards, women in East Germany regained some of their economic power because of their partners' increasing difficulties sustaining employment. A multivariate analysis showed that the fact that women in West Germany were more likely to work less or not at all – especially if they were married or had children – accounted for much of the difference.     

‘A judicious and industrious compiler’: Mapping Postlethwayt's Dictionary of Commerce

ABSTRACT

This paper takes as its guide the largest compilation of commercial knowledge of the mid-eighteenth century in the English language, Malachy Postlethwayt's Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce (1751–1755). Using network analysis, the many cross-references between entries in this work allow one to identify clusters of themes and literatures within the mass of materials. Pictures are presented that can be interpreted as ‘mind maps’ grouping the commercial literature by various topics and themes. The paper then focuses on one novel aspect of Postlethwayt's work, i.e., his inclusion besides entries on ‘practical’ topics of ‘political’ discussions, and identifies his sources.     

The Unconscious Countermovement and the Conscious Polanyian Movement: A New Vocabulary for Contemporary Polanyian Scholarship

ABSTRACT

This article aims to overcome an impasse in current Polanyian scholarship by suggesting a new vocabulary to explain Polanyi’s ‘double movement’ and ‘countermovement’ concepts – the unconscious countermovement and the conscious Polanyian movement. It argues current literature often misinterprets these core concepts, which can lead to a misunderstanding of Polanyi’s general thesis. This paper uses the Carton (2018. On the Nature of the Countermovement: A Response to Stuart et al.’s ‘Climate Change and the Polanyian Countermovement: Carbon Markets or Degrowth?’. New Political Economy)-Stuart et al. (2019. Climate Change and the Polanyian Counter-movement: Carbon Markets or Degrowth? New Political Economy, 24 (1), 89–102) debate on the countermovement to exemplify some of the current misapplications of the countermovement as explicitly ‘anti-capitalist’ (Stuart et al. 2019. Climate Change and the Polanyian Counter-movement: Carbon Markets or Degrowth? New Political Economy, 24 (1), 89–102) movements. This paper argues that in fact all countermovements, as described in The Great Transformation, are necessarily non-ideological. I argue that dialectics and consciousness are fundamental to understanding the double movement and countermovement concepts and that highlighting the conscious/unconscious dynamic within Polanyi’s work helps avoid misreadings of key concepts and provides a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of Polanyi’s general theory.     

Real-world annualized healthcare utilization and expenditures among insured US patients with acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) treated with hemin

Abstract

Background and aims: Patients with acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) may suffer from acute non-specific attacks that often result in hospitalizations or emergency room (ER) visits. Prior to the recent approval of givosiran (November 2019), hemin was the only FDA-approved therapy for AIP attacks in the US. Our aim was to estimate the annual healthcare utilization and expenditures for AIP patients treated with hemin using real-world data.

Methods: Patients with ≥1 hemin claim and confirmed AIP diagnosis – 1 inpatient claim or 2 outpatient claims ≥30 d apart for AIP (2015–2017) or acute porphyria (prior to 2015) – were identified in MarketScan administrative claims dataset between 2007 and 2017. Continuous enrolment for ≥6 months from confirmed diagnosis was required. A secondary analysis (“active disease population”) limited the sample to adult patients with ≥3 attacks or 10 months of prophylactic use of hemin within a 12-month pre-index period. AIP-related care was defined by hemin use during an attack (daily glucose and/or hemin use) or prophylaxis (non-attack hemin use). Outcomes were annualized and expenditures were inflated to 2017.

Results: Across 10 years, patients with a confirmed AIP diagnosis (N?=?8,877) and ≥1 hemin claim (N?=?164) were restricted by ≥6 months continuous follow-up (N?=?139). AIP patients were mostly female (N?=?112; 81%), had median age of 40 and 3 years average follow-up. Annualized average total expenditures for AIP-related care were $113,477. Annualized average all-cause (any diagnosis) hospitalizations were statistically significantly lower for patients treated with hemin prophylaxis vs. acute treatment (1.0 vs. 2.1; p?<?.001). In the secondary analysis (N?=?27), annualized average total expenditures for AIP-related care were higher ($187,480).

Conclusions: For AIP patients treated with hemin, patients treated for acute attacks may use a greater number of resources compared to patients treated prophylactically.     

Circular reasoning. Forbonnais and the intricate history of circular flow analysis in the 1750s

Abstract

Circular flow analysis in mid-18th century France is normally associated with the writings of François Quesnay. From the early 1750?s, however, François Véron de Forbonnais developed a distinct theory of circulation in then well-known contributions to the Encyclopédie and his Elémens du commerce of 1754. This article argues that like Quesnay, Forbonnais was in part inspired by Cantillon’s Essay on the Nature of Trade in General. But while Quesnay gave original developments to the real aspects of Cantillon’’s analysis of circulation, Forbonnais focussed on developing monetary aspects, including arguments for the ‘non-neutrality’ of money and an original theory of the money interest rate.     

Keynes vs. the Post Keynesians on the Principle of Effective Demand *

Abstract

The American Post Keynesians – those who attach importance to the capital ‘P’ and the absence of a hyphen between ‘post’ and ‘Keynesian’– claim to be Keynes' most literal interpreters or the ‘truest’ Keynesians (Holt et al. 1998 Holt, R. P.F., Rosser, J. B. Jr. and Wray, L. R. 1998. Paul Davidson's Economics Jerome Levy Economics Institute Working Paper no. 251. Blithewood, NY (www.levy.org) [Google Scholar]: 17). This paper compares the Post Keynesian interpretation of the Principle of Effective Demand, i.e. the D/Z-model, with Keynes' own presentation in chapter 3 of the General Theory– and finds substantial differences. A re-interpretation of the D/Z-model is offered that would bring it into line with chapter 3.     

Continuity and change: Mapping the community of economists in Greece (1944 to 1967)

Abstract

This paper combines quantitative, biographical and qualitative data to trace out the structure and dynamics of Greece's post-war community of economists, and explore its implications for the country's economic discourse. Greek economics was a state-centred profession whose fate was intertwined with that of the post-war developmental state apparatus. Most economists were employed in universities, the civil service or banking, with substantial interpenetration between branches. This configuration of professional constituencies, in conjunction with the structural features of each institution, conditioned the form and content of economic discourse. Professional and ideological cohesion went hand in hand, whilst substantial degrees of vertical and horizontal control by senior members further fostered consensus and increased professional sclerosis. Nevertheless, evidence from a new database of economic journal publications suggests that a substantial realignment took place in the late 1950s and 1960s, as a younger generation of scholars – most of them educated in the post-war UK/US, and affiliated with the newly established Centre for Planning and Economic Research – entered the scene.     

Pleasure and belief in Hume's Decision Process

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce explicitly pleasure and belief in what aims at being a Humean theory of decision, like the one developed in Diaye and Lapidus (2005a). Although we support the idea that Hume was in some way a hedonist – evidently different from Bentham's or Jevons' way – we lay emphasis less on continuity than on the specific kind of hedonism encountered in Hume's writings (chiefly the Treatise, the second Enquiry, the Dissertation, or some of his Essays). Such hedonism clearly contrasts to its standard modern inheritance, expressed by the relation between preferences and utility.

The reason for such a difference with the usual approach lies in the mental process that Hume puts to the fore in order to explain the way pleasure determines desires and volition. Whereas pleasure is primarily, in Hume's words, an impression of sensation, it takes place in the birth of passions as reflecting an idea of pleasure, whose “force and vivacity” is precisely a “belief”, transferred to the direct passions of desire or volition that come immediately before action. As a result, from a Humean point of view, “belief” deals with decision under risk or uncertainty, as well as with intertemporal decision and indiscrimination problems.

The latter are explored within a formal framework, and it is shown that the relation of pleasure is transformed by belief into a non-empty class of relations of desire, among which at least one is a preorder.     

Interest rate gaps and monetary policy in the work of Henry Thornton: Beyond a retrospective Wicksellian reading *

Abstract

This paper revisits the theory of interest rates propounded by Henry Thornton (1760 – 1815). Particular attention is paid to Thornton's examination of the inflationary effects of the gap between the Bank of England's discount rate and the current rate of profit. The paper shows that Thornton is also concerned, unlike Wicksell, about the consequences of a gap between the Bank of England's discount rate and the effective bank lending rate on the market for loanable funds, which results mainly from the usury laws. Thornton's analyses offer then a framework for regulating the value of money through adjustments to the bank rate.     

Healthcare resource utilization and direct medical costs associated with index and recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection: a real-world data analysis

Abstract

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate all-cause economic outcomes, healthcare resource utilization (HRU), and costs in patients with Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) and recurrent CDI (rCDI) using commercial claims from a large database representing various healthcare settings.

Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis of commercial claims data from the IQVIA PharMetrics Plus database was conducted for patients aged 18–64 years with CDI episodes requiring inpatient stay with CDI diagnosis code or an outpatient medical claim for CDI plus a CDI treatment. Index CDI episodes occurred between 1 January 2010 and 30 June 2017, including only those where patients were observable 6 months before and 12 months after the index episode. Each CDI episode was followed by a 14-d claim-free period. rCDI was defined as another CDI episode within an 8-week window following the claim-free period. HRU, all-cause direct medical costs and time to rCDI were calculated over 12 months and stratified by number of rCDI episodes.

Results: A total of 46,571 patients with index CDI were included. Mean time from one CDI episode to the next was approximately 1 month. In the 12-month follow-up period, those with no recurrence had 1.4 inpatient visits per person and those with 3 or more recurrences had 5.8. Most patients with 3 or more recurrences had 2 or more hospital admissions. The mean annual, total all-cause direct medical costs per patient were $71,980 for those with no recurrence and $207,733 for those with 3 or more recurrences.

Limitations: The study included individuals 18–64 years only. A stringent definition of rCDI was used, which may have underestimated the incidence of rCDI.

Conclusions: CDI and rCDI are associated with substantial healthcare resource utilization and direct medical costs. Timing of recurrences can be predictable, providing a window of opportunity for interventions. Prevention of multiple rCDI appears essential to reduce healthcare costs.