The Cambridge Tradition in Economics: An interview with G. C. Harcourt

Geoffrey Colin Harcourt has devoted a long and fruitful career to the development of themes associated with the Cambridge and Post-Keynesian traditions in economics. He is perhaps best known for his survey of the Cambridge capital theory debates (1972); but he has written widely on growth and investment, on effective demand, on pricing and distribution, and on the history of economics in the twentieth century. He has also written extensively on policy (2001a) and was a 'back room boy' for the Australian Labor Party for many years. During the Vietnam War, Harcourt was a leader of the anti-war movement in South Australia. The following interview focuses on the evolution of, and prospects for, the Cambridge tradition that stems from the work of John Maynard Keynes, Piero Sraffa, Joan Robinson, Richard Kahn, Nicholas Kaldor and Michal Kalecki. The interview took place in Professor Harcourt's rooms in Jesus College, Cambridge, on 5 September 2000.     

Clickenomics: Using a Classroom Response System to Increase Student Engagement in a Large-Enrollment Principles of Economics Course

One of the most important challenges facing college instructors of economics is helping students engage. Engagement is particularly important in a large-enrollment Principles of Economics course, where it can help students achieve a long-lived understanding of how economists use basic economic ideas to look at the world. The author reports how instructors can use Classroom Response Systems (clickers) to promote engagement in the Principles course. He draws heavily on his own experience in teaching a one semester Principles course at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill but also reports on how others have used clickers to promote engagement. He concludes with evidence that students find clickers very beneficial and with an assessment of the costs and benefits of adopting a clicker system.     

Enigma in the Origins of Paul Sweezy's Political Economy

Paul Sweezy's work on the history of the British coal industry gave rise to his doctoral thesis and a published monograph at exactly the same time that he was making the transition from mainstream economics to Marxist political economy. This note explores the peculiar disappearance of this work from his subsequent contributions despite its apparent influence upon and consistency with it.     

William Hutt and the Economics of Apartheid

The work of William Hutt is well knownin the fields of labor economics, monetary economics and politicaleconomy. A hundred years after his birth it is appropriate totake note of a less well known work of his, The Economics ofthe Color Bar. This book, first published in 1964, is an in-depthexamination of the origins and implications of apartheid in SouthAfrica his adopted country of residence for 38 years of his life.It can be read today not only as an authoritative and illuminatingpolitical and social history of South Africa from its first colonizationuntil the time of writing, but also as a window into the originsof South Africas current dilemmas.     

Keynes’ Preface to the German Edition of the General Theory: Nazi Sympathies or Methodological Empathies?

In the (1936) preface to the German edition of The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Keynes contrasts his methodology with that of Classical laissez-faire economics. He also compares and contrasts his methodology with German economics, which members of the German Historical School had heavily influenced. Unfortunately, some view Keynes as arguing in this Preface that his theory could more deductively apply to fascism than to laissez-faire economies. This would suggest an endorsement of Nazism. Of course, any support offered for Nazism should be condemned. However, instead of displaying Nazi sympathies, this paper argues that the Preface more likely supports the widespread methodological rejection in German economics of deducing laissez-faire outcomes from Classical postulates. Furthermore, Keynes criticizes the more inductive approach of many German economists, and states that he provides them with the theoretical framework which they could deductively apply to their totalitarian economy. Keynes should be read as arguing that his theoretical framework would prove more applicable to a totalitarian system than would a theory based on Classical laissez-faire economics. Comments in the Preface which seem to some to support Nazism should be taken, then, as support for the applicability of his theory to such a system. Keynes’ methodological arguments in the prefaces to the other editions, which reflect his overall methodological approach in the General Theory, his familiarity with German economics, his support for liberal economic and political institutions, and his anti-Nazism, all support this alternative interpretation. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Midwest Economics Association Meetings in Chicago on March 16, 2008.     

Keynes’ Preface to the German Edition of the General Theory: Nazi Sympathies or Methodological Empathies?

In the (1936) preface to the German edition of The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Keynes contrasts his methodology with that of Classical laissez-faire economics. He also compares and contrasts his methodology with German economics, which members of the German Historical School had heavily influenced. Unfortunately, some view Keynes as arguing in this Preface that his theory could more deductively apply to fascism than to laissez-faire economies. This would suggest an endorsement of Nazism. Of course, any support offered for Nazism should be condemned. However, instead of displaying Nazi sympathies, this paper argues that the Preface more likely supports the widespread methodological rejection in German economics of deducing laissez-faire outcomes from Classical postulates. Furthermore, Keynes criticizes the more inductive approach of many German economists, and states that he provides them with the theoretical framework which they could deductively apply to their totalitarian economy. Keynes should be read as arguing that his theoretical framework would prove more applicable to a totalitarian system than would a theory based on Classical laissez-faire economics. Comments in the Preface which seem to some to support Nazism should be taken, then, as support for the applicability of his theory to such a system. Keynes’ methodological arguments in the prefaces to the other editions, which reflect his overall methodological approach in the General Theory, his familiarity with German economics, his support for liberal economic and political institutions, and his anti-Nazism, all support this alternative interpretation. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Midwest Economics Association Meetings in Chicago on March 16, 2008.     

Wallace C. Peterson: A Post-Keynesian Institutionalist

Wallace C. Peterson was an exemplary post-Keynesian institutionalist. He wrote about the foundations of economics in a manner that paved the way for today’s post-Keynesian institutionalism. He analyzed the U.S. economy with a keenness that not only shed new light on the macroeconomic issues of his day, but also put him decades ahead of other economists on the problem of United States’ silent depression. Furthermore, he identified policy issues that continue to spark widespread public interest and discussion. I examine his contributions in each of those areas (foundations, analyses, and policy).     

Comparative Institutional Advantage and the Appropriate Development Model for Sub-Saharan Africa

The theory of comparative institutional advantage posits that certain types of firms locate production facilities in a particular location and avoid other locations due to unique institutional advantages and disadvantages. In sub-Saharan Africa, neoliberal policies, weak and corrupt states, and Transnational Corporations have created a particularly destructive variant of capitalism. African capitalism generates little in the way of economic growth, rewards mainly the TNC and the African elites, and undermines Africa’s economic future via activities that are utterly extractive in nature. African capitalism is facilitated directly by the WTO, the structural adjustment policies of the IMF and the World Bank, and the institutional structures of African economies. After outlining the problems with African capitalism as currently structured, the paper goes on to suggest an alternative to this model involving experimental, embedded, grass roots development efforts that build on domestic cultural institutions that would generate significantly more positive outcomes for the people of sub-Saharan Africa. By abandoning neoliberal policies, it might be possible to create a better economic model that would build on community-centered institutional strengths to benefit a greater proportion of the population.

State-led humanitarian aid: Another case of “government failure”

A review essay on Christopher Coyne’s Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013). The book considers whether state-led humanitarian actions can be expected to succeed in reducing human suffering. Finding that as a rule they cannot be expected to do so, Coyne devotes the greater part of the book to an analysis of such programs in the light of the economic way of thinking, which in his approach blends public choice, basic applied price theory, Austrian economics, and the new institutional economics. He concludes that the best way to reduce human suffering in the long run is by promoting sustained economic development and that the best way to achieve such development is by adopting institutions that protect economic freedom.     

Editorial

Conclusion We keenly feel the loss of our friend, Murray N. Rothbard. We shall strive to follow the path he so ably blazed. Although none of us ever studied formally with Murray, he was our intellectual guide and mentor. He will be sorely missed.Co-editors of theReview of Austrian Economics are: Walter Block, associate professor of economics at The College of the Holy Cross, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Joseph T. Salerno, associate professor of economics at the Lubin School of Business, Pace University.     

Honoring a pioneer: Gordon Tullock (1922–2014)

Gordon Tullock made seminal contributions to three disciplines, economics, political science, and biology. He was also a founder of bioeconomics. Although economic theory has moved beyond the rational self-interest assumption that underlies his work, Tullock’s contributions were important theoretical stepping stones.     

新时期生态经济学理论与实践

本文认为，在新时期，中国生态经济学在理论研究方面应对以下三个问题予以更多的关注，即：生态价值理论、经济贫困和环境恶劣双重约束下的经济可持续发展及世界经济一体化对中国生态安全的影响。作者同时也提出了自己对上述三个问题的看法。     

The State,Public Policy and Heterodox Economics: An Introduction

While most heterodox economists endorse some amount of policy activism, there is no unified conception of the state and public policy in heterodox economics. To help clarify the similarities and differences within heterodoxy – and between heterodox and mainstream economics – a panel addressing this subject was convened in 2007 at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Institutional Thought. This article introduces the essays prepared for that symposium. They include an examination of the position of Marx and Engels, a clarification of the institutionalist views of Veblen and Commons, an outline of the perspective of Post Keynesian Institutionalism, and an account of some essential contributions of Classical Pragmatism (a major school of thought within the philosophy of science). The collection advances what Robert Heilbroner called “the worldly philosophy” by seeking to understand the role of the state in a world where institutions, defined broadly as social habits, adjust to other institutions.

Richard Manning 1943–1989

The community of academic economists and professionals has suffered a great loss by Richard Manning's untimely death. He was barely halfway through his career and at the peak of his ability as a researcher, teacher and leader. Many students will no longer encounter his insight into economic theory, many colleagues will miss his ability to focus discussion into fruitful avenues and many good papers will not be written with the same clarity of thought The discipline of economics is poorer for it.     

王亚南对广义政治经济学的研究及其启示

广义政治经济学是恩格斯在《反杜林论》中首次提出的,他认为马克思和自己都没有完成广义政治经济学的研究创造。我国当代著名马克思主义经济学家王亚南曾计划分20讲对广义政治经济学进行研究,由于诸多原因,虽未能完成宿愿,但他从研究内容、方法原则等角度的研究成果对如何进一步创造完成广义政治经济学有积极的启示意义。     

How far an Austrian law and economics should be Posnerian?

The purpose of this note is to stress that Posner??s conception of law and of the role of judges in a legal system might be problematic for an Austrian approach to law and economics, despite the praxeological dimension of his analysis.     

Students' Characteristics and Performance in Economic Statistics

The vast majority of studies in college economics have dealt with the introductory principles course. In one of the rare research projects dealing with other courses, Professor Cohn attempts to identify factors affecting student performance in economic statistics. He considers such variables as grade point average, graduate vs. undergraduate status, major field, sex and credits in economics, mathematics and statistics. There are a few recognized limitations to his model, but the reader will find some of his results to be surprising indeed.     

Revisiting the Relevance of International Trade Theory

Probably one of the most controversial contributions to the literature of international trade theory was offered by the late social economist John Culbertson. In his view, low wage competition among corporations in a world characterized by capital mobility and massive trade deficits undermines the foundation trade theory based on David Ricardo’s celebrated notion of comparative advantage. Instead, there are several good reasons to believe that international trade with China, India, Vietnam, etc. will be governed by absolute advantage. The current essay is dedicated to the virtually ignored work of Culbertson, and it is meant as an invitation for social economists to critically evaluate the argument and in the process make an attempt to point out where it goes wrong.

Tony Atkinson and his Legacy

Tony Atkinson is universally celebrated for his outstanding contributions to the measurement and analysis of inequality, but he never saw the study of inequality as a separate branch of economics. He was an economist in the classical sense, rejecting any sub‐field labelling of his interests and expertise, and he made contributions right across economics. His death on 1 January 2017 deprived the world of both an intellectual giant and a deeply committed public servant in the broadest sense of the term. This collective tribute highlights the range, depth and importance of Tony's enormous legacy, the product of almost fifty years’ work.