The neglect of comparison income: An historical perspective

Abstract

Theories of social comparison have a long presence in the social sciences and have provided many useful insights. In economics, the idea of comparison, aspiration or relative income belongs to this theoretical framework. The first systematic usages of this notion can be found in the works of Keynes and Duesenberry. After these works the concept was relatively ignored by orthodox theorists until its recent re-appearance, mainly in the fields of labour and macroeconomics. To the contrary, however, income comparisons continued to play a role in much of Keynesian inspired and non-mainstream economics literature. In the past few years it has made a strong comeback in the literature of job satisfaction and of the economics of happiness. This paper attempts to trace the development of the concept in the modern history of economic thought. It also discusses the main theoretical implications of adopting income comparisons and possible reasons for its relative disregard by orthodox economics.     

奠基时期中国经济思想史研究的成就与地位

文章将1897-1949年间的中国经济思想史研究作为该学科的奠基时期。鉴于奠基时期的学术研究对后续研究的重要影响,以及学术界对该阶段研究的不足和对其评价肯定得不够充分,文章从学术史研究的角度出发,围绕研究成果、学术争鸣、学术价值以及研究特点等方面系统地阐述了奠基时期中国经济思想史研究的主要贡献与历史地位,并对经济思想史学科的发展提出了一些针对性的建议。     

The Dichotomized State

As the radical institutionalist literature attests, in spite of methodological differences Marx and Veblen draw strikingly similar conclusions regarding production, conflict, and alienation in modern life. Here we attempt to contribute to this viewpoint by establishing that similarity in conclusion stems from similarity in approach. After reviewing the existing literature on a Marx-Veblen methodological reconciliation, we briefly review Marx's method, making the mediated starting point the focus of discussion. From this vantage point, we then examine Veblen's own approach to analysis in The Theory of Business Enterprise and the conclusions that emerge as they resemble those of Marx. We maintain that in taking a kindred approach Veblen is able to arrive at an understanding of capitalism in accordance with, and complementary to, Marx's rendering of the inverted nature of economic life in modernity.     

The conspicuous absence of examination questions concerning the Great Irish Famine: political economy as science and ideology *

To advance our general understanding about the development of nine-teenth-century Irish political economy in the wake of the Great Irish Famine (1846–51), this article analyses the Famine's impact on a previously unstudied, yet uniquely authoritative, element of the displine: the questions given to candidates for the Whately Professorship of Political Economy at Trinity College, Dublin from 1832 to 1882. This article concludes, contrary to previous arguments, that the Famine did not fundamentaly influence the discipline's development, and relates this conclusion to debates over whether and how political economy functioned as an ideology in shaping policy responses to the Famine.     

为什么教科书中有关重商主义的流行看法是错误的*

重商主义作为经济思想史教科书的必讲内容,其核心观点长期以来被误读为“财富即货币,货币即财富”,其经济政策体系也被认为是建立在将金银与财富混为一谈的基础之上。本文通过研究原始文献、经典著作以及西方经济思想史学界的最新研究成果,指出教科书中的这些看法是错误的。部分早期重商主义者已经认识到制造业是最大的财富之源。晚期重商主义关注如何通过发展制造业使国家富强。来源于实践经验的重商主义经济政策体系促进了英国崛起,至今仍具有重要影响力。教科书应该尽早做出修正,还重商主义以本来面目。     

Joan Robinson on Population Growth

Joan Robinson’s views on population growth have received scant attention. The aim of this article is to summarize and evaluate aspects of Robinson’s perspectives on population. The population question is considered in terms of four specific topics: the problem of growth, the labor market, effective demand and economic development. The article also interprets Robinson’s approach in light of the endogenous theory of economic growth in order to more explicitly elucidate Robinson’s own statements. It is concluded that an economic interpretation of population growth based on Robinson’s approach requires some specific adaptations if it is to be feasible. It is hoped that this line of approach is useful to scholars of the history of economic thought, economic development or theory of economic growth.     

Uchronies and the History of Economic Knowledge*

The international community of historians of economic thought is not essentially divided between ‘absolutists’ and ‘relativists’, or between ‘continuists’ and 'discontinuists Rather it is the specific content of the métier d'historien which makes the difference. This paper aims at highlighting and systematizing the features characterizing the work of innovative historians. Some of these features are represented by analyses concerning:

1 the intersections between pre-theoretical categories;

2 enunciative homogeneities/heterogeneities;

3 the formation and decomposition of social knowledge;

4 schools of thought

These different research practices are then unified under the common label of ‘uckronies’ (possible albeit non-arbitrary histories). Lastly, some implications of this interpretation are examined. One of them is particularly important: i. e. the irreducible ambiguity of the historian of economic thought vis-à-vis the economist. On the one hand, the former may hermeneutically discover new and valuable ideas from an intellectual viewpoint, but, on the other hand, the ways in which these ideas can enrich economic theory are absolutely uncertain. This ambivalence, together with the ‘scandalous’ trans-disciplinarity of the concepts and instruments employed by the historian of economic thought, may explain the diffidence of the economists towards the new tendencies of historiography.     

Pod learning: Student groups create podcasts to achieve economics learning goals

In this article, the authors examine two ways that they use music (i.e., popular song lyrics) as an active learning technique in an undergraduate history of economic thought course. First, they use music to help students grasp the ideas of the great thinkers in economics and see their relevance today. Second, because they require students to read original texts and write thesis-driven essays, they use music to teach essential skills related to such assignments. While the article focuses on how they use music as a pedagogical device to teach the history of economic thought, the use of music to teach essential skills could be applied to any economics course in which students engage in higher-level reading and writing.     

论经济学中的价值理论

价值理论在经济学中占有核心地位.本文简要回顾了经济思想史上价值理论的发展过程,梳理了几种主要价值理论——劳动价值论、生产要素价值论、边际效用价值论、均衡价格理论一之间的对立和传承关系,逐一分析了这几种价值理论的基本内容,重点关注每种理论的前提假设是否合理,逻辑推演过程是否正确,尽力避免意识形态角度的评断.主要结论是:马...     

Book reviews

Abstract

It is a commonly accepted view that the parity theory of forward exchange based on the law of one price was first formulated by Keynes. In this article we assess the preliminary shapes of the interest parity (IP) relation. After reviewing the early beginnings of the IP relation, we investigate two French economists of the mid-nineteenth century who have hitherto received no adequate attention. We argue that Bonnet and Juglar ought to be considered pioneers in the assessment of IP relation since Goschen's contribution is related to the specificity of ‘long’ exchange rates at a bimetallic time.     

Economic Liberalism and the State: Dismantling the Myth of Naïve Laissez-Faire

The article offers a critique of the prevailing understanding of the relationship between neoliberalism and classic nineteenth-century liberalism in contemporary international political economy (IPE) and offers a redefinition inspired by Polanyi and Gramsci. Within critical IPE studies, a consensus has emerged that neoliberalism cannot be reduced to a simple attempt to roll back the economy and let loose free-market forces. However, this insight relies on contrasting neoliberalism with a classic liberalism, that is, a simple attempt to implement just this naïve laissez-faire ideology. In contrast, this article argues that nineteenth-century liberalism is also characterised by an active use of state and legislative power. Through a historical study of two cases from nineteenth-century Britain, Poor Law reform and the Gold Standard, the paper will argue that state action played a central role even during the heyday of laissez-faire liberalism. With a starting point in Polanyi’s dictum that ‘laissez-faire was planned’, this reinvestigation will point towards a need to develop a more nuanced understanding of the distinctions between economic theory, ideology, and practical policy, as well as pointing towards a general reinterpretation of the role of the state in liberal economic ideology.     

Do Educational Attainments Influence Attitudes Toward Gender Equality in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Abstract

Although there is a plethora of literature on gender equality and women empowerment, studies on whether (and to what extent) educational attainments affect people’s attitudes toward gender equality are lacking. This is particularly true for Africa, a mostly male-dominated continent. In this article, we use data from the Wave 6 of the World Values Survey to empirically examine the relationship between educational attainments and attitudes toward gender equality among people in 5 countries in Africa–Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Our results, based on different measures of gender equality and econometric specifications, consistently reveal that the higher the level of education acquired, the more liberal and favorable the individual’s attitudes are toward gender equality.     

中国近代研究经济思想史的方法论特点:以梁启超为例

梁启超是中国近代最早较为系统地研究中国古代经济思想的人。他的相关论著以西方经济理论为参照,为中国经济思想史学科的建立创造了条件。他的研究存在着观点跳跃和逻辑矛盾的现象,这种现象在此后中国经济思想的发展过程中仍然延续。文章在方法论的层面,从传统文化的角度对此进行了新的解析。     

Œuvres économiques complètes

The thesis advanced in this paper is that economists, qua economists, need study and practise the history of economic thought. The ‘cumulative view’ of economics is criticized and opposed to the ‘competitive view’ stemming from Kuhn and Lakatos. Schumpeter's distinction between two stages of economic theorizing–conceptualization and model-building–is recalled. The role of the history of economic thought as a way to investigate the conceptual foundations of different theories is thus pointed out. Some conclusions are then drawn concerning the kind of history of economic thought relevant for the formation of economic theorists.     

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.     

Methodology,theory and inquiry in Italian economic and social thought: The making of Francesco Coletti

During the first decades of the twentieth century, Italian economist Francesco Coletti (1866–1940) was recognised as an authority on emigration and agricultural economics. We intend to focus here on Coletti's early career to understand how he rapidly managed to secure an enviable reputation. We examine Coletti's interventions on economic semiology and measurement of national wealth. We then move on to a series of theoretical debates (notably on Marx's theory of value) to which Coletti made significant contributions. Finally, we survey Coletti's fieldwork in agriculture and emigration, topics that allowed for connecting theoretical issues, methodological constraints, and empirical data.     

Rabbinical perspectives on money in seventeenth-century Ottoman Egypt

Abstract

Episodes of monetary instability in Ottoman Egypt stimulated a discussion of monetary doctrine among Egyptian rabbis. A central issue was the valuation of debts following changes in the value of silver coins. While the leading rabbi of the sixteenth century advocated linkage to gold coins, the rabbis of the seventeenth century adopted valuation by purchasing power and rejected valuation by weight and linkage to gold coins. The rabbis of the seventeenth century differed from their predecessors in two essential respects: they were more critical of traditional Jewish monetary doctrine, and they utilized a much more sophisticated form of economic analysis.