Teaching the history of economic thought

The main purpose of this survey is to present the results of a questionnaire recently sent to historians of economic thought. This questionnaire — presented in the appendix - was devised so as to provide data on the approaches and experiences of teaching the history of economic thought in a wide range of universities throughout the world.

A summary of the most significant results is presented in section 2 of this survey. Section 1 provides a general introduction to the methodological context of the discussion of problems concerning the teaching of the discipline.     

Adam Smith's theory of economic history and economic development

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to show that Smith has a theory of economic history grounded in a politico-economic modeling (as well as a sort of economic theoretical modeling). In terms of the politico-economic approach, in the Wealth of Nations (Book III.ii–iv) Smith tried to offer a systematic account of economic development from feudalism to capitalism in Europe. These lead to suggest that the seeming internal inconsistency between the natural and the actual courses of progress in Book III may be resolved, and that Smith may be treated as a precursor of Douglass North, who stressed an inextricable link between the polity and the economy in economic history.     

Altruism,sociology and the history of economic thought

Abstract

This paper is organized in three stages. In the first part, I outline the evolution of the notion of altruism with its critical dimension of political economy by following the intellectual sequence from Auguste Comte to Pierre Bourdieu, through Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss. In the second, I consider the forms of transaction to which these sociologists report altruism and its derivatives. In the last section, I examine recent developments on altruism as a result of developments on performativity on the one hand and market design on the other.     

Modelling the lifetime economic consequences of glaucoma in France

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the lifetime economic consequences of glaucoma in France.

Methods: A Markov model estimated the average discounted outcome and cost of glaucoma treatment over a patient's lifetime. Clinical states were defined as first- to fourth-line drugs, no treatment, laser therapy, surgery, blindness and death. After each failure (always after the fourth-line drug) patients could receive either laser treatment or surgery followed by no treatment, or a new treatment. A societal perspective was adopted. Sensitivity analyses were performed.

Results: Discounted medical costs were €7,322 for ocular hypertension treatment (OHT) and €8,488 for a glaucoma patient. Social costs of OHT and glaucoma patients exceeded medical costs. First-line use of the most effective drug would reduce medical and social costs. Societal willingness to pay for the vision benefit would equal the medical costs. Treatment initiated with the most effective drug is a cost saving strategy.

Conclusions: Public health decisions in glaucoma treatment should take a broad economic view embracing the lifetime duration of the disease. There is still a place both within and outside the healthcare system for therapeutic innovations with important economic consequences that bring high added value to patients.     

Foucault,Weber and the history of the economic subject

Abstract

The present paper begins with a presentation of Foucault's lectures on economic issues. Departing from his previous views on government, Foucault offered a new approach to eighteenth-century liberalism and neo-liberalism, interpreting these political theories in terms of what he called biopolitics. Then the paper endeavours to demonstrate that the line of reasoning pursued by Foucault coincides with that found in Weber's sociology of religion. In as much as Weber studies the relation between the religious and the economic, the paper draws a parallel between the Weberian concept of ‘life conduct’ and the concept of ‘technique of the self’ advanced by Foucault in order to study the moral foundation of the economic agent.     

现代西方经济思想史著作中的恩格斯及其经济思想

了解西方经济思想史著作对于恩格斯及其经济思想的评价,有利于我们完整地把握恩格斯经济思想及其在马克思经济学中的地位和作用,进而认识到恩格斯在经济思想发展史中的地位。本文依次从现代西方经济思想史著作中的恩格斯其人、恩格斯的思想来源、恩格斯在经济学领域对于马克思及其思想的影响和恩格斯在马克思经济学中的地位和贡献等几个方面介绍西方经济学者对于恩格斯及其经济思想在马克思经济学中的地位和作用的看法,进而窥视恩格斯在整个经济思想史中的地位和作用,促进我们对于恩格斯及其经济思想在马克思经济学乃至整个经济思想史中的地位和作用的研究。     

价值观与经济分析:历史与逻辑的统一

经济分析中是否存在价值判断,“经济人”的涵义是否包含价值观,是经济学发展过程中长期探讨的问题。本文沿着经济学的历史发展过程分析,认为古典经济学中追求自利的经济分析其实就是一种价值观的体现;到了新古典经济学,纯“经济人”已经转化为“社会人”;而演进理论和现代经济学在其分析中已明确赋予自由、文化等超经济因素价值观的涵义。本文将理论逻辑的发展阶段与历史的发展阶段紧密结合起来,认为经济分析与价值观始终有着不可分割的统一关系。     

拉丁美洲1990年代经济改革特点--以墨西哥经济改革为例

拉丁美洲在20世纪90年代前后开始的全面经济改革,新自由主义属性显著。在这一过程中,墨西哥的新自由经济改革颇具代表性。因此,以墨西哥的加工贸易和国有企业私有化为例,分析拉丁美洲经济改革中的特点以及出现的问题。     

Against the current: Sraffa's unpublished manuscripts and the history of economic thought *

The paper throws some new light on Sraffa's contribution, using material from his yet unpublished papers. Attention focuses on Sraffa's rediscovery of the distinct character of the classical theory of value and distribution and his refutation of the Marshallian interpretation that it is only a special case of demand and supply theory, his reformulation of the classical theory, and his criticism of the alternative neoclassical theory.     

Schumpeter and the `Schmollerprogramm': integrating theory and history in the analysis of economic development

This essay addresses the historical and institutional aspects of Schumpeter's thought. It suggests that Schumpeter prepared a pluralist research agenda, formulated in accordance with the conceptual perspective of the German Historical School, as presented by major scholars such as Schmoller, Sombart, Spiethoff and Max Weber. Schumpeter's notion of development, with its emphasis on the correspondence of economic and socio-cultural evolution, is therefore to be viewed in the context of the comprehensive Schmollerian approach. Moreover the ethical-evolutionary components of Schmoller's ideas point at the vital role of the German Historical School in the elaboration of a modern evolutionary economics in Schumpeterian terms. The essay concludes that the Schmollerprogramm is going to inspire further developments in Schumpeterian economics, as the integration of theory and history continuously marks the research agenda of evolutionary approaches to economic development.     

Fiscal policy and capital mobility: the construction of economic policy rectitude in Britain and France

This research examines the regulatory response of the European Union to the global financial crisis, addressing the questions of whether, how and why the global financial crisis has changed the ‘old’ politics of financial services regulation in the EU and resulted in the emergence of a ‘new’ politics. It is argued that, with a good dose of political opportunism and ‘anti-free market’ rhetoric, a continental advocacy coalition sponsoring a ‘market-shaping’ regulatory approach has capitalised on the crisis, tipping the balance of regulatory power in the EU in its favour, as compared to the pre-crisis situation.     

State history and economic development: evidence from six millennia

The presence of a state is one of the most reliable historical predictors of social and economic development. In this article, we complete the coding of an extant indicator of state presence from 3500 BCE forward for almost all but the smallest countries of the world today. We outline a theoretical framework where accumulated state experience increases aggregate productivity in individual countries but where newer or relatively inexperienced states can reach a higher productivity maximum by learning from the experience of older states. The predicted pattern of comparative development is tested in an empirical analysis where we introduce our extended state history variable. Our key finding is that the current level of economic development across countries has a hump-shaped relationship with accumulated state history.     

Debt Collection and Bankruptcies in Slovakia: A Study of Institutional Development

The independence granted to the judiciary in 1991 and the facilities for enforcing judgements made available in 1995 have greatly contributed to the success of Slovak transition. These reforms initiated an institutional evolution which proved remarkably robust. One of the consequences was that the enforceability of credit contracts has increased. Unfortunately, this progress has been compromised by a variety of measures taken to cope with a persistent fiscal crisis. These makeshift measures have often been detrimental to the flow of credit. Government also took numerous steps to soften budget constraints of ailing companies. Usually, this postponed their collapse but did not prevent it. The capacity of the judicial system has remained grossly inadequate, yet evident opportunities for capacity enlargement have not been exploited.     

The institutional approach to economic history: Connecting the two strands

This essay examines the historiography of two episodes in history—the scattering of plots in the open fields in the Middle Ages and the transition to the factory system in the Industrial Revolution—to shed light on the uses of institutional economics in economic history. In both of these episodes, economic “just-so” stories advanced our understanding of history. What animated intellectual innovation in both cases was a bold conjecture about the raison d’être of a puzzling institutional structure. But what ultimately enriched our understanding was the process of conjecture and revision those conjectures set off. In both episodes, the revised conjectures that best withstood criticism and revision were those that saw the phenomena not as static snapshots of economic agents confronting an economic problem but rather those that embedded the phenomena within a larger economic problem and within a process of economic change. In the end it is an account of institutional change—what I call the good old New Institutional Economics—that connects the use of institutional economics to explain puzzling historical phenomenon with the role of institutional economics in addressing the big questions of economic growth.     

Prizes for basic research: Human capital,economic might and the shadow of history

We study the distribution of basic scientific research across countries and time, and explain the process that resulted in the United States becoming the undisputed leader in basic research. Our study is based on the records of scientific awards, and on the data of global economic trends. We investigate the degree to which scale/threshold effects account for the number of prizes won. We constructed a stylized model, predicting a non-linear relationship with lagged relative GDP as an important explanatory variable of a country’s share of prizes. Our empirical research findings find support for these predictions and the presence of a “winner-takes-all” effect.      

汇率变动、对外贸易与经济增长——以湖南省为例

选取了2005年7月汇改以来至2013年12月的季度数据,通过建立联立方程模型,利用3SLS(三阶段最小二剩法)计量方法就人民币汇率的变动对湖南省对外贸易、经济增长的影响进行实证研究。实证结果表明:人民币实际有效汇率升值1%,经济增长速度降低0.612%;湖南省进出口额的增长速度降低2.79%,人民币实际有效汇率升值对湖南省经济总量的增长有紧缩效应。