George Raymond Geiger (1903-1998): A Rich Life

ABSTRACT George R. Geiger, professor of Philosophy at Antioch College for fifty years, died March 19, 1998. He was a founding member of the editorial council of the American Journal of Economics and Sociology (1941-1998) and of the Antioch Review (1941-1998). He was also an advisor to and consulting editor of the Humanist (1955–59). He was the son of the founder of the Henry George School of Social Science of New York City and John Dewey's last doctoral student at Columbia University. Early on in his career he took up his father's cause, that of land value taxation; later he took up a defense of the contributions of his mentor, Dewey, and became in his own words a "journalist of philosophy."     

routledge economics

Alan Jarvis, economics editor of Routledge, outlines his publishing plans for the coming year. He also describes Routledge's role as Hayek's publisher.     

初探历史性与现代性在路易斯·康作品中的交汇

路易斯·康作为20世纪下半叶世界最具影响力的建筑师之一,因其作品风格与创作思想的独特而受到众多建筑师的喜爱和追捧,特别在第三世界,其名声完全可以和柯布相媲美。通过深入的研究,不难发现康的作品正是通过对历史性和现代性的交汇而产生的,康通过其不平凡的建筑生涯形成了自己对建筑历史性的独特观点以及表达方式。     

Italian Debate and Dialogue on Thorstein Veblen

A bstract . In the first quarter of the 20th century, Thorstein Veblen ranked with John Dewey, George H. Mead, and Charles Sanders Peirce among the topmost American original and creative thinkers. In Italy he was the subject of much debate and dialogue but the perception of his scholarly work evolved through several phases. He was seen first as a forerunner of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Then as a leading figure in institutional economics. Finally as a social scientist pioneering in the interdisciplinary approach to analysis and to the formulation of public policy , as well as an early Futurologist But his considerable influence in America contrasts with his lack of influence in Italy, probably because cultural differences hamper understanding.     

The Walters-Lawson Affair and the Two Worlds of Communication

A bstract . The editor of The American Economist reflects on the difference between the nature of the communication carried on within scholarly journals and that which is carried on in the mass media. The occasion for the discussion was provided by the resignations from the British cabinet and from an inner circle of advisors, respectively of Nagl Lawson and Sir Alan Walters. This serious result followed the publication in the mass media of information intended for the scholarly journal.     

An Interview with Chris Skinner

Chris Skinner was born in London on 12 March 1953. He completed a BA in mathematics in 1975 at the University of Cambridge. He then obtained an MSc degree in statistics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1976 and worked as an assistant statistician in the Central Statistical Office for 1 year. After working as a research assistant in LSE from 1977 to 1978, he joined the University of Southampton as a lecturer in 1978, where he earned a PhD in social statistics in 1982. He remained at the University of Southampton, where he became a senior lecturer in 1989 and professor of statistics in 1994. While serving as the head of his department from 1997 to 2000, he played a crucial role in the creation of an MSc programme in official statistics in 1999. In 2011, he returned to the LSE, where he currently holds the position of professor of statistics. Chris is the author of over 80 peer‐reviewed articles in statistical journals and the co‐editor of two influential books on the analysis of survey data. He made significant research contributions covering areas that include the analysis of survey data, inference in the presence of non‐response and measurement errors and statistical disclosure control. He served on several advisory committees, including the Statistical Methods Advisory Committee at Statistics Canada (from 2000 to 2011) and the National Statistics Methodology Advisory Committee in the United Kingdom (from 2001 to 2010). He has received numerous awards and honors for his outstanding contributions to survey sampling and social statistics. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. In 2009, he received the West Medal from the Royal Statistical Society for contributions to social statistics, and in 2010, he was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. In 2019, he also received the Waksberg award to recognize his contributions to survey methodology. The following conversation took place at LSE on 21 May 2019.     

The Theoretical Background of Henry George's Value Theory*

Abstract . Henry George intended that his last work. The Science of Political Economy, (which his untimely death left unfinished), should recast economics in a new mold. He argued that if economics is the science of the nature of wealth and the laws of its production and distribution and if in present society there is some deep and widespread wrong in its distribution, if not in its producton, it is the office of an honest science to disclose that. He therefore sought a philosophical basis for an investigation into the nature of wealth which led him into an investigation of the idea of value. These investigations were preceded by an attempt to set out a philosophy of science with respect to one of the sciences, economics.     

Larry Moss and the Struggle Against Racism by the Whately Professors of Political Economy

In this note, we highlight an important consideration of Larry Moss's life's work, the continual struggle within economics against racism. Larry initiated and supported the symposium on eugenics published by the American Journal of Economics and Sociology in July 2005. He edited the volume Social Inequality, Analytical Egalitarianism and the March Toward Eugenic Explanations in the Social Sciences in August 2008. These constitute obvious signs of Larry's concern.
He conjectured that the Trinity College Dublin political economists who held the Whately professorship should be thought of as a school. Such a school was in fact identified in 1850 by an outsider who pointed to their shared opposition to racial explanations within an institutional setting. That shared opposition allowed them to speak against the narrow interests of the rulers of the country. Of course, other political economists of the time, Mill in particular, were also emphatic in their anti-racism. Thus, not only do we need to take up Larry's challenge to describe the Trinity College school but we must also seek its connections with the Scottish-English group of anti-racists.     

Radical Individualism vs. Institutionalism, I The Division of Institutionalists into 'Humanists' and 'Behaviorists'

A bstract . David Seckler has filled an important gap in the methodological literature of economics by providing a "radical individualist" critique of American institutionalism (1). Seckler argues that institutionalists have been unable to develop a coherent methodology because of their ambivalence on the issue of " free will versus determinism." Thorstein Veblen, he says, entertained both "humanistic" and "behavioristic" hypotheses in his explanations of human behavior and, consequently, descended into obscurantism. The institutionalist literature in general reflects these contradictory methodological tendencies; for example, John R. Commons was a "humanist" , whereas Clarence Ayres was a "behaviorist." Seckler's critique is not, however, persuasive. He fails to recognize the difficulties inherent in the philosophical dualisms posited by "radical individualism," and he employs them credulously in his critique of institutionalism. Equally damaging to his argument is his failure to give adequate consideration to the meaning and significance of the "institutional dichotomy" in institutional analysis.     

The Case for Economic Reasoning in MBA Education Revisited

Laurence S. Moss was a great scholar and author of countless articles and books. During his long career he continued to be excited by economics and history and made these subjects interesting to his students. For almost 30 years, undergraduate students enrolled in his Scams and Frauds class and Contemporary Economic Systems class in large numbers. Larry would engage students to think, to independently question prevailing truths, and to probe further. This essay is a reflection of our shared experience teaching in the full-time MBA program at Babson College.     

Academic scholarship,organization prestige,and the earnings of U.S. business school deans

This study models the market for business school deans as an outcome of a differential game between a university's central administration and the job candidates in the market for business school deans. In our model, the ability of a business school dean to advance the organization is enhanced by his or her own scholarly reputation, such that a job candidate chooses an optimal level of scholarship that relates to his or her marketability. In this way, the supply of scholarship (by job candidates) can be seen as the supply of job candidates in the market for business school deans, whereas the demand for scholarship can be seen as the demand for business school deans. The main features of our game‐theoretic model are tested using data from both national and regional business schools and colleges in the U.S. Econometric results indicate that each additional scholarly contribution by a business school dean generates a wage premium ranging from $1,000 to $1,200, whereas in the case of national institutions, each additional student enrolled at the doctoral (master's) level raises the wage by $671 ($56). Lastly, the production of between nine and 10 scholarly contributions is found to be necessary in order to face a 50% probability of holding a business school deanship at a national institution, whereas production of about 37 scholarly contributions leads to a 50% probability of holding a deanship with a named business school at a national institution.     

Keynes On Markets

A bstract . The heart of modern economics is the study of "the market," eventually ensuing in the General Equilibrium model. J. M. Keynes ignored, this line of inquiry but from 1907, when he was at the India Office, to the 1940s, when he made proposals for the post-war reconstruction of the financial system , he often addressed himself to the functioning of markets. He is critical of many markets for promoting instability , and especially for embodying low values (greed, fears). It is suggested that Keynes' views on markets were shaped by his personal experiences as an investor; by his realistic, non-theoretical approach; by his anti-Benthamite values and by his sensitivity to the unemployment and "chaos" they often caused.     

三代木头人的不老歌

木玩世家的繁衍,是精神和工艺的代代相传,正像那座"盖不完的庙""你有能力就当总经理,没能力的话就在边上当当股东算了。"何彬和父亲何尚清的回忆在这句话上重合了。2003年,25岁的何彬接了班,这时距父亲创立和信玩具有限公司已有12年。温州永强机场出来,坐去丽水的中巴,两小时后再转乘出租车,40分钟左右便可驶入云和县城。如果你跟我一样感兴趣于这个"中国木制玩具城"的商业家族,行业领路人何寿祯老先生是绕不过去的传奇。     

2007年50位最具领导力的CEO

3马蔚华招商银行股份有限公司行长综合得分4.139上届排名11单项指标最高排名前瞻性等两项1单项指标最低排名变革力等两项11单项指标最高得分决策力4.571单项指标最低得分变革力3.755马蔚华:决胜海外如果把招商银行定义为中国最具创新意识的银行的话,恐怕没有人会提出异议。从最初的一卡通、金葵花理财再到招行信用卡,招商银行一直以其敏锐的嗅觉捕捉着市场的商机。这一切都与招商银行行长马蔚华密不可分。这位亦官亦商的东北汉子上任至今     

Henry George and Europe

A bstract . Adolf Damaschke , a Berlin schoolteacher, played a'fateful' role in developing a large land reform constituency in Wilhelmian Germany. By chance he heard a lecture by Michael Flürscheim , Henry George's follower. And by accident he was won to the movement. He built the Union of German Land Reformers into an active organization of 100,000 dedicated members from all classes. For tactical reasons what Damaschke pushed was his version of the' Single Tax Limited,' though he never lost sight of George's philosophy of freedom. There was a "German Fatherland" emphasis in his advocacy. Yet he despaired of building a mass constituency for that philosophy.     

'Radical Individualism' vs. Institutionalism, II: Philosophical Dualisms as Apologetic Constructs Based on Obsolete Psychological Preconceptions

A bstract . David Seckler , in his study of Veblen and the institutionalists , adopted a viewpoint which is a philosophical orientation least likely to enable him to know what Veblen and the institutionalists "really mean." He accepted a pantheon of philosophical dualisms— e.g., "Humanism" vs. "behaviorism,""normative" vs. "positive" — which Veblen and his followers reject, and particularly Mises's "methodological dualism" which would make science the study of ideal type individual actions instead of an experimental effort to understand the social processes of "cumulative causation" as they are found in the real world. Seckler's reliance on these obsolete psychological preconceptions of "radical individualism" causes him to neglect the powerful normative elements of Veblen's work. Yet it is precisely Veblen's normative methodology that gives rise to the "institutional dichotomy" in contemporary institutionalist thought.     

Henry George and Organized Labor:

A bstract . Henry George supported labor unions and was proud of his membership in the Printers' Union. But he did not regard them as the final solution of labor exploitation. He championed labor as one of the producing classes. His foray into politics as the candidate of organized labor's third party was characteristic; he had had much involvement in politics earlier. Although he supported labor's immediate demands, he sought mainly to use his candidacy to build a constituency for the single tax. Samuel Gompers , then head of the American Federation of Labor , at first worked for George's election but came to the belief that the unions alone should direct and control their political efforts. This view prevailed, though he and George remained good friends. But it is now a question whether Gompers' policy, at this time, serves labor's best interests.     

Lincoln Staffens and the McNamara Case: A Progressive Response to Class Conflict

A bstract . Lincoln Stevens' involvement with the McNamara case was one of the major concerns of his life. His Autobiography is not fully dependable regarding this incident; churches were not uniformly hostile to the settlement that ended the case and the Los Angeles Times , ignoring commitments to meet labor grievances, maintained its antiunion position. Steffens' experimentation with "Golden Rule" Christian love as an alternative to class conflict reflected his divergent allegiances to Progressives who sought reform and to radicals , basically opposed to corporate capitalism. It also reflected his own rejection of class partisanship. Although the pledges made in the settlement were broken, Steffens remained loyal to the McNamaras and continued to argue it is futile to punish individuals for acts rooted in social conflict.     

rediscovering the parliament act

What passes for constitutional, Robert Miller, editor of Economic Affairs, argues against such 'constructivist rationalism' and for piecemeal reforms. He urges would-be reformers to look again at the Parliament Act 1911 and to follow the wise advice of Hayek and Popper.