{"title":"To Err is Human: Bastiat on Value and Progress","authors":"J. Garello","doi":"10.2202/1145-6396.1024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1024","url":null,"abstract":"The bulk of Bastiat’s scientific work is contained in Economic Harmonies, a work generally overlooked or underestimated. Thsi paper would contribute to its comprehensive rehabilitation by re-examining and reappraising Bastiat’s theory of value. Bastiat defined value as “the relationship existing between two services that have been exchanged.” He respected the principle of objective or intrinsic value (Smith, Ricardo and Marx), of materiality or durability (Smith), utility (Say, Storch), scarcity (Senior). “Products” have no value if not traded, and the exchange is not between two products (Say) but two services mutually produced, traded and subjectively compared by two persons. The origin of the value is the “effort”, which transforms the gifts of nature, and consists in providing services to others in return for services desired. Bastiat’s criticism of Smith and Say anticipated recent developments in contemporary economics. By stressing the importance of services rather that of products, he laid the groundwork for a new approach to consumer theory (Becker, Lancaster). By abandoning the reference to production and concentrating on exchange, he has been joined by some Austrian Economists (especially I. Kirzner and his analysis of the role of the entrepreneur who coordinates products and need). However, Bastiat in his eagerness to blunt the socialist criticism of private property, was on a wrong fast in making the prediction that the area of property and value will decrease with the progress in civilization, since the efforts will be smaller and smaller, and the action of Nature will play a larger and larger role. Errare humanum... Le talent scientifique de Bastiat s’exprime et s’apprécie dans Les Harmonjes Economiques, oeuvre posthume et injustement méconnue. En 1850, sa théorie de la valeur est d’avant garde. Bastiat réfute les conceptions courantes à l’époque qui rattachent la valeur aux caractéristiques d’un produit, qu’elles soient le travail requis (Smith, Ricardo), ou l’utilité (Say) ou la rareté (Senior). Pour lui la valeur naît de la comparaison subjective entre services échangés par deux individus. “Les services s’échangent contre des services”. L’échange est luimême le résultat d’un “effort”, c’est-àdire d’une action humaine tendant à rapprocher besoins à satisfaire et moyens de les satisfaire. Ainsi Bastiat annonce-t-il à la fois les nouvelles approches de la rationalité du consommateur (Becker, Lancaster) et la théorie de la création entrepreneuriale et de la subjectivité des Autrichiens (Kirzner). Bastiat a été moins heureux dans sa prospective : pour répondre aux socialistes révoltés par la propriété privée, il diagnostique que le progrès de la civilisation, grâce au génie de l’homme, nous conduira vers moins d’efforts et d’échanges, donc moins de propriété, et plus de dons gratuits offerts par la nature, plus de communauté. Il se jugeait lui-même : Errare humanum...","PeriodicalId":231500,"journal":{"name":"Journal des �conomistes et des �tudes Humaines","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115391874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Case for Road Privatization: a Defense by Restitution","authors":"L. Carnis","doi":"10.2202/1145-6396.1085","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1085","url":null,"abstract":"Many contributions explained in details the various benefits from private roads. Not only they stressed the possibility of such system, but also the functioning through different historical experiences. However, they put aside an important question: how should we proceed concretely in order to privatize the road network? Our contribution tries to answer this question. It explains the consequences of a public provision and its differences with a free market order. It defines the true meaning of the privatization process: a search for justice, and proposes a solution based on Rothbards theory of property rights. The paper concludes on some critics that we raised to alternative process of privatization.Le réseau routier constitue un bien privé qui peut faire lobjet dune offre de la part dentrepreneurs. Or aujourdhui, celui-ci est géré par le secteur public. Se pose le problème de sa désocialisation ou de sa transmission au secteur privé par privatisation. Nous démontrons que les procédés de privatisation couramment utilisés se focalisent seulement sur un critère de rentabilité et en cela se révèlent insuffisants. La méthode par restitution se présente quant à elle comme un procédé recherchant un principe de justice, conforme à léthique des droits de propriété. Nous présentons alors les modalités pratiques dune telle méthode appliquée au réseau routier.","PeriodicalId":231500,"journal":{"name":"Journal des �conomistes et des �tudes Humaines","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124533823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"More on Cantillon as a Proto-Austrian","authors":"J. G. Hülsmann","doi":"10.2202/1145-6396.1036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1036","url":null,"abstract":"Murray N. Rothbard presents Richard Cantillon as the true founding father of modern economic science. This note provides some criticism of Rothbards thesis, but also further evidence in support of it. We show that Cantillons Essai sur la nature du commerce en général pioneers the economic analysis of property relations, stressing that the demand of property owners determines the whole structure of production. Moreover, Cantillon anticipated the modern functional distinction of capitalists, workers, entrepreneurs, and governments according to their types of income. He also analysed to what extent the state profits from a high quantity of money; and he demonstrated that all results of government intervention are ephemeral and reversed by law of nature.Murray N. Rothbard présente Richard Cantillon comme le véritable père fondateur de la science économique moderne. La thèse de Rothbard est sujette à des critiques, mais à encore plus de soutien. Larticle vise à démontrer que lEssai sur la nature du commerce en général de Cantillon annonce lanalyse économique de la propriété; il insiste sur le fait que la demande des propriétaires détermine lensemble de la structure de production. De plus, Cantillon aurait, selon lauteur, anticipé la distinction fonctionnelle moderne entre capitalistes, travailleurs, entrepreneurs et gouvernants selon leurs formes de revenus. Il avait aussi analysé dans quelle mesure lEtat tire profit dune offre élevée de monnaie et avait démontré que tous les résultats de lintervention étatique sont éphémères et amenés à être contredits par la loi naturelle.","PeriodicalId":231500,"journal":{"name":"Journal des �conomistes et des �tudes Humaines","volume":"114 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114792906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Driving Force of the Market - Essays in Austrian Economics - Israel M. Kirzner","authors":"Roxane Perrier-Collin","doi":"10.2202/1145-6396.1069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1069","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":231500,"journal":{"name":"Journal des �conomistes et des �tudes Humaines","volume":"121 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117064928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Legal Entrepreneurship and Institutional Change","authors":"D. Whitman","doi":"10.2202/1145-6396.1061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1061","url":null,"abstract":"The notion of entrepreneurship developed by Israel Kirzner has applications far beyond the market process. Legal entrepreneurs are lawyers, activists, and other participants in the legal process who are alert to opportunities to alter legal rules, thereby benefiting themselves or their clients. Legal entrepreneurship creates a dynamic that can generate virtually continuous change in the structure of legal rights and duties. On the one hand, the notion of legal entrepreneurship is a testament to the value of Kirzner’s project. But on the other, it creates a serious problem for Kirzner’s conception of welfare economics, which depends on the existence of a stable background of property rights. If the notion of entrepreneurship implies continual change in property rights, then the power of Kirznerian welfare economics is substantially curtailed. La notion d’esprit d’entreprise développée par Israel Kirzner a des applications qui vont bien au-delà du processus de marché. Les entrepreneurs juridiques sont les avocats, les activistes et autres participants au processus juridique qui ont conscience des opportunités de transformer les règles de droit, que ce soit pour leur propre bénéfice ou pour celui de leurs clients. L’entrepreneuriat juridique crée une dynamique qui peut générer des changements presque continus dans la structure des droits légaux et des devoirs. D’une part, la notion d’entrepreneuriat juridique est un témoignage de la valeur du projet de Kirzner. Mais d’autre part, il crée un sérieux problème quant à sa conception de l’économie du bien-être de Kirzner qui repose sur l’existence d’une structure stable de droits de propriété. Si la notion d’esprit d’entreprise implique un changement continuel dans les droits de propriété, alors la portée de l’économie du bienêtre de Kirzner est substantiellement réduite.","PeriodicalId":231500,"journal":{"name":"Journal des �conomistes et des �tudes Humaines","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123680114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Comparative Economic Performance in China and India","authors":"E. Weede","doi":"10.2202/1145-6396.1012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1012","url":null,"abstract":"Together, China and India account for almost two fifths of mankind. In purchase power parity terms the Chinese economy is the second largest in the world ahead of Japan, and the Indian economy is the fourth largest ahead of Germany. In less than two decades these two big Asian economies together might account for a quarter of the global product. Currently, however, both countries are still poor. Both countries might outgrow poverty, because potential advantages of backwardness as well as fairly strong domestic investment favor growth. Concerning human capital formation China and India differ. China is much better than India in primary school education. Eradication of analphabetism is in sight in China, but far in the future in India. India, however, is much stronger in tertiary education than China. Another major difference between China and India is their degree of integration in the global economy. China benefits much more from the global division of labor than India does. China attracts much more foreign direct investment, too. In the past fifty years, Chinese economic performance was superior to the Indian performance. Nevertheless I reject the interpretation that either China’s autocracy or China’s communist ideology is responsible for China’s better performance. China started to grow faster than the global economy only after Deng Xiaoping liberalized and opened up the economy. Under Mao Zedong and during the great leap forward more than 30 million Chinese starved to death. Similar disasters did not happen in poorer India. If China and India teach a lesson about the impact of regime characteristics on growth, it is the following: Democracy promotes performance quite similar to the global average, autocracy as a constitution of arbitrariness permits much better performance or much worse performance. In the long run, the growth prospects of both China and India depend not only on their own economic policies, but also on Western readiness to take their exports. Open Western markets together with sensible policies in China and India may promote global prosperity and peace. A eux deux, la Chine et l’Inde représentent deux cinquièmes de l’humanité. En termes de capacité de pouvoir d’achat comparé, l’économie chinoise est la deuxième plus grande au monde, devant le Japon, et l’économie indienne est la quatrième plus grande, devançant l’Allemagne. Dans moins de deux décennies, ces deux gigantesques économies asiatiques pourraient représenter conjointement un quart du produit global. Aujourd’hui cependant, ces deux pays sont toujours pauvres. Les deux pays pourraient surmonter la pauvreté car les potentialités que recèle un retard économique ajoutées à un investissement intérieur relativement soutenu favorisent la croissance. En ce qui concerne la formation du capital humain, des différences existent entre la Chine et l’Inde. La Chine est meilleure que l’Inde dans le domaine de l’éducation primaire. L’éradication de l’analphabétisme semble être en vu","PeriodicalId":231500,"journal":{"name":"Journal des �conomistes et des �tudes Humaines","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127917882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Liberty-Progress-Individualism. On the relationship between Christianity and Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century","authors":"J. Kłos","doi":"10.2202/1145-6396.1092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1092","url":null,"abstract":"The nineteenth century is a very important period from our contemporary point of view. It is then that many socio-political ideas were born and have affected our social and individual life until now. It is in the nineteenth century that humankind sought to reflect on freedom, individualism and progress, and often paid dearly for any utopian misinterpretations in this area. Last but not least, in the nineteenth century the modern philosophical perception clashed with Christianity. The paper sought to show this intellectual turmoil by focussing on the main adherents of reconciling new ideas with religion. This reconciliation could be effected with an integral view of the human being in mind. The integral human being, advocated by Newman and Acton, can manage to abide by timehonoured traditions and assimilate whatever there is of positive value in civilization.Le 19ème siècle est une période riche en enseignements pour notre réflexion contemporaine. C'est durant ce siècle que nombre d'idées sociopolitiques ayant influé jusqu'à présent sur notre vie individuelle et sociale sont nées. C'est au 19ème siècle que l'humanité chercha à réfléchir sur la liberté, l'individualisme et le progrès, et elle paya au prix fort les erreurs d'interprétation utopiste commises dans ces domaines. Aussi, et non des moindres, c'est au 19ème siècle que la perception philosophique moderne entra en conflit avec le christianisme. L'article vise à dépeindre cette agitation intellectuelle en mettant l'accent sur les principaux tenants de la réconciliation des nouvelles idées avec la religion. Cette réconciliation peut se faire si on a à l'esprit une vision complète de l'être humain. Cet être humain complet, tel que défendu par Newman et Acton, possède les qualités suffisantes pour respecter les traditions ancestrales et assimiler ce qu'il y a de valeureux dans la civilisation.","PeriodicalId":231500,"journal":{"name":"Journal des �conomistes et des �tudes Humaines","volume":"82 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125000647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neville Keynes: A Life in a Period of Transition - Phyllis Deane, The Life and Times of J. Neville Keynes","authors":"W. Samuels","doi":"10.2202/1145-6396.1087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1087","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":231500,"journal":{"name":"Journal des �conomistes et des �tudes Humaines","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121755349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On Some Lessons from the Transition Process Regarding the Condition of Functioning of a Market Economy","authors":"Bernard Haudeville","doi":"10.2202/1145-6396.1009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1009","url":null,"abstract":"The transition of the former socialists economies to the system of market economy can also be viewed as an exceptional experiment about the real nature of market economy. In this respect, the difficulties met in the transition provide fruitful informations concerning the relative importance of the different parts composing the system. In this paper, we consider the flexibility of behaviors, the time path of transformations and the role of the State during the transition. Endly, an assessment of the validity of the neoclassical paradigm, as a picture of market economy, comes out. La transition des anciennes économies planifiées vers J’économie de marché (comme le passage à l’économie administrée il y a quelques décennies) représente une expérience en grandeur réelle d’une portée considérable pour l’analyse économique. Dans le cas présent, les difficultés de mise en place d’une économie de marché nous amènent à réfléchir sur l’importance réelle des différents éléments constitutifs d’un tel système. La capacité d’ajustement des comportements des agents économiques, le rythme des transformations et le rôle de l’Etat sont ainsi réexaminés. En conclusion, il apparaît que la représentation traditionnelle de l’économie de marché à travers le schéma dominant inspiré de la théorie néoclassique, qui a servi de soubassement intellectuel à la plupart des programmes se révèle peu adapté.","PeriodicalId":231500,"journal":{"name":"Journal des �conomistes et des �tudes Humaines","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114169045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Catholicism, Calvinism, and the Comparative Developement of Economic Doctrine","authors":"D. Prychitko","doi":"10.2202/1145-6396.1101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2202/1145-6396.1101","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":231500,"journal":{"name":"Journal des �conomistes et des �tudes Humaines","volume":"115 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126277185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}