{"title":"Destructive Behaviour: Economics and Literature","authors":"B. Ingrao","doi":"10.1400/54092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/54092","url":null,"abstract":"Economic theory has conventionally adopted the ‘self-love’ or ‘far-sighted maximizer’ assumption. Contemporary economics has qualified the utilitarian tradition, seeking to enlarge its range of interpretation and application. The theoretical problem that the present paper wishes to focus on is if and how aspects of human behaviour have been represented as destructive or self-destructive in economics. The paper presents a preliminary survey of thoughts on destructive and self-destructive action by Smith and Hayek, who were especially sensitive to the issue. Can destructive human actions seriously damage or permanently destroy the existing possibilities of improving well-being ? By way of comparison with other languages of knowledge, the last section considers how destructive and self-destructive action has been captured in literary language.","PeriodicalId":38602,"journal":{"name":"History of Economic Ideas","volume":"14 1","pages":"73-112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66631119","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 Logic of Experimental Discovery","authors":"Ivan Moscati","doi":"10.1400/54094","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/54094","url":null,"abstract":"A review essay on Francesco Guala, The Methodology of Experimental Economics, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. xiv+286.","PeriodicalId":38602,"journal":{"name":"History of Economic Ideas","volume":"14 1","pages":"1000-1008"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66631139","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":"Two Arguments for Basic Income : Thomas Paine (1737-1809) and Thomas Spence (1750-1814)","authors":"J. King, J. Marangos","doi":"10.1400/54091","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/54091","url":null,"abstract":"In the 1790s the radical thinkers Tom Paine and Thomas Spence were among the first to advocate the payment of a Basic Income as a right to all citizens. In this paper we outline Paine’s position, as set out in The Rights of Man (1791-1792) and in Agrarian Justice (1795), and compare it with the case made by Spence in The Rights of Infants (1797). We show that their arguments were surprisingly complex, and included utilitarian grounds for supporting Basic Income in addition to an assertion of the individual’s right to existence and to a share in the produce of nature.","PeriodicalId":38602,"journal":{"name":"History of Economic Ideas","volume":"14 1","pages":"55-71"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66631077","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":"Jean- Baptiste Say: the project \"For a monetary reform in David Ricardo's style\"","authors":"A. Tiran","doi":"10.1400/77645","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/77645","url":null,"abstract":"Say’s writings include an unpublished manuscript: For a Monetary Reform in Ricardo’s style. The subtitle of Say’s project: « Project for the repayment of public debt » clearly states the targeted goal. At that time France’s major problem is that of its backwardness in the field of credit payment as compared to Great Britain and the difficulty it experienced as regards the use of its savings in order to finance economic activity. Say was not a theoretician on metallism but had a practical approach of it. If he agrees with Ricardo on his analysis of money, it is precisely because this latter, in spite of his long-term analytical approach, resorted to the short-term approach as regards money that focussed on demand.","PeriodicalId":38602,"journal":{"name":"History of Economic Ideas","volume":"14 1","pages":"35-47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66638468","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":"How (not) to Shed Light on the Experiment in Economics","authors":"Kyu Sang Lee","doi":"10.1400/54095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/54095","url":null,"abstract":"A review essay on Philippe Fontaine and Robert Leonard (eds), The Experiment in the History of Economics, London and New York, Routledge, 2005, pp. xiii+158.","PeriodicalId":38602,"journal":{"name":"History of Economic Ideas","volume":"14 1","pages":"131-136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66631175","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":"Wicksell's Two Real Cumulative Processes Described a Real Cycle","authors":"Michael J. Gootzeit","doi":"10.1400/77646","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/77646","url":null,"abstract":"Wicksell’s cumulative process (CP) was a ‘real’, not simply a monetary theory. Interest and Prices and later writings described two CP’S, one with constant real income, the cumulative inflationary process (CIP) and one with falling real income, the cumulative deflationary process (CDP). But, they both, not just the latter, should be regarded as part of a real cycle theory. Most interpreters, neglecting the cdp, emphasized only increases in the price level or the rate of inflation for the CIP, as a purely monetary process. But, it also involved changing industrial realignment and income distribution between simultaneously expanding and contracting sectors, thus making the apparent price cycle real. An added implication was that welfare would worsen, as competition for expected increased profits caused some firms in the expanding sectors to be more successful than others, the idea of the ‘super-entrepreneur.’ The cdp eliminated the ‘center stage’ assumption of full employment and was even more clearly a real (downward) cycle. Followers of Wicksell also emphasized the CP when trying to explain the fluctuations of the 1920’s and 30’s and developed it into more of a real cycle theory with changing relative prices.","PeriodicalId":38602,"journal":{"name":"History of Economic Ideas","volume":"14 1","pages":"1000-1027"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66638508","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 Devaluation Controversy in Eighteenth-Century Italy","authors":"K. Stapelbroek","doi":"10.1400/18550","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/18550","url":null,"abstract":"Following the Succession Wars of the early eighteenth-century, political economists across Italy discussed a range of possible reforms. Among the issues drawing most attention was the complicated problem whether devaluation policies were appropriate means for boosting economic growth. Not only did the issue raise moral and juridical questions, it also triggered profound historical reflections on the evolution of « commercial societies » out of feudal systems. This article places a number of Italian mid-eighteenth-century ideas of money in their original context of political and intellectual challenges and attempts to draw some of the main dividing lines in this debate.","PeriodicalId":38602,"journal":{"name":"History of Economic Ideas","volume":"13 1","pages":"79-110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66615149","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":"Classical Macroeconomics: Correcting Some Misrepresentations in Gootzeit's Review Article","authors":"James C. W. Ahiakpor","doi":"10.1400/18554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/18554","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38602,"journal":{"name":"History of Economic Ideas","volume":"13 1","pages":"161-169"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66615300","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 'Local Styles' of Political Economy: The Italian Case (1850-1930)","authors":"N. Bellanca","doi":"10.1400/18538","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/18538","url":null,"abstract":"We focus on a ‘local style’ of political economy in Italy, not in order to compare the characteristics of scholars of economics from different national backgrounds, but rather to address the actual ways in which the profession of the economist was conceived and practised in a place that represented an important cultural setting and during a period when a number of highly problematic issues were raised. Between 1850 and 1930, the predominant Italian approach to economic science would start out from synthetic premises valid for specific actual situations ; the emphasis thus turned away from the methodological precepts of the classical and neoclassical period, which held that it is necessary to start out from self-evident analytical premises. Scientific knowledge does not aspire to formulate laws ; instead, it proceeds to identification of causal mechanisms. While laws are universally valid if and only if the (usually fictitious and unrealistic) conditions from which they are derived are effectively realised, the causal mechanisms sometimes come into operation but sometimes do not. The interaction between synthetic premises, which are valid universally for specific contexts, and causal mechanisms, valid indeterminately for many contexts, gives shape to a scientific style. The exponents of this style accept a common ‘box of mechanisms’, but clash vehemently concerning the premises to be adopted and the visions such premises evoke.","PeriodicalId":38602,"journal":{"name":"History of Economic Ideas","volume":"13 1","pages":"79-103"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66614842","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":"Rejoinder to James Ahiakpor's Reply to My Review of His Book : \"Classical Macroeconomics\"","authors":"Michale J. Gootzeit","doi":"10.1400/18555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1400/18555","url":null,"abstract":"First, I want to say that I think that much of the material in Ahiakpor's (A's) book is well worth saying, because it makes one focus on much of the value of classical macro that has been forgotten or neglected in these modern times, especially in Principle's books, but also in more advanced writings. I especially liked the article, which fo cused on the idea that Keynes' falsely attributed the assumption of full employment to the classicalists. There is no question that this assump tion is not made everywhere and uniformly in the classical writings. This book and A's writings in general, as indicated by the book's contents, have focused on the general topic of emphasizing what is right about classical macro and what is wrong with macro directly after the Keynesian reformulation in the 1920s through 1950s, which has in general carried forth into modern undergraduate books. The general problem that I see is a matter of emphasis. A believes that the classical writers (including the Marshall's) have stated a system that is well-nigh complete, with almost all possible cases included that Key nes and his followers included later, but without any substantial im provement. In fact, this more modern group's so-called improvement of classical ideas was downright wrong in many cases or so confused the economic language, that the definition of such a basic concept as 'capital' was hopelessly misinterpreted and has continued so. I believe that for the period (1770S-1870S), classical macro was a brilliant invention that continues to be a fruitful way to look at the world, but since that world has become so much more complicated, especially the monetary system, it serves no useful purpose to con tinue to dwell on the letter of these ideas; their spirit seems enough. So, attempting to defend literally the classical interpretation of basic macro concepts may be regarded as 'reactionary', and no economist should wish to be accused of this. It is fine to reinterpret the classical ideas and this is what the best part of A's book does well, but to insist","PeriodicalId":38602,"journal":{"name":"History of Economic Ideas","volume":"13 1","pages":"1000-1004"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2005-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66615351","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}