nep-hpe New Economics Papers on History and Philosophy of Economics
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Issue of 2019‒10‒21
fifteen papers chosen by
Erik Thomson (University of Manitoba)
http://ep.repec.org/pth72
[Selections by Humberto Barreto for SHOE list.]
1. Applied history, applied economics, and economic history
Colvin, Christopher L.; Winfree, Paul
2. Justice without romance. The history of the economic analyses of
judges behavior -1960-1993
Alain Marciano; Alessandro Melcarne; Giovanni Ramello
3. Ronald H. Coase (1910–2013)
Alain Marciano
4. The three fundamental frameworks for the unification of the macro
social sciences
George McMillan III
6. How Can Experiments Play a Greater Role in Public Policy? 12 Proposals
from an Economic Model of Scaling
Omar Al-Ubaydli; John List; Claire Mackevicius; Min Sok Lee; Dana Suskind
8. An Introduction to Juergen Backhaus’s “Lawyers’ economics vs. economic
analysis of law”
Alain Marciano
9. Mathematical Economics - Marginal analysis in the consumer behavior
theory
Marques, Jorge; Pascoal, Rui
10. Calabresi: Heterodox Economic Analysis of Law
Alain Marciano; Giovanni Battista Ramello
13. Governance im Politikfeld Wirtschaftspolitik
Mause, Karsten
14. Posner, Richard
Alain Marciano
15. Is Corruption a Greater Evil than Sin?
Cigdem Borke TUNALI; Laurent WEILL
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1. Applied history, applied economics, and economic history
Colvin, Christopher L.; Winfree, Paul
As a new field of academic enquiry, applied history has a unique opportunity
to learn lessons from other applied fields. In this essay, we set out how we
think applied historians can learn from the mistakes of applied economists
and economic policymakers in their use, and abuse, of economic theory and
economic history. What we call the New Applied History has the potential to
improve the way policymaking is conducted. But only if its practitioners
understand the power, and limitations, of theory. We apply our ideas to the
case of budgetary policymaking in the United States.
JEL: B15 B22 E12 E63 N12 N41
Keywords: applied history,budgetary policy
Date: 2019
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:qucehw:201907&r=hpe
2. Justice without romance. The history of the economic analyses of
judges behavior -1960-1993
Alain Marciano (MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université
de Montpellier); Alessandro Melcarne (EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris
Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Giovanni
Ramello (Dipartimento di scienze giuridiche ed economiche, Universita
degli studi del piemonte orientale - Universita degli studi del piemonte
orienta)
Richard Posner's "What Do Judges and Justices Maximize?" (1993a) is not, as
usually believed, the first analysis of judges' behaviors made by using the
assumption that judges are rational and maximize a utility function. It
arrived at the end of a rather long process. This paper recounts the history
of this process, from the "birth" of law and economics in the 1960s to 1993.
We show that economic analyses of judge behavior were introduced in the
early 1970s under the pen of Posner. At that time, rationality was not
modeled in terms of utility maximization. Utility maximization came later.
We also show that rationality and incentives were introduced to explain the
efficiency of Common Law. Around this theme, a controversy took place that
led Posner, and other economists, to postpone their analysis of judicial
behavior until the 1990s. By then, the situation had changed. New and
conclusive evidence of judges' utility maximizing behavior demanded for a
general theory to be expressed. In addition, the context was favorable to
Chicago economists. It was time for Posner to publish his article.
Keywords: Self-interest,Utility Maximization,Judges,Judicial decision
making,Rationality
Date: 2019–08
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02306821&r=hpe
3. Ronald H. Coase (1910–2013)
Alain Marciano (MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université
de Montpellier)
The purpose of this chapter is to link Ronald Coase's methodological
approach to what he 'learned' when he was at the London School of Economics
(LSE) from Edwin Cannan and Arnold Plant. The main lesson Coase taught us
and insisted upon was that economics should not be too 'abstract' and should
not rely on a priori categories. He pleaded for more realism in economics,
for a form of 'political economy': economists should use theory to
generalise what facts tell us rather than trying to interpret facts by using
a priori and abstract categories. This conception of economics is closer to
the LSE of Cannan and Plant than to the Chicago of Stigler, Friedman,
Becker, or Posner.
Keywords: political economy,Cannan,Plant,realism,methodology,Coase,common
sense,Chicago,LSE
Date: 2019–07–11
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02306814&r=hpe
4. The three fundamental frameworks for the unification of the macro
social sciences
George McMillan III (Impact Analytics)
? This opening slide set advances McMillan 2015 (IISES Amsterdam) and
McMillan 2017 (IISES Vienna) and focuses on the lateral integration of the
three primary macro conceptual areas of political, economic/demographic and
geopolitical frameworks to generate a "unified theory of the philosophical
and social sciences."? Specifically, the three essential frameworks are. (1)
Aristotle's Six Forms of Government, (2) the per capita GNP ratio signifying
economic growth/population growth proportions, and (3) the Four Category
Geopolitical Form Model framework of First, Second, Third and Fourth World
country gradations. ? These three frameworks: (a) explain the full range of
behavior pertaining to their respective area, (b) can incorporate all the
subfield theories in their respective areas, (c) vary directly with one
another in terms of a tight vs catastrophically loose wage labor price
continuum, which (d) integrates the primary macro disciplines into a
singular causal model. ? The independent variable of interval level
Government Form interval level model of Aristotle. links the economic
growth/population rates of change proportions because liberal democracies
and First World countries only seem to exist in relatively tight wage labor
market conditions, i.e. high economic growth and low population growth
proportions. The Government Form Categories and the per capita GNP ratio
link directly to the two primary trends of technology and population growth
throughout history, that give rise to the two secondary trends of migration
of First World manufacturing facilities to the South, and the mass migration
of people to the North to explain current geopolitical outcomes. ? This
system of frameworks links to the persistent primary and secondary trends to
explain the permanently declining global wage labor equilibrium process as
it directly the changing of geopolitical Forms over the next few decades.
This system measures relative equality-inequality and relative
stability-instability continuums that covary with the tight vs
catastrophically lose wage labor continuum. This integrated model affirms
Harsanyi?s (1969) assertion that the isolated subfield theories do not
adequately anticipate first, second and third order effects. ? This system
achieves the three longstanding objectives of the behavioral economics
movement of: (a) Harsanyi?s ?integrated explanatory theory? and ?core model?
of the social sciences discussed in his 1960, 1966 and 1969 papers, (b) it
extends the Integrated Causal Model (ICM) of Tooby and Cosmides 1992
throughout the philosophical and social sciences, and (c) achieves Gintis?
2006 and 2009 ?unification of the behavioral sciences.?
JEL: A12 F01 F22
Keywords: Unified Theory of the Philosophical and Social Sciences;
Unification of the Behavioral Sciences; Integrated Explanatory Theory of
the Social Sciences; Core Model of the Social Sciences; Unified Behavioral
Economic Theory; Integrated Theory of the Macro Social Sciences; Core
Model of the Social Sciences
Date: 2019–10
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:9812207&r=hpe
6. How Can Experiments Play a Greater Role in Public Policy? 12 Proposals
from an Economic Model of Scaling
Omar Al-Ubaydli; John List; Claire Mackevicius; Min Sok Lee; Dana Suskind
Policymakers are increasingly turning to insights gained from the
experimental method as a means to inform large scale public policies.
Critics view this increased usage as premature, pointing to the fact that
many experimentally-tested programs fail to deliver their promise at scale.
Under this view, the experimental approach drives too much public policy.
Yet, if policymakers could be more confident that the original research
findings would be delivered at scale, even the staunchest critics would
carve out a larger role for experiments to inform policy. Leveraging the
economic framework of Al-Ubaydli et al. (2019), we put forward 12 simple
proposals, spanning researchers, policymakers, funders, and stakeholders,
which together tackle the most vexing scalability threats. The framework
highlights that only after we deepen our understanding of the scale up
problem will we be on solid ground to argue that scientific experiments
should hold a more prominent place in the policymaker's quiver.
Date: 2019
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:artefa:00679&r=hpe
8. An Introduction to Juergen Backhaus’s “Lawyers’ economics vs. economic
analysis of law”
Alain Marciano (MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université
de Montpellier)
Date: 2018
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02306870&r=hpe
9. Mathematical Economics - Marginal analysis in the consumer behavior
theory
Marques, Jorge; Pascoal, Rui
In the neoclassical theory, the economic value of a good is determined by
the benefit that an individual consumer attributes to the last ("marginal")
unit consumed. Marginal analysis was introduced to the theory of value by
William Jevons, Carl Menger and Léon Walras, the founders of marginalism.
Since the so-called “marginalist revolution” of the 1870s, differential (or
infinitesimal) calculus has been applied to the mathematical modelling of
economic theories. Our goal is to present some consumer behavior models,
their advantages and limitations, using the methodology of economic science.
It should be emphasized that each (re)formulation is based on different
economic principles: diminishing marginal utility, diminishing marginal rate
of substitution and weak axiom of revealed preference.
JEL: C02 D03
Keywords: Marginal analysis, consumer behavior models, diminishing
marginal rate of substitution, weak axiom of revealed preference
Date: 2018
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:96442&r=hpe
10. Calabresi: Heterodox Economic Analysis of Law
Alain Marciano (MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université
de Montpellier); Giovanni Battista Ramello (Università degli Studi del
Piemonte Orientale-Amedeo Avogadro (ITALY))
Guido Calabresi is one of the founders of the law and economics movement.
His approach, however, corresponds to a form of economic analysis of law
that, we claim, is heterodox. We show why in this short notice.
Date: 2018–08–13
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02306824&r=hpe
13. Governance im Politikfeld Wirtschaftspolitik
Mause, Karsten
This paper gives an overview of the topic "economic governance". This term
is used in economics and neighboring social sciences as a generic term under
which usually all activities are subsumed that are conducted by economic
policymakers to 'steer' or 'control' the economic system, individual markets
therein or certain economic actors (e.g., businesses, consumers). In
addition to a more detailed clarification of the concept of "economic
governance" and the presentation of actors and instruments of economic
governance, the paper discusses why and in what situations economic
governance is necessary. The latter issue is the subject of a continuing
debate in politics, the public and the social sciences.
JEL: D72 D78 E6 H1 L51 P16
Keywords: Governance, Economic Policy, Political Economy, Governance
Research, Public Policy Analysis, Market Failure, Government Activity.
Date: 2019
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:96468&r=hpe
14. Posner, Richard
Alain Marciano (MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université
de Montpellier)
Posner is one of the main contributors to what is known as "economic
analysis of law". In this entry, we restrict our presentation to a few
controversial claims he made (efficiency, wealth-maximization, Hicks-Kaldor,
judicial decision making).
Date: 2018
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02306799&r=hpe
15. Is Corruption a Greater Evil than Sin?
Cigdem Borke TUNALI (Istanbul University); Laurent WEILL (LaRGE Research
Center, Université de Strasbourg)
The aim of this paper is to provide new evidence on the relation between
religion and attitude toward corruption at the individual level. We use
World Values Survey data covering 59 countries during the period 2010-2014
to examine if religiosity and religious denominations are associated with
attitude toward corruption. We find that religious people are more averse to
corruption, supporting the view that religiosity favors honest behavior.
Attitudes toward corruption differ across religious denominations.
Protestantism and Hinduism are associated with greater aversion to
corruption than Atheism, while other religious denominations do not have
clear difference. This conclusion accords with the view that hierarchical
religions favor greater tolerance to corruption than individualistic
religions. Additional estimations on groups of countries with different
dominant religions and on multi-religious countries show however that the
relation between religious denomination and tolerance to corruption can vary
with the religious environment of the country.
JEL: H11 K42 Z12
Keywords: religion, corruption.
Date: 2019
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lar:wpaper:2019-05&r=hpe
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