nep-hpe New Economics Papers on History and Philosophy of Economics
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Issue of 2019‒10‒14
thirteen papers chosen by
Erik Thomson (University of Manitoba)
http://ep.repec.org/pth72
[Selections by Humberto Barreto for SHOE list.]
1. Bringing Them Alive
André Lapidus
2. Los salarios y la fatiga acumulada: una revisión de la teoría de la
oferta de trabajo
Vasco Correa, Carlos Andrés
3. Credit mechanics: a precursor to the current money supply debate
Decker, Frank; Goodhart, C. A. E.
4. The Economics of Energy Efficiency, a Historical Perspective
Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet; Antoine Missemer
5. Introduction. The Women’s Status and the Economic Theories of the 19th
century
Marlyse Pouchol
7. Post-Keynesian Controversy About Uncertainty: Methodological
Perspective, Part II
Luká? Augustin Máslo
9. Taxation and Social Justice
Boyan Durankev
11. On Latin American Populism, And Its Echoes Around the World
Sebastian Edwards
13. Currency devaluations and beggar-my-neighbour penalties: evidence
from the 1930s
Albers, Thilo
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1. Bringing Them Alive
André Lapidus (PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des
Représentations Economiques - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne)
This paper continues an ongoing reflection on the ways we do the history of
economic thought, marked some decades ago by Blaug (1990)'s canonical
typology of the four "genres" in the historiography of economics. Drawing
the consequences of a seminal paper by Rorty (1984) on the methodology of
the history of philosophy, it offers a non-canonical typology comprising
three alternative approaches, distinguished on the basis of the way they
conceive of the link between statements, old and contemporary: the
extensive, the retrospective, and the intensive approaches. A particularity
of the intensive approach is its potential challenge to contemporary
knowledge through the possible introduction of statements which do not
belong to it. Yet, unlike the extensive and retrospective approaches, the
very possibility of an intensive approach seems at odds with its relatively
thin academic outcomes. Taking the works of Sraffa (1951; 1960) and Sen
(2002) as examples, it is argued that this is a consequence of the intensive
approach being heuristic which is destined to remain poised between the
extensive and retrospective approaches. But, as a result, among the three
available approaches, it is the intensive approach which appears as a
privileged route by which the history of economic thought can begin to
engage with economic theory.
Date: 2019–12
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02294934&r=hpe
2. Los salarios y la fatiga acumulada: una revisión de la teoría de la
oferta de trabajo
Vasco Correa, Carlos Andrés
Resumen: La introducción de la sicología y la economía del comportamiento
por parte del economista Richard Thaler, fueron reconocidos con el premio
Nobel en las ciencias económicas. Los individuos no se comportan de forma
racional, de forma sistemática. Y en decisiones de consumo, pero también de
trabajo, se espera que no logren decidir niveles óptimos. Este documento de
trabajo busca retomar parte de estas contribuciones en este sentido, para
explorar y replantear lo que hace muchos años se considera como la teoría de
la oferta del trabajo desde una perspectiva microeconómica, y plantear una
posible línea de investigación a futuro en este sentido. Los individuos
podrían no considerar de forma dinámica su esfuerzo en el trabajo y estarían
tomando mal su decisión de cantidad de oferta de trabajo, generando pérdidas
sistemáticas en su nivel de bienestar, así como afectaciones en su
productividad del trabajando reduciendo también los beneficios de las
compañías. / Abstract : The introduction of psychology and behavioral
economics by the economist Richard Thaler, were recognized with the Nobel
prize in economic science. Individuals do not behave rationally, in a
systematic way. Our main hypothesis is that not only in consumption, but
also in job supply decisions. It is expected that they fail to decide
optimum levels. This working paper seeks to resume part of these
contributions, to explore and rethink what for many years is considered as
the job supply theory from a microeconomic perspective, and contemplate a
possible investigation line. Individuals could not be dynamically
considering its work effort and they would be wrong taking its decision of
job supply’s quantity and quality, generating systematic losses in their
level of well-being, as well as effects on working productivity and
companies’ profits.
JEL: J00 J22 J32
Keywords: Jornada de trabajo, esfuerzo óptimo, salarios, agotamiento
Date: 2017–12–01
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:col:000196:017516&r=hpe
3. Credit mechanics: a precursor to the current money supply debate
Decker, Frank; Goodhart, C. A. E.
This paper assesses the theory of credit mechanics within the context of the
current money supply debate. Credit mechanics and related approaches were
developed by a group of German monetary economists during the 1920s-1960s.
Credit mechanics overcomes a one-sided, bank-centric view of money creation,
which is often encountered in monetary theory. We show that the money supply
is influenced by the interplay of loan creation and repayment rates; the
relative share of credit volume neutral debtor-to-debtor and
creditor-to-creditor payments; the availability of loan security; and the
behavior of non-banks and non-borrowing bank creditors . With the standard
textbook models of money creation now discredited, we argue that a more
general approach to money supply theory involving credit mechanics needs to
be established.
JEL: E40 E41 E50 E51
Keywords: balances mechanics; bank credit; money creation; credit
creation; credit mechanics; money supply theory
Date: 2018–10
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:100017&r=hpe
4. The Economics of Energy Efficiency, a Historical Perspective
Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur
l'Environnement et le Développement - CNRS - Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CIRAD - Centre
de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le
Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales -
AgroParisTech, ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech); Antoine Missemer (CIRED
- Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le
Développement - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ENPC
- École des Ponts ParisTech - CIRAD - Centre de Coopération Internationale
en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes
études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech, CNRS - Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique)
Energy efficiency can be considered as a central pillar of global warming
mitigation, with important co-benefits, including productivity gains,
resource conservation or national security. It is also a subject of
controversy between engineers and economists, who have divergent conceptions
of the notion of optimality that delineates energy efficiency potentials.
Modern surveys hardly go back beyond the 1970s and do not fully explore the
reasons and conditions for the persistent differences between economists'
and engineers' views. This paper provides such a historical account,
investigating the positioning of economic analysis in contrast to the
technical expertise on key energy efficiency topics – the rebound effect,
the energy efficiency gap, and green nudges, from the 19th century to the
present day. It highlights the permanence and evolution in the relationship
that economists have had with technical expertise. An extension of the
current conceptual framework is finally provided to connect our historical
findings with avenues for future research.
Keywords: engineering,nudge,history of economic thought,energy
efficiency,market barriers and failures
Date: 2019
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02301636&r=hpe
5. Introduction. The Women’s Status and the Economic Theories of the 19th
century
Marlyse Pouchol (URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, CLERSE -
Centre Lillois d’Études et de Recherches Sociologiques et Économiques -
UMR 8019 - Université de Lille - ULCO - Université du Littoral Côte
d'Opale - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
Keywords: interwar period,clearing agreements,John Maynard Keynes,Clearing
Union,foreign exchange controls,compensation bancaire,période de
l’entre-deux-guerres,contrôle des changes,accords de clearing
Date: 2019
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02304876&r=hpe
7. Post-Keynesian Controversy About Uncertainty: Methodological
Perspective, Part II
Luká? Augustin Máslo (University of Economics, Prague)
In this paper, the author follows a discussion of two post-Keynesian
economists, Paul Davidson and Rod O?Donnell, about the nature of uncertainty
in economics. The author focuses on two points of this discussion: a
controversy about possibility/impossibility of such a proof and a criticism
of Davidson?s allegedly split definition of ergodicity. In a controversy
about possibility/impossibility, the author puts O?Donnell to criticism for
the latter?s reduction of proving to providing empirical evidence and, in
effect, omission of extra-empirical cognition. The author accepts
O?Donnell?s argument of Davidson?s split definition and infers his own
conclusion: the reason why Davidson keeps ignoring the incompatibility of
both definitions of ergodicity is that he does not distinguish cumulative
and theoretical probability. The author contends that Davidson?s claim about
predetermination of long-run outcomes in ergodic processes draws its
persuasiveness from the ambiguity of the concept ?long run?: according to
the author, Davidson perceives ?long-run? in the meaning of ?finitely long?
while O?Donnell perceives ?long-run? in the meaning of ?limit infinity?.
JEL: B41 D80
Keywords: ergodicity, uncertainty, probability
Date: 2019–10
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iefpro:9512182&r=hpe
9. Taxation and Social Justice
Boyan Durankev
The link between taxation and justice is a classic debate issue, while also
being very relevant at a time of changing environmental factors and
conditions of the social and economic system. Technologically speaking,
there are three types of taxes: progressive, proportional and regressive.
Although justice, like freedom, is an element and manifestation of the
imagined reality in citizens minds, the state must comply with it. In
particular, the tax system has to adapt to the mass imagined reality in
order for it to appear fairer and more acceptable.
Date: 2019–10
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1910.04155&r=hpe
11. On Latin American Populism, And Its Echoes Around the World
Sebastian Edwards
In this paper I discuss the ways in which populist experiments have evolved
historically. Populists are charismatic leaders that use a fiery rhetoric to
pitch the interests of “the people” against those of banks, large firms,
multinational companies, the IMF, and immigrants. Populists implement
redistributive policies that violate the basic laws of economics, and in
particular budget constraints. Most populist experiments go through five
distinct phases that span from euphoria to collapse. Historically, the vast
majority of populist episodes end up with declines in national income. When
everything is over, incomes of the poor and middle class tend to be lower
than when the experiment was launched. I argue that many of the
characteristics of traditional Latin American populism are present in more
recent manifestations from around the globe.
JEL: D71 D72 D74 D78 E52 E62 N16
Date: 2019–10
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:26333&r=hpe
13. Currency devaluations and beggar-my-neighbour penalties: evidence
from the 1930s
Albers, Thilo
The currency devaluations of the 1930s facilitated a faster recovery from
the Great Depression in the countries depreciating, but their unilateral
manner provoked retaliatory and discriminatory commercial policies abroad.
This article explores the importance of the retaliatory motive in the
imposition of trade barriers by gold bloc countries during the 1930s and its
effects on trade. Relying on new and existing datasets on the introduction
of quotas, tariffs, and bilateral trade costs, the quantification of the
discriminatory response suggests that these countries imposed significant
beggar‐my‐neighbour penalties. The penalties reduced trade to a similar
degree that modern regional trade agreements foster trade. Furthermore, the
analysis of contemporary newspapers reveals that the devaluations of the
early 1930s triggered an Anglo‐French trade conflict marked by tit‐for‐tat
protectionist policies. With regards to global trade, the unilateral
currency depreciations came at a high price in political and economic terms.
These costs must have necessarily reduced their benefit to the world as a
whole.
JEL: F3 G3
Keywords: 1350161
Date: 2019–04–30
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:100269&r=hpe
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