nep-hpe New Economics Papers on History and Philosophy of Economics
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Issue of 2018‒11‒26
fifteen papers chosen by
Erik Thomson (University of Manitoba)
http://ep.repec.org/pth72
[Selections by Humberto Barreto for SHOE list.]
1. The Heckscher—Ohlin—Samuelson Trade Theory and the Cambridge
Capital Controversies: On the Validity of Factor Price Equalisation
Theorem
Kazuhiro Kurose; Naoki Yoshihara
3. The Evolution of money debate: functionalism versus chartalism,
Schumpeterian dynamics, Gresham's fallacy, and how history constrains
public finance
Thomas Palley
4. The Economists and Monetary Thought in Interwar New Zealand: The
Gradual Emergence of Monetary Policy Activism
Geoffrey Brooke; Anthony Endres; Alan Rogers
7. Growth without Expectations:The Original Sin of Neoclassical Growth
Models
Michaël Assous; Muriel Dal Pont Legrand
9. Classical labour values – properties of economic reproduction
Zachariah, David; Cockshott, Paul
14. American Radical Economists in Mao’s China: From Hopes to
Disillusionment
Isabella M Weber; Gregor Semieniuk
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1. The Heckscher—Ohlin—Samuelson Trade Theory and the Cambridge
Capital Controversies: On the Validity of Factor Price Equalisation
Theorem
Kazuhiro Kurose (Tohoku University); Naoki Yoshihara (School of
Management, Kochi University of Technology)
This paper examines the validity of the factor price equalisation theorem
(FPET) in relation to capital theory. First, it presents a survey of the
literature on Heckscher—Ohlin—Samuelson (HOS) models that treat
capital
as a primary factor, beginning with Samuelson (1953). In addition, by
consulting the Cambridge capital controversies, this paper observes that
the
validity of the FPET relies crucially on this setting. It does no longer
hold whenever capital is assumed to be a bundle of reproducible
commodities.
This paper also refers to the recent literature on the dynamic HOS trade
theory and argues that such studies ignore the difficulties posed by the
capital controversies. It thereby concludes that the FPET holds even when
capital is modelled as a reproducible factor. In conclusion, the paper
suggests the necessity of reconstructing basic theories of international
trade without relying on the FPET.
JEL: B51 D33 F11
Keywords: factor price equalisation, global univalence, capital as a
bundle of reproducible commodities, reswitching of techniques, capital
reversing
Date: 2018–11
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kch:wpaper:sdes-2018-17&r=hpe
3. The Evolution of money debate: functionalism versus chartalism,
Schumpeterian dynamics, Gresham's fallacy, and how history constrains
public finance
Thomas Palley
This paper discusses the evolution of money and the monetary system. The
origins of money debate is framed in terms of functionalism versus
chartalism. Endogenous Schumpeterian dynamics apply to the evolution of
money and monetary systems, and those dynamics are supportive of the
functionalist perspective. A functionalist Schumpeterian lens shows
"Gresham's law" should be relabeled "Gresham's fallacy" because good
money
drives out bad. The Gresham dynamic is also supportive of the
functionalist
perspective. Lastly, the paper shows monetary history over the past
millennium does not support chartalist public finance claims as
represented
by modern money theory (MMT).
JEL: E4 E44
Keywords: Money, functionalism, chartalism, Gresham’s law, Schumpeterian
dynamics, modern monetary theory
Date: 2018
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imk:fmmpap:34-2018&r=hpe
4. The Economists and Monetary Thought in Interwar New Zealand: The
Gradual Emergence of Monetary Policy Activism
Geoffrey Brooke (School of Economics, Auckland University of
Technology);
Anthony Endres (Department of Economics, University of Auckland); Alan
Rogers (Department of Economics, University of Auckland)
In spite of the existence of several monetary and central bank histories,
the emergence of monetary thought in New Zealand after 1914 has not been
subject to extensive analysis. This paper remedies this deficit for the
interwar period. The focus is upon the propagation of monetary ideas in
New
Zealand and their intellectual sources. We apply a heuristic in which
different monetary doctrines are situated along a continuum between
extreme
monetary policy ‘activism’ and extreme ‘minimalism’. In the 1920s, New
Zealand economists betrayed a minimalist bias across several dimensions:
money supply regulation, the role of money and the international monetary
transmission process in the business cycle, and the operation of
bank-credit
allocation mechanisms. Incipient activism in the work of Condliffe and
Belshaw was countered by Niemeyer’s case for a minimalist central bank.
Fisher adopted an anti-reflationist, forced savings approach to the 1930s
crisis; he underscored the deleterious monetary and real consequences of
Government exchange rate management after 1933. Copland, Tocker, Belshaw
and
Hight downplayed these consequences. Extended debate over the original
Reserve Bank legislation and perennial amendments thereafter, generated
new
meanings for the phrase ‘monetary policy independence’; it also turned
most
economists against extreme activism (or the policy of monetary
nationalism)
that prevailed from 1938. Throughout the interwar period, New Zealand
entertained a vigorous contest of monetary ideas; most of those ideas
were
inherited from the work of Keynes (as early as 1923), Hawtrey, Cannan,
Robbins, and Hayek, though adapted to local conditions.
Keywords: New Zealand, population policy, migration, history of thought
Date: 2018–11
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aut:wpaper:201809&r=hpe
7. Growth without Expectations:The Original Sin of Neoclassical Growth
Models
Michaël Assous (Université Lyon 2, CNRS, Triangle); Muriel Dal Pont
Legrand (Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France)
Early developments of growth theory are seen widely as the result of a
two-step process – the first represented by Harrod's Essay in Dynaamic
Theory, and the second by Solow's 1956 model. Harrod is considered to be
the
first to highlight the pervasive instability in macrodynamics, which
Solow
showed disappeared with the inclusion of flexible-coefficient production
functions. It has been recognized since that this is a misreading (Besomi
1995, 1998, Bruno and Dal-Pont Legrand 2014). Hoover and Halsmayer (2016)
examined how this "culture of misunderstanding" guided both Solow's
modelling work and his reading of Harrod. Our paper pays attention to the
specific issue of the introduction of an (independent) investment
function
in those early growth models. Using new archival material, we examine
this
complex issue and show how macroeconomists of that period dealt with
problems related to incorporating expectations, an a priori unavoidable
step
in order to build robust investment functions. Those elements were indeed
discussed at length, in the early 1960s, by economists such as Sen,
Samuelson and Solow as shown in his correspondence with Hahn. Our paper
sheds light on some hidden foundations of growth models and examines the
nature of the break Solow’s model introduced in the growth research
program
as initially defined by Harrod.
JEL: B2 B22 E1
Keywords: : growth, expectations, investment function, (in-)stability
Date: 2018–11
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2018-30&r=hpe
9. Classical labour values – properties of economic reproduction
Zachariah, David; Cockshott, Paul
We attempt to clarify the meaning of labour value, a concept that
originated
in classical political economy. Using a modern formalism, we show that
labour values are understood as a field property, or equivalently a
characteristic accounting property, of economic reproduction. The
applicability of the concept is discussed and its relation to
productivity,
employment, surplus labour and unproductive activities are demonstrated.
JEL: B0 C67 P16
Keywords: classical political economy, labour theory of value
Date: 2018–09–27
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:89832&r=hpe
14. American Radical Economists in Mao’s China: From Hopes to
Disillusionment
Isabella M Weber; Gregor Semieniuk (Institute of Management Studies,
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)
American radical economists in the 1960s perceived China under Maoism as
an
important experiment in creating a new society, aspects of which they
hoped
could serve as a model for the developing world. But the knowledge of
‘actually existing Maoism’ was very limited due to the mutual
isolation
between China and the US. This paper analyses the First Friendship
Delegation of American Radical Political Economists (FFDARPE) to the
People’s Republic of China in 1972, consisting mainly of Union for
Radical
Political Economics (URPE) members, which was the first visit of a group
of
American economists to China since 1949. Based on interviews with trip
participants as well as archival and published material, this paper
studies
what we can learn about the engagement with Maoism by American radical
economists from their dialogues with Chinese hosts, from their
on-the-ground
observations, and their reflection upon return. We show how the
visitors’
own ideas conflicted and intersected with their perception of the Maoist
practice on gender relations; workers’ management and life in the
communes. We also shed light on the diverging conceptions of the role for
economic expertise between URPE and late Maoism. As the first in-depth
study
on the FFDARPE we provide rich empirical insights into an ice-breaking
event
in the larger process of normalization in the Sino- U.S relations, that
ultimately led to the disillusionment of the Left with China.
JEL: B24 N15 N45 O10 P21 P32
Keywords: China; socialism and capitalism; transition economics; Maoism
Date: 2018–10
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:soa:wpaper:212&r=hpe
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