[Selections by Humberto Barreto for SHOE list.]
nep-hpe <https://nep.repec.org/nep-hpe.html> New Economics Papers
<https://nep.repec.org/> on History and Philosophy of Economics
Issue of 2024‒04‒22
papers chosen by
Erik Thomson <http://econpapers.repec.org/RAS/pth72.htm>,
University of Manitoba <http://umanitoba.ca/>
------------------------------
1. Carl Menger on time and entrepreneurship
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_3269588083598274104_p1> By Campagnolo,
Gilles
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Campagnolo,%20Gilles>
2. Finance, violence et justice selon Blaise Pascal
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_3269588083598274104_p2> By Bernard
Gazier
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Bernard%20Gazier>
3. Uneven Development: Causal Explanations and Counterfactuals with
Structural Depth
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_3269588083598274104_p3> By Khan,
Haider <http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Khan,%20Haider>
4. Hiding the elephant: the tragedy of COVID policy and its economist
apologists <https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_3269588083598274104_p4>
By Foster, Gigi
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Foster,%20Gigi>;
Frijters,
Paul <http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Frijters,%20Paul>
5. Exploring the Foundations of Complexity Economics: Unveiling the
Interplay of Ontological, Epistemological, Methodological, and Conceptual
Aspects <https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_3269588083598274104_p5>
By Sandye
Gloria
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Sandye%20Gloria>
6. Democratic Uncertainty: From Boulding’s Images to Downs’s Ideology.
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_3269588083598274104_p6> By Julien
Grandjean
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Julien%20Grandjean>;
Cameron
M. Weber
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Cameron%20M.%20Weber>
7. Hayek's Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_3269588083598274104_p7> By Harald
Hagemann
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Harald%20Hagemann>
8. Full employment reloaded. Welfare state and full employment between
Constitution and Economics
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_3269588083598274104_p8> By Leonello
Tronti
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Leonello%20Tronti>
9. Durkheim’s forgotten rules of sociological method for studying social
facts. <https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_3269588083598274104_p9> By Jean
Daniel BOYER
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Jean%20Daniel%20BOYER>
10. A Note on Sen's Representation of the Gini Coefficient: Revision and
Repercussions
<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_3269588083598274104_p10> By Stark,
Oded <http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Stark,%20Oded>
------------------------------
1. Carl Menger on time and entrepreneurship
<http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:117195>
By: Campagnolo, Gilles
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Campagnolo,%20Gilles>
Abstract: Carl Menger is remembered less for his analysis of
entrepreneurship (which in the following analysis refers to his fundamental
notions related to the nature of business practice) than for his views on
matters like money, individualism or the nature of institutions (there are
exceptions to this subdued interest, such as Kirzner 1978). However, these
issues are related and a long-debated notion among Austrians, namely time,
relates investment, entrepreneurship, uncertainty and Menger’s tentative
quasi-anthropology (kept in his notes). This paper conscientiously
investigates those issues through Menger’s views on the notion of time.
Keywords: Böhm-Bawerk (Eugen von); entrepreneurship; innovation; Menger
(Carl); time
JEL: B13 B31 O31
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?jel=B13%20B31%20O31>
Date: 2022–09–03
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:117195&r=hpe
2. Finance, violence et justice selon Blaise Pascal
<http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:mse:cesdoc:24003>
By: Bernard Gazier
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Bernard%20Gazier> (Centre
d'Economie de la Sorbonne)
Abstract: This text aims at identifying and discussing the content and
present meaning of Blaise Pascal's contribution to the understanding of
justice in economic matters: which inequalities in terms of wealth, status
and power are acceptable or not in a country or a community? Such a project
faces a difficulty and a paradox. The difficulty is that economics as a
separate discipline does not exist in Pascal's times; the paradox lies in
the fact that while Pascal was politically conservative, his heirs in the
XXth century converge in a strongly critical stance against capitalism and
established order. Our analysis proceeds in three steps. In the first step,
we briefly situate Pascal's approach in its historical context, by
comparing it to the views of other authors of his time who are considered
as forerunners of political economy. In the second, we discuss the content
of the legacy as identified and used in the XXth century, by comparing
Pascal's statements on justice to the conceptions of his heirs, in order to
pinpoint convergences and divergences. The last step adopts an
epistemologic and genealogic stance. We take into consideration the
long-terme changes in knowledge modalities leading to the "human sciences"
and among them to "positive" and "normative" economics, in order to set and
discuss the meaning of the references to Blaise Pascal in contemporary
debates on economic and social justice
Keywords: Blaise Pascal; social justice; normative economics
JEL: B11 B50 B55 D60
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?jel=B11%20B50%20B55%20D60>
Date: 2024–02
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:24003&r=hpe
3. Uneven Development: Causal Explanations and Counterfactuals with
Structural Depth <http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:120348>
By: Khan, Haider
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Khan,%20Haider>
Abstract: What does a deep structural causal explanation for uneven
development deliver ? To answer this question, we must ask: How are
relatively deeper scientific explanations to be distinguished from
superficial or shallower ones? Furthermore, what roles can counterfactual
analysis play in social sciences and policy making which can help overcome
uneven and unequal development? For a competent, morally motivated
scientific policy maker in Development Economics, it is important to avoid
inflicting harm and promote the common good. The purpose of this paper is
to clarify how the idea of depth can play a role in finding the more
"approximately true" explanation through causal comparisons and
counterfactual conditionals that are scientifically salient in principle.
In doing so, we must also be able to avoid inflicting harm and promote the
common good. It is not an exhaustive treatment but rather focuses on a few
aspects that may be the most critical in evaluating the explanatory
strengths of a theory in the social sciences. It presents on the critical
side a general argument which stresses the need for going beyond the Humean
focus on just constant conjunction and temporal succession. On the positive
side---and in contradistinction with Hume--- it develops a scientific
realist argument for deep causality in development studies and social
sciences in general on the epistemological, ontological and ethical side.
It attempts to elucidate via an extensive example from research in the
political economy of development how these ends can be achieved in a
topic-specific manner when explanations in political economy and other
social sciences can be judged by the scientific realist criterion of causal
depth. In this particular case, an "intentional" and methodologically
individualist neoclassical explanation is contrasted with a "structural"
dual-dual approach as rival theories purporting to explain the same set of
phenomena. Finally, avoiding harmful policies and aiding in making policies
for advancing the common good are more likely if the methodological
approach advocated here is adopted for responsible practice. Ultimately,
following the methodology advanced here , it will be possible to drive
further the tendencies towards the creation of an ethically efficacious
economics(EEE) for ecologically sustainable humane policy making.
Keywords: Uneven Development, Structural Dual-Dual Development Model,
Scientific Explanations, Social and Economic Explanations, Causal Depth,
Critical Scientific Realism, Political Economy, Neoclassical Economics,
Structuralism, Social Science Theories, Economic Models, Ethics and
Economics, Counterfactuals and Causal Efficacy, Common Good. Economic
Justice, Ethically Efficacious Economics(EEE or Triple E)
JEL: C3 O1 O2
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?jel=C3%20O1%20O2>
Date: 2024–02–29
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:120348&r=hpe
4. Hiding the elephant: the tragedy of COVID policy and its economist
apologists <http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:122384>
By: Foster, Gigi
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Foster,%20Gigi>;
Frijters,
Paul <http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Frijters,%20Paul>
Abstract: In 2020 and 2021, the world witnessed policies that caused
enormous net damage to most countries. We demonstrate the usefulness of the
new WELLBY currency in gauging the costs and benefits of COVID policies and
review the contributions of Australian economists to the scholarly and
public debates about these policies. Our analysis documents the value of
what was destroyed, the weak resistance mounted by the Australian economics
profession during this period, and the role played by many Australian
economists as apologists for what we view as Australia's most catastrophic
peacetime economic policy failure. We close with ideas for working towards
a better future.
Keywords: Australia; Covid-19; economics profession; health policy;
welfare; WELLBY; coronavirus
JEL: N0 <http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?jel=N0>
Date: 2024–03–06
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:122384&r=hpe
5. Exploring the Foundations of Complexity Economics: Unveiling the
Interplay of Ontological, Epistemological, Methodological, and Conceptual
Aspects <http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:gre:wpaper:2024-11>
By: Sandye Gloria
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Sandye%20Gloria>
(Université
Côte d'Azur, CNRS, GREDEG, France)
Abstract: What gives complexity economics its identity is the
relationships and hierarchy among its ontological, epistemological,
methodological, and conceptual aspects. This paper explores each one of
these aspects and their interplays, to precise the contours of the
complexity approach. This paper aims to stress the coherent articulation
and architecture of these four dimensions. In particular, ontology matters,
it comes first as an indispensable pre-scientific analysis that conditions
the adoption of an adequate criterion of scientific explanation with
methodological consequences in terms of relevant tools and key concepts.
Reflections on the concept of emergence are particularly symptomatic of the
overall coherence of the complexity approach. It becomes challenging to
persist in attempting to enhance the mainstream with new tools to address
novel phenomena and, more broadly, to regard the complexity approach as a
supplement. Instead, the complexity approach emerges as a distinct
alternative approach.
Keywords: Complexity economics, ontology, generativism, constructivism,
emergence
JEL: B20 B50 B41
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?jel=B20%20B50%20B41>
Date: 2024–03
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2024-11&r=hpe
6. Democratic Uncertainty: From Boulding’s Images to Downs’s Ideology.
<http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2024-14>
By: Julien Grandjean
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Julien%20Grandjean>;
Cameron
M. Weber
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Cameron%20M.%20Weber>
Abstract: Reading Boulding’s The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society
(1956) in light of recent work in public choice homo politicus theory sheds
light on today’s partisan politics. Complex depersonalized societies and
limited time in the democratic process means that voters make non-logical
decisions based on expressive images as simple as “good” and “bad” (Brennan
2008). We find that this work by Boulding can be related to Downs (1957).
In his well-known An Economic Theory of Democracy, Downs develops the
importance of political ideology in electoral processes. But what is
ideology if not expressive images? In this paper, we relate these two
works, written at the same time, about the same subject but without
referencing each other. Both Boulding and Downs build models which place an
emphasis on the role of mental ideas to overcome imperfect information in
representative democracy. Additionally, both theorists find that this
uncertainty is what can make democracy a fragile form of governance.
Keywords: Anthony Downs, Kenneth Boulding, Political ideology, Images,
Democracy.
JEL: B2 B31 D72 D81
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?jel=B2%20B31%20D72%20D81>
Date: 2024
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2024-14&r=hpe
7. Hayek's Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle
<http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:gre:wpaper:2024-06>
By: Harald Hagemann
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Harald%20Hagemann>
(Universität
Hohenheim)
Abstract: The essay begins with Hayek's grappling with the equilibrium
framework as the starting point for the analysis of cyclical fluctuations
and the fundamental methodological challenge raised by Lowe's attack
against the construction of business-cycle theory within the system of
general economic equilibrium. It then shows that Hayek elaborated his
Austrian theory of the business cycle on the innovative combination of five
building blocks: (1) Wicksell's theory of the cumulative process where
price changes are caused by the discrepancy between the market rate and the
natural (equilibrium) rate of interest; (2) Mises's theory of money and
credit in which banks artificially lowering the money (market) rate of
interest are responsible for overinvestment and a misallocation of
resources which necessarily has to be corrected; (3) Böhm-Bawerk's theory
of capital with its emphasis on the time structure of the production
process; (4) Cantillon effects of changes in the money supply on the price
structure and hence on the structure of production (non-neutrality of
money); (5) Ricardo effects of a shortage of consumption goods on the
production of investment goods (disproportionality of circulating and fixed
capital).
JEL: B22 B25 B31 E32
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?jel=B22%20B25%20B31%20E32>
Date: 2024–03
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gre:wpaper:2024-06&r=hpe
8. Full employment reloaded. Welfare state and full employment between
Constitution and Economics
<http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:ast:wpaper:0061>
By: Leonello Tronti
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Leonello%20Tronti>
Abstract: The paper summarizes the evolution of the welfare state
concept and its link to economic growth and full employment, along a
complex itinerary running for more than a century, from the work of Adolf
Wagner (1878) to James Meade’s proposals (1989, 1995). The overview focuses
on the theoretical links of the first experiments of the welfare state with
the foundation of welfare economics (Pigou, 1920), the establishment of the
concept of human capital (Knight, 1944; Schultz, 1961) and the
systematization of the welfare state design offered by Beveridge (1942). In
the same years, the full employment goal is affirmed as achievable (Keynes,
1936; Beveridge, 1944; Roosevelt, 1945), meanwhile the Italian Constitution
(1948) proposes a major advance, affirming full employment as a substantive
freedom. With the end of Bretton Woods (1971) and the oil shocks (1973,
1979) stagflation spreads to developed economies, and both the welfare
state and full employment face a setback. Wagner’s law finds a more evolved
expression in the Laffer curve (1974), while monetary policy becomes
restrictive and full employment has to give way to the Nairu (Modigliani
and Papademos, 1975; Tobin, 1980). This is the climate in which Meade
proposes a new and vital link between the welfare state and full
employment: a proposal in which worker shares combine with topsy-turvy
nationalization, and public credit with the social dividend. A proposal out
of the box, but worth reflecting on in depth
Keywords: Welfare state; Wagner law; full employment; welfare economics;
human capital; substantial freedom; capabilities; stagflation; fiscal
crisis; Nairu; Laffer curve; social dividend
JEL: P16 E24 E64 H53 I31 J53 M52
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?jel=P16%20E24%20E64%20H53%20I31%20J53%20M52>
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ast:wpaper:0061&r=hpe
9. Durkheim’s forgotten rules of sociological method for studying social
facts. <http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2024-13>
By: Jean Daniel BOYER
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Jean%20Daniel%20BOYER>
Abstract: In The Rules of Sociological Method, Emile Durkheim proposes a
specific object for sociology, namely the social fact, which he defines as
a social force. While, logically, it seems he would have had to transpose
the methods of the physical sciences in order to study such an object,
Durkheim in fact prefers those of the biological sciences. His initial
project is therefore quickly transformed. We propose to take a step back,
and to consider the perspectives on sociology that Durkheim opens up in the
Rules, in particular the possibility of conceiving sociology as a “social
physics”. By using quantitative methods, sociology could unveil the nature
as well as the intensity of the social forces which determine human
behaviours. Social facts would thus appear as forces, but also as
probabilities that certain human behaviours would occur. Thus, sociology
would be tasked to reconstruct the causes of the advent of both social
facts and of social phenomena by using quantitative series. In this
context, sociology could also be a predictive science.
Keywords: Durkheim, force, method, social fact, social physics.
JEL: A12 A14 B40
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?jel=A12%20A14%20B40>
Date: 2024
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2024-13&r=hpe
10. A Note on Sen's Representation of the Gini Coefficient: Revision and
Repercussions <http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16856>
By: Stark, Oded
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?aus=Stark,%20Oded>
(University
of Bonn)
Abstract: Sen (1973 and 1997) presents the Gini coefficient of income
inequality in a population as follows. "In any pair-wise comparison the man
with the lower income can be thought to be suffering from some depression
on finding his income to be lower. Let this depression be proportional to
the difference in income. The sum total of all such depressions in all
possible pair-wise comparisons takes us to the Gini coefficient." (This
citation is from Sen 1973, p. 8.) Sen's verbal account is accompanied by a
formula (Sen 1997, p. 31, eq. 2.8.1), which is replicated in the text of
this note as equation (1). The formula yields a coefficient bounded from
above by a number smaller than 1. This creates a difficulty, because the
"mission" of a measure of inequality defined on the unit interval is to
accord 0 to perfect equality (maximal equality) and 1 to perfect inequality
(maximal inequality). In this note we show that when the Gini coefficient
is elicited from a neat measure of the aggregate income-related depression
of the population that consists of the people who experience income-related
depression, then the obtained Gini coefficient is "well behaved" in the
sense that it is bounded from above by 1. We conjecture a reason for a
drawback of Sen's definition, and we present repercussions of the usage of
the "well-behaved" Gini coefficient.
Keywords: Sen's definition of the Gini coefficient of income inequality,
aggregate income-related depression of a population, a "well-behaved" Gini
coefficient
JEL: D31 D63 I31
<http://econpapers.repec.org/scripts/search.pf?jel=D31%20D63%20I31>
Date: 2024–03
URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16856&r=hpe
------------------------------
This nep-hpe issue is ©2024 by Erik Thomson
<http://econpapers.repec.org/RAS/pth72.htm>. It is provided as is without
any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or
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