Dear list members,
 
With my very best wishes for the new year to all of you, Iwould like to announce herein the full 2016 program of the INETYoung Scholars Online Seminar in History and Philosophy of Economics. 
 
Our first session, on WicksellianMonetary Theory and Contemporary Economics, will be held on Thursday the28th of January at 17h UTC 
 
Our second session, on Ethicsand Morality in Early-20th Century Economic Thought, will be held on Wednesdaythe 17th of February at 16h UTC.
 
Here the details of these first two sessions (full 2016program below):
 

 
Thursday28th  January 17h UTCWicksellianMonetary Theory and Contemporary Economics

Dirk Ehnts,Bard College Berlin

From Wicksell to Le Bourva toModern Monetary Theory:  A Wicksell Connection

In the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis (GFC)and with a focus on macroeconomic imbalances in the world economy economistshave shown renewed interest in the way central banks and financial systemswork. The rise of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has relied on the examination ofbalance sheets, which has led to advancements in the understandings of the nutsand bolts of the financial system and of the fundamental role of taxes,reserves and deposits. While the school is associated with Post-Keynesianeconomics, we make the case that it could just as well be calledPost-Wicksellian. The aim is not to argue against or for some label, but tomake explicit the Wicksellian connection. This can bring forward olddiscussions and insights and integrate them into the newer debates.

Discussant: Marc Lavoie, University of Ottawa

Isabel Rodríguez Peña, UniversidadNacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

Re-Interpretation ofWicksell's Monetary Theory in an Intertemporal Equilibrium Model. Discussion ofthe Notion of a Monetary Equilibrium

After the financial crisis in 2008, the relevance ofdisequilibrium in theoretical models became central. This seems reasonablesince the crisis came about in a time where the disequilibrium was not part ofdominant theoretical approaches. In this context, the aim of this paper is toanalyze the incorporation of Wicksell’s monetary equilibrium in a DSGE, inparticular within the NNS approach developed by Woodford (2003). My analysis isconcentrating on Woodford’s work, since there the importance of Wicksell’smonetary equilibrium is explicitly emphasized. However, the solution ofWoodford’s model expressed in the Taylor rule rejects the core idea of Wicksell(1898). The Wicksell monetary equilibrium explains the interrelation betweenthe real and the monetary sector about disequilibrium. On the contrary,Woodford relates the equilibrium with the steady state where the equilibriumitself is an assumption not a result. I will introduce some aspects ofWicksell’s original of monetary equilibrium.

Discussant: Hans-Michael Trautwein, Carl vonOssietzky Universität Oldenburg

  Wednesday 17th February 16h UTC

Ethics and Morality in Early-20thCentury Economic Thought

DanielleGuizzo, University ofthe West of England (Visiting Research Fellow)

Ethics beyond Moral inEconomic Thought: Some Lessons from J. M. Keynes

Thepresentation discusses the connections and disconnections between ethics andmoral in economic ideas, particularly John Maynard Keynes’s thoughts aboutethical cultivation and the search for the ‘good life’. We take Keynes's essays'Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren' and 'My Early Beliefs', as wellas his Aristotelian and Moorean influences to investigate how can one reach andexperience the 'good life' as an ethical cultivation without being related tonormative morality (do's and dont's). This points out to a rethinking about therole of economic activity in life, the reasons why do we wish prosperity and towhat extent are we ruled by economistic principles to guide our lives.

Discussant: David Andrews,New York State University at Oswego

Erwin Dekker, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam /George Mason University

The Return of Morality to Economicsin the Wake of WWII

Thepresentation deals with the work of Wilhelm Röpke, Friedrich Hayek and Bertrandde Jouvenel in the years leading up to, during and following WWII. The commonpattern that can be discerned in the trajectory of these liberal thinkers fromdifferent European countries is from the conviction that the scholar isprimarily a student and observer of human affairs, toward the idea that thescholar has a social responsibility to contribute to his culture/civilization.     The paper contextualizes the formativeperiod of post-WWII economics, about which it is generally argued thateconomics is maturing into a value-free science, sometimes even because of thepolitical radicalization of the interbellum and WWII. A study of the work ofthese liberals, however, shows that there are important exceptions to thistrajectory, and thus sheds new light on the response of (European) economiststo WWII and also on what role morality should play in economics.

Discussant: Harald Hagemann, Universität Hohenheim

Matias Petersen, King's College London

The Relationship between Positiveand Normative Analysis in Political Economy

Therelationship between positive and normative analysis in economics seems to beclear: positive analysis is about how the world works and normative analysisabout how the world should be. In this view, positive analysis impliesconsiderable constraints on normative theory. I will argue that, framed inthese terms, this view is highly uninformative and that the problem rests, to alarge extent, on three previous questions: an ontological question, which isrelated to the role of structure and agency in the study of economicinstitutions; an epistemological question, which refers to the criteria bywhich we judge a theory as successful; and a question about the relationshipbetween the behavioural assumptions used in political economy and the way inwhich human beings actually behave. With this framework I aim to show that itis not clear what are precisely the restrictions that positive analysis imposesto normative theory.

Discussant: David Colander,Middlebury College


 

 
Here an international guide to these times:
 

|  Day 1

  |  Day 2

  |
|  8

  |  10

  |  11

  |  13

  |  14

  |  16

  |  17

  |  18

  |  19

  |  21.30

  |  23

  |  0

  |  1

  |  3

  |
|  9

  |  11

  |  12

  |  14

  |  15

  |  17

  |  18

  |  19

  |  20

  |  22.30

  |  0

  |  1

  |  2

  |  4

  |
|  -8

  |  -6

  |  -5

  |  -3

  |  -2

  |  UTC

  |  +1

  |  +2

  |  +3

  |  +5.30

  |  +7

  |  +8

  |  +9

  |  +11

  |
|  Vancouver

 LA

  |  Chicago

 Mexico

  |  Toronto

 New York

 Colombia

 Peru

  |  Fortaleza

 Chile

 Paraguay

 Argentina

  |  Rio d. J.

 São Paulo

  |  UK

 Portugal

 Senegal

 Ghana

  |  Germany

 France

 Italy

 Nigeria

  |  Finland

 Turkey

 Egypt

 S. Africa

  |  Moscow

 S. Arabia

 Ethiopia

 Kenya 

  |  India

  |  VietnamThailand

 Cambodia

 Jakarta

  |  China

 Malaysa

 Perth

  |  Japan

  |  Sidney

  |


 
(i.e. 17h UTC on the 28th of January is: 11 a.m.on the 28th of January in New York, 6 p.m. on the 28th ofJanuary in Paris and 1 a.m. on the 29th of January in Tokyo)Apologies to the East Asians and Australians. Unfortunately, there is notimeslot with decent times around the globe. I can only hope some of you inthis time zone may be interested enough to brave the late/early hour. (Pleaseverify the precise time for you location. I have found this website particularly helpful).
 
Here the full 2016 Program:
 

 
INET Young Scholar Online Seminar in 

History and Philosophy of Economics

2016 Program


 

 
JanuaryWicksellianMonetary Theory and Contemporary Economics 

Dirk Ehnts,Bard College Berlin

From Wicksell to Le Bourva toModern Monetary Theory:  A Wicksell Connection

Discussant: Marc Lavoie,University of Ottawa

Isabel Rodríguez Peña, UniversidadNacional Autónoma de México

Re-Interpretation ofWicksell's Monetary Theory in an Intertemporal Equilibrium Model. Discussion ofthe Notion of a Monetary Equilibrium

Discussant: Hans-Michael Trautwein,Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg


 

 
February

Ethics and Morality in Early-20th Century EconomicThought

DanielleGuizzo, University ofthe West of England (Visiting Research Fellow)

Ethics beyond Moral inEconomic Thought: Some Lessons from J. M. Keynes

Discussant: David Andrews,State University of New York At Oswego

Erwin Dekker, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam /George Mason University

The Return of Morality to Economicsin the Wake of WWII

Discussant: Harald Hagemann, Universität Stuttgart Hohenheim

MatiasPetersen, King'sCollege London

The Relationship between Positiveand Normative Analysis in Political Economy

Discussant: David Colander,Middlebury College

 
 
March

The Influence of Mechanics and Cybernetics on 20thCentury Economics

Gabriel Oliva, Universidade de SãoPaulo

The Road to Servomechanisms:The Influence of Cybernetics on Hayek, from the Sensory Order to the SocialOrder

Discussant: TBA

MarkKirstein, TU Dresden

From the Ergodic Hypothesisin Physics to the Ergodic Axiom in Economics

Discussant: TBA

 
 
April

Old Institutionalism and Anglo-American Economic History

DenilsonBeal, UniversidadeFederal do Paraná

Institutional Economics andPolitical Communitarianism on the Discontent of American Farmers in the LateNineteenth-Century

Discussant: TBA

Aqdas Afzal,University of Missouri - Kansas City

What Does the GloriousRevolution Really Tell Us About Economic Institutions?

Discussant: TBA


 

 
May

Economic Institutions and the“Scientification” of               

Economics in the Mid-20th Century: US and France

AlexanderArnold, New YorkUniversity

Beyond Physics Envy? ThinkingThrough the Relationship Between Economics and the Natural Sciences in PostwarFrance

Discussant: Richard Arena, Université de Nice Sofia-Antipolis (TBC)

Camila Orozco Espinel, École des HautesÉtudes en Sciences Sociales

How Walras Made Room in theUnited States: Econometric Society and Cowles Commission Demarcation fromInstitutionalism (1930-1960)

Discussant: Tiago Mata,University College London


 

 
June

Non-Wage Labour and the Boundaries of Economics

Luke Messac,University of Pennsylvania

What is an Economy? DebatingProduction Boundaries and Women's Work in African National Income Accounting

Discussant: TBA

TBA


 
      Precise dates and other details of later sessions will beannounced in time. I will send a reminder and a weblink to attend the sessionsthe week prior to each. The sessions will be possible to attend directly on a webbrowser, ideally with microphone and camera, via the go-to-meeting website,with no further installation (a standalone program, possibly more stable, is offeredfor free download alternatively, on the same website).
 
Hoping for your numerous attendance,With kind regards,Jérôme Lange