Dear list members,
Our first session, on Wicksellian
Monetary Theory and Contemporary Economics, will be held on Thursday the
28th of January at 17h UTC
Our second session, on Ethics
and Morality in Early-20th Century Economic Thought, will be held on Wednesday
the 17th of February at 16h UTC.
Here the details of these first two sessions (full 2016
program below):
Thursday
28th January 17h UTC
Wicksellian
Monetary Theory and Contemporary Economics
Dirk Ehnts,
Bard College Berlin
From Wicksell to Le Bourva to
Modern 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 economists
have shown renewed interest in the way central banks and financial systems
work. The rise of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) has relied on the examination of
balance sheets, which has led to advancements in the understandings of the nuts
and bolts of the financial system and of the fundamental role of taxes,
reserves and deposits. While the school is associated with Post-Keynesian
economics, we make the case that it could just as well be called
Post-Wicksellian. The aim is not to argue against or for some label, but to
make explicit the Wicksellian connection. This can bring forward old
discussions and insights and integrate them into the newer debates.
Discussant: Marc Lavoie, University of Ottawa
Isabel Rodríguez Peña, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Re-Interpretation of
Wicksell's Monetary Theory in an Intertemporal Equilibrium Model. Discussion of
the Notion of a Monetary Equilibrium
After the financial crisis in 2008, the relevance of
disequilibrium in theoretical models became central. This seems reasonable
since the crisis came about in a time where the disequilibrium was not part of
dominant theoretical approaches. In this context, the aim of this paper is to
analyze the incorporation of Wicksell’s monetary equilibrium in a DSGE, in
particular within the NNS approach developed by Woodford (2003). My analysis is
concentrating on Woodford’s work, since there the importance of Wicksell’s
monetary equilibrium is explicitly emphasized. However, the solution of
Woodford’s model expressed in the Taylor rule rejects the core idea of Wicksell
(1898). The Wicksell monetary equilibrium explains the interrelation between
the real and the monetary sector about disequilibrium. On the contrary,
Woodford relates the equilibrium with the steady state where the equilibrium
itself is an assumption not a result. I will introduce some aspects of
Wicksell’s original of monetary equilibrium.
Discussant: Hans-Michael Trautwein, Carl von
Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
Wednesday 17th February 16h UTC
Ethics and Morality in Early-20th
Century Economic Thought
Danielle
Guizzo, University of
the West of England (Visiting Research Fellow)
Ethics beyond Moral in
Economic Thought: Some Lessons from J. M. Keynes
The
presentation discusses the connections and disconnections between ethics and
moral in economic ideas, particularly John Maynard Keynes’s thoughts about
ethical cultivation and the search for the ‘good life’. We take Keynes's essays
'Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren' and 'My Early Beliefs', as well
as his Aristotelian and Moorean influences to investigate how can one reach and
experience the 'good life' as an ethical cultivation without being related to
normative morality (do's and dont's). This points out to a rethinking about the
role of economic activity in life, the reasons why do we wish prosperity and to
what 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 Economics
in the Wake of WWII
The
presentation deals with the work of Wilhelm Röpke, Friedrich Hayek and Bertrand
de Jouvenel in the years leading up to, during and following WWII. The common
pattern that can be discerned in the trajectory of these liberal thinkers from
different European countries is from the conviction that the scholar is
primarily a student and observer of human affairs, toward the idea that the
scholar has a social responsibility to contribute to his culture/civilization. The paper contextualizes the formative
period of post-WWII economics, about which it is generally argued that
economics is maturing into a value-free science, sometimes even because of the
political radicalization of the interbellum and WWII. A study of the work of
these liberals, however, shows that there are important exceptions to this
trajectory, and thus sheds new light on the response of (European) economists
to 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 Positive
and Normative Analysis in Political Economy
The
relationship between positive and normative analysis in economics seems to be
clear: positive analysis is about how the world works and normative analysis
about how the world should be. In this view, positive analysis implies
considerable constraints on normative theory. I will argue that, framed in
these terms, this view is highly uninformative and that the problem rests, to a
large extent, on three previous questions: an ontological question, which is
related to the role of structure and agency in the study of economic
institutions; an epistemological question, which refers to the criteria by
which we judge a theory as successful; and a question about the relationship
between the behavioural assumptions used in political economy and the way in
which human beings actually behave. With this framework I aim to show that it
is not clear what are precisely the restrictions that positive analysis imposes
to 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 28
th of January is: 11 a.m.
on the 28
th of January in New York, 6 p.m. on the 28
th of
January in Paris and 1 a.m. on the 29
th of January in Tokyo)
Apologies to the East Asians and Australians. Unfortunately, there is no
timeslot with decent times around the globe. I can only hope some of you in
this time zone may be interested enough to brave the late/early hour. (Please
verify 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
January
Wicksellian
Monetary Theory and Contemporary Economics
Dirk Ehnts,
Bard College Berlin
From Wicksell to Le Bourva to
Modern Monetary Theory: A Wicksell Connection
Discussant: Marc Lavoie,
University of Ottawa
Isabel Rodríguez Peña, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México
Re-Interpretation of
Wicksell's Monetary Theory in an Intertemporal Equilibrium Model. Discussion of
the Notion of a Monetary Equilibrium
Discussant: Hans-Michael Trautwein,
Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
February
Ethics and Morality in Early-20th Century Economic
Thought
Danielle
Guizzo, University of
the West of England (Visiting Research Fellow)
Ethics beyond Moral in
Economic 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 Economics
in the Wake of WWII
Discussant: Harald Hagemann, Universität Stuttgart Hohenheim
Matias
Petersen, King's
College London
The Relationship between Positive
and Normative Analysis in Political Economy
Discussant: David Colander,
Middlebury College
March
The Influence of Mechanics and Cybernetics on 20th
Century Economics
Gabriel Oliva, Universidade de São
Paulo
The Road to Servomechanisms:
The Influence of Cybernetics on Hayek, from the Sensory Order to the Social
Order
Discussant: TBA
Mark
Kirstein, TU Dresden
From the Ergodic Hypothesis
in Physics to the Ergodic Axiom in Economics
Discussant: TBA
April
Old Institutionalism and Anglo-American Economic History
Denilson
Beal, Universidade
Federal do Paraná
Institutional Economics and
Political Communitarianism on the Discontent of American Farmers in the Late
Nineteenth-Century
Discussant: TBA
Aqdas Afzal,
University of Missouri - Kansas City
What Does the Glorious
Revolution Really Tell Us About Economic Institutions?
Discussant: TBA
May
Economic Institutions and the
“Scientification” of
Economics in the Mid-20th Century: US and France
Alexander
Arnold, New York
University
Beyond Physics Envy? Thinking
Through the Relationship Between Economics and the Natural Sciences in Postwar
France
Discussant: Richard Arena, Université de Nice Sofia-Antipolis (TBC)
Camila Orozco Espinel, École des Hautes
Études en Sciences Sociales
How Walras Made Room in the
United States: Econometric Society and Cowles Commission Demarcation from
Institutionalism (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? Debating
Production Boundaries and Women's Work in African National Income Accounting
Discussant: TBA
TBA
Precise dates and other details of later sessions will be
announced in time. I will send a reminder and a weblink to attend the sessions
the week prior to each. The sessions will be possible to attend directly on a web
browser, ideally with microphone and camera, via the go-to-meeting website,
with no further installation (a standalone program, possibly more stable, is offered
for free download alternatively, on the same website).
Hoping for your numerous attendance,
With kind regards,
Jérôme Lange