Dear list members,
 
With my very best wishes for the new year to all of you, I would like to announce herein the full 2016 program of the INET Young Scholars Online Seminar in History and Philosophy of Economics.
 
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 28th of January is: 11 a.m. on the 28th of January in New York, 6 p.m. on the 28th of January in Paris and 1 a.m. on the 29th 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