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Old Institutionalism and Anglo-American Economic History The webinar will contain young scholar presentations by Denilson Beal and Aqdas Afzal. Anne Mayhew and Geoffrey Hodgson will discuss the papers followed by a ge... | |||||||
Old Institutionalism and Anglo-American Economic History
Old Institutionalism and Anglo-American Economic HistoryDenilson Beal, Universidade Federal do ParanáInstitutional Economics and Political Communitarianism on the Discontent of American Farmers in the Late Nineteenth-CenturyThis presentation claims that the post-Civil War period in the United States was characterized by large-scale commercialization-led institutional change that prompted the emergence of a quantitative business ethic based on individualism and monetary canons of value. Therefore, we build upon the case study of the discontent of American farmers in such context to evidence potential spaces for constructive dialogue between the school of original institutional economics and the political communitarianism of Michael J. Sandel. We uphold that these strands of thought may be reasonably treated as complementary to one another, especially in respect to the concepts of individual, community and freedom. The parallels proposed herein might contribute to both scientific fields and to contemporary philosophy of economics, particularly over the importance of bringing the civic consequences of economic arrangements back to public debate.Discussant: Anne Mayhew, University of Tennessee (Professor Emerita)Aqdas Afzal, University of Missouri - Kansas CityWhat Does the Glorious Revolution Really Tell Us About Economic Institutions?This paper critically examines the relative merits of New Institutional Economics (NIE, hereafter) versus the “critical institutionalist” method of institutional analysis. I sketch how the Glorious Revolution, a seminal event in British economic and political history, has been analyzed by NIE. I argue that the examination, in general, and that of the Glorious Revolution, in particular, shows a considerable amount of theoretical weakness. Instead, I use the critical institutionalist method to present a comprehensive institutional analysis of the Glorious Revolution. I forward the changing nature of resource distribution and culture in Britain as key variables. I also highlight the role of the “Whigs” as key agents in bringing about the necessary events of the Glorious Revolution.Discussant: Geoffrey Hodgson, University of HertfordshireApril
The Influence of Mechanics and Cybernetics on 20th Century Economics
Gabriel Oliva, Universidade de São Paolo
The Road to Servomechanisms: The Influence of Cybernetics on Hayek, from the Sensory Order to the Social Order
It is widely recognized inside the specialized History of Economic Thought literature that the Austrian economist F. A. Hayek formed his views on complexity under the influence from the scientific movements of cybernetics and general system theory. Despite this general recognition, almost no work exists to the moment that explores in greater detail how neither one is related to Hayek’s ideas. Our investigation tries to contribute to fill this gap. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first, we focus mainly on Hayek’s attempt of giving an explanation of the principle to the emergence of human purposive behavior with the use of the concepts of negative feedback and equifinality, borrowed from cybernetics and general system theory, respectively. In the second part, we turn to Hayek’s later uses of related ideas in his works on what he called the twin ideas of evolution and of spontaneous formation of order. importance of bringing the civic consequences of economic arrangements back to public debate.
Discussant: Jack Birner, Università degli Studi di TrentoMark Kirstein, Technische Universität Dresden
From the Ergodic Hypothesis in Physics to the Ergodic Axiom in Economics
Despite its foundational character, the assumption of ergodicity is either unknown or virtually unrecognised in the economic discipline. Ergodicity, a mathematical property of a dynamic system originated from statistical mechanics and is fulfilled, if the time average of a system equals its ensemble average. If the time average of a system is unequal to its ensemble average, the system is called nonergodic. Nonergodicity puts emphasis on the crucial role of time through which a certain amount of uncertainty enters into economic reasoning. The change of status from an hypothesis in theoretical physics to an axiom in common mathematical economics is analysed. We follow the idea from rational mechanics of Gibbs to Samuelson's idea of a rational science of economics as its only possible form. This methodological spillover lead to and enabled the mathematisation of economics since the 1940s.
Discussant: J. Barkley Rosser, James Madison University
