 | |||||||
Economic Institutions and the “Scientification” of Econo... The webinar will contain young scholar presentations by Alexander Arnold and Camila Orozco Espinel. Richard Arena and Tiago Mata will discuss the papers followe... | |||||||
Dear All,
The next session of the INET Young Scholars Initiative
Online Seminar in History of Economic Thought and Philosophy of Economics
on the theme
Economic Institutions and the “Scientification” of Economics in the Mid-20th Century: US and France
is taking place next Thursday, 19th of May, at 16h UTC.
The session will contain young scholar presentations by Alexander Arnold and Camila Orozco Espinel. Richard Arena and Tiago Mata will discuss the papers followed by a general discussion (titles and abstracts below) -- with the added twist that Camila, based in Paris, will present on the US, and Alexander, based in New York, on France.
The papers, as well as the session itself, on Thursday, can be accessed from the event page (the image below is a link). Anyone with an internet connection can attend and participate in the session.
16h UTC is morning/noon in America, afternoon/evening in Europe and Africa, and evening/night in Asia and Australia; please check precise corresponding time at your location.
Our following session, on Economic Development and the Boundaries of Economics will be held on the 15th of June (details at the end of this mail).
Hoping to see many of you on Thursday!
Best regards,
Jérôme
Upcoming session: Thursday 19th of May at 16h UTC
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
This paper documents attempts made during the 1950s in France to understand the history of economic thought through tracing the development of its epistemic categories. During the period, thinkers from a wide range of fields and disciplines had debates about the status of economic truth and the relationship of economics to the natural sciences, on the one hand, and to the human sciences on the other. These debates were of particular urgency during the 1950s due to the drastic shifts within economic institutions––both educational and governmental––taking place during the period. Discussing their history not only helps explain the peculiar development of the Economics discipline in France. It also helps bring to light a fascinating but underappreciated chapter, not only of the history of economic thought in particular, but also of the wider history of relationship between epistemology and politics in postwar Europe.
Discussant: Richard Arena, Université de Nice Sofia-Antipolis
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)
The repertoire of what was considered scientific economics in the United-States went through profound transformation between 1930 and 1960. The constitution of the Econometric Society was one of the main catalyzers of this process. The paper analyses this key moment and follows it over the following 30 years in the context of the Cowles Commission. Rather than presenting the new repertoire – which is usually put under the umbrella labels like mainstream economics or neoclassical theory – as a single thing or a monolithic island, this paper stresses how its boundaries were drawn and redrawn, changed over the time, and how it frequently did so in ambiguous ways. Both the ES and the CC played central parts in the formation and shifts in these boundaries. Because of the transcendence of Walras’s system for mainstream economics à la Cowles, this paper advances our understanding of its journey from Europe to the US.
Discussant: Tiago Mata, University College London
Following session: Wednesday 15th of June at 16h UTC
Economic Development 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
National income accounting methods have long been politically contentious in Africa. Malawi serves as a case study of the epistemological problems of the ‘periphery’ in national income accounting. Starting in the 1940s, British economist Richard Stone sought to make his method of national income accounting a global standard. Yet one unsettled question involved which activities were to be considered ‘economic’ and therefore included in the aggregate, and which were not. While measuring national incomes in central Africa, Phyllis Deane decided that a number of activities not involved in market exchange must be included in national accounts. Yet even after this labour was included, statisticians assumed non-monetary agriculture was incapable of productivity gains. By the 1970s, feminists criticized the invisibility women’s work in national income estimates. Yet even today, global standards for national income accounting continue to exclude much unpaid domestic labour and to impute low monetary values to subsistence production.
Discussant: Gerardo Serra, University of Sussex
Maria Dahl, Kings College London
A Western Idea of Development: What shaped the idea of development in Indian Political Economy, 1870-1914
Identifying a dominant ideology is relevant because it can uncover a discourse that appears common-sense and factual, when many of its conclusions depend to a large degree on its presuppositions. Since the concept of ‘development’ formally emerged in the beginning of the 19th century, industrialisation has become the most agreed upon instrument for measuring a country’s degree of development. In the last quarter of the 19th century, the Indian intellectual elite were growing increasingly frustrated at the state of development in British India. Existing political economic theory taught to its members in the country’s Western style universities seemed inadequate for India’s specific socio-economic environment. The Indian School of Political Economy was founded to develop a new approach to development catered to India’s specificities. But the school has not significantly challenged the central tenet of the Western theory of development, i.e. industrialisation, which largely constrains their theories into a pre-established structure.
Discussant: Manu Goswami, New York University
