History of Political Economy recent issues

A. W. (Bob) Coats, 1924-2007

Backhouse, R. E., Caldwell, B., Goodwin, C., Rutherford, M. — 2008-09-02

The Confessions of the Average: Statistics and Natural Order in Nineteenth-Century French Economic Thought

Le Gall, P. — 2008-09-02

On the Origins of Ordinal Utility: Andreas Heinrich Voigt and the Mathematicians

Schmidt, T., Weber, C. E. — 2008-09-02

William Thomas Thornton's Family, Ancestry, and Early Years: Some Findings from Recently Discovered Manuscripts and Letters

Donoghue, M. — 2008-09-02

Estimates of Potential Output by Keynes

Kent, R. J. — 2008-09-02

Monetary Theory and Bretton Woods: The Construction of an International Monetary Order

Boughton, J. M. — 2008-09-02

Reclaiming Marx's Capital

Lucarelli, B. — 2008-09-02

The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents; The Definitive Edition

Shearmur, J. — 2008-09-02

Jacob Mincer: A Founding Father of Modern Labor Economics

Siow, A. — 2008-09-02

The Construction of the Canonical History of Financial Economics

Jovanovic, F. — 2008-05-16

Gustave de Molinari's Bourse Network Theory: A Liberal Response to Sismondi's Informational Problem

Benkemoune, R. — 2008-05-16

Keynes among the Statisticians

Aldrich, J. — 2008-05-16

Menger and Walras on Money: A Comparative View

Arena, R., Gloria-Palermo, S. — 2008-05-16

Adam Smith on Religion and Market Structure: The Search for Consistency

Leathers, C. G., Raines, J. P. — 2008-05-16

The Adam Smith Problem in Reverse: Self-Interest in The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Paganelli, M. P. — 2008-05-16

Garrison on Mises and Forced Saving: Arguing the Implausible?

Ahiakpor, J. C. W. — 2008-05-16

Ahiakpor on Mises and Forced Saving: A Rejoinder

Garrison, R. W. — 2008-05-16

The Legacy of Ludwig von Mises

Caldwell, B. — 2008-05-16

The Marketplace of Christianity

Donnelly, K. — 2008-05-16

Milton Friedman: A Biography

Laidler, D. — 2008-05-16

From the Corn Laws to Free Trade: Interests, Ideas, and Institutions in Historical Perspective

Maloney, J. — 2008-05-16

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Redman, D. A. — 2008-05-16

The Case for the Enlightenment: Scotland and Naples, 1680-1760

Schabas, M. — 2008-05-16

The Writing Workshop of Francois Quesnay and the Making of Physiocracy

There, C., Charles, L. — 2008-02-19

Using archival materials, we investigate the scientific practices of François Quesnay and the individuals who worked with him in relation to their social background. Our contention is that, before 1764, the group of authors who shared Quesnay's commitment to an agrarian economic theory are best described as the "writing workshop" of François Quesnay rather than as the "physiocratic" school. Quesnay organized and supervised the work of these individuals, who assisted him in a manner clearly reminiscent of that of workshops of artists from late medieval and early modern Europe. On the one hand, Quesnay tightly controlled the work of those (the Marquis de Mirabeau, Pattullo, Du Pont de Nemours) who published economic writings, correcting and even rewriting whole parts of their texts. On the other hand, he commanded other writers/individuals to collect data and execute and verify calculations, most notably for his tableaux économiques. In other words, the production of political and economic writings was structured by a detailed division of labor organized by Quesnay, who acted as the master of a writing workshop. After the death of Madame de Pompadour, Quesnay's prominent patroness, in 1764, the situation changed. Quesnay's aura of power at court disappeared and with it, his writing workshop. The center of gravity of physiocracy moved from Versailles to Paris, and the workshop was gradually replaced by the physiocratic school.

Adam Smith, the Last of the Former Virtue Ethicists

McCloskey, D. — 2008-02-19

Smith was mainly an ethical philosopher, though he practiced what was considered for a long time after Smith an obsolete sort of ethical philosophy, known nowadays as "virtue ethics." Since 1790 most ethical theory as practiced in departments of philosophy has derived instead from Kant or Bentham, but virtue ethics has recently come back. From the Seven Primary Virtues, Smith chose five to admire especially. He chose all four of the pagan and stoic virtues of courage, temperance, justice, and prudence. To these he added, as virtue number five, a part of the Christian virtue of love, the part admired by his teacher Francis Hutcheson. Smith was not, as has often been claimed, a Stoic, because he was always a pluralist, and would not reduce the good life to, say, Stoic temperance alone. Smith's choice of the virtues makes sense of his writings and career. And it reveals a flaw, shared with Hume: the banishment of the monkish virtues of hope and faith, necessary for human flourishing.

On Ricardo's Method: The Scottish Connection Considered

Depoortere, C. — 2008-02-19

Historians of economic thought who try to connect Ricardo's method with a philosophy generally focus on associationism and pay no attention to Dugald Stewart's influence. In point of fact, Ricardo's method can be connected with Stewart's teaching through his connection with James Mill and Francis Horner. Moreover, the difference between practical and scientific knowledge which is, according Stewart, a difference in the use of abstraction, coincides with Ricardo's distinction between questions of facts and of principles. This connection, which appears in Ricardo's work, brings into question the common view of Ricardo's method as a hypothetical one and leads to consider the role of abstraction as a crucial one.

Linking Strategic Interaction and Bargaining Theory: The Harsanyi-Schelling Debate on the Axiom of Symmetry

Innocenti, A. — 2008-02-19

This paper analyzes the early contributions of John Harsanyi and Thomas C. Schelling to bargaining theory. In the 1950s, Harsanyi draws Nash's solution to two-person cooperative games from the bargaining model proposed by Zeuthen (1930), and Schelling proposes a multifaceted theory of conflict that, without dismissing the assumption of rational behavior, points out some of its paradoxical consequences. Harsanyi's and Schelling's contrasting views on the axiom of symmetry, as postulated by Nash (1950), are then presented. This debate explains why, although in the early 1960s two different approaches to link strategic interaction and bargaining theory were proposed, only Harsanyi's insights were fully developed later.

Frank Graham's Case for Flexible Exchange Rates: A Doctrinal Perspective

Endres, A. M. — 2008-02-19

The case made for market-determined, flexible exchange rates by Princeton economist Frank D. Graham between the 1920s and the late 1940s is examined. It is argued that Graham's case embodied all essential elements of a monetary approach to exchange rates and the balance of payments. Exchange rates are monetary variables, and monetary policy strongly influences their movement. Contrary to received commentaries, Graham was the first twentieth-century economist to make a coherent case for flexible rates; he was an unappreciated forerunner of postwar, Chicago-based advocacy of flexible rates culminating in Friedman's 1953 classic. Graham's antipathy toward the Bretton Woods plans for exchange rates mirrored that of the Chicagoans. He advanced a liberal policy agenda including flexible exchange rates, capital mobility, rule-based independent monetary policies, and free trade. In the form of Frank Graham, Princeton was not far from Chicago.

Keynes on Kalecki's Theory of Taxation: Contents Approved, Method Questioned

De Vecchi, N. — 2008-02-19

This paper considers Keynes's comments on two essays by Kalecki addressing the effects of three different taxes on national income and employment. Keynes appreciated the highly compressed, clearly shaped, and convincing character of Kalecki's analysis, but sharply criticized his method, pointing out that Kalecki's theoretical conclusions were based on the tacit assumption that the decisions of consumption and investment are "independent from" the levy. Keynes's criticism is fully coherent with the method of analysis he adopted in the General Theory and with his critique of the "classical" theory of employment.

Differential Asset Valuation in the Medieval Post-Talmudic Legal Literature

Callen, J. L. — 2008-02-19

This study evaluates the extent to which the asset valuation arguments raised by medieval post-Talmudic legal scholars are consistent with modern contingent claims analysis. In particular, this study evaluates the arguments proposed by these scholars in order to rationalize the Talmud's differential valuation of the same asset by multiple claimants. Modern contingent claims analysis is able to explain differential valuation by invoking market imperfections such as transactions costs and asymmetric information. We conjecture that market imperfections lie behind the Talmud's differential valuation of the kethubah. This study finds that although some post-Talmudic scholars—notably Rashi, Rashbam, and Rosh—can be interpreted as raising transactions costs and asymmetric information arguments to rationalize differential valuation of the kethubah, their lines of reasoning are typically included as part of a broader set of less convincing arguments. We argue that this mixture of deep insights into asset valuation and abstruse logic is likely a continuation of Talmudic ambivalence to the valuation of non—human capital, an ambivalence induced by the biblical prohibition against interest.

Adam's Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology

Colander, D. — 2008-02-19

Giblin's Platoon: The Trials and Triumph of the Economist in Australian Public Life

Howson, S. — 2008-02-19

A History of Scottish Economic Thought

Kleer, R. A. — 2008-02-19

Making Chicago Price Theory: Friedman-Stigler Correspondence, 1945-1957

Weintraub, E. R. — 2008-02-19

The Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith

Young, J. T. — 2008-02-19

The Political Element in Economic Thought

Fontaine, P., Marciano, A. — 2007-11-13

Postbellum Protection and Commissioner Wells's Conversion to Free Trade

Meardon, S. — 2007-11-13

The Debates on Eugenio Rignano's Inheritance Tax Proposals

Erreygers, G., Di Bartolomeo, G. — 2007-11-13

Postface: Just What Is the Self Interested In?

Hoover, K. R. — 2007-11-13

"One will make of political economy... what the scholastics have done with philosophy": Henry Lloyd and the Mathematization of Economics

Reinert, S. A. — 2007-11-13

Knowledge and Information in Economics: What Did the Classical Economists Know?

Prendergast, R. — 2007-11-13

The "Protestant" View: The Norwegian and Scandinavian Approach to National Accounting in the Postwar Period

Lie, E. — 2007-11-13

Did Buchanan and Wagner Misrepresent Keynes?

Subrick, J. R. — 2007-11-13

Did Buchanan and Wagner Misrepresent Keynes? A Rejoinder

Bateman, B. W. — 2007-11-13

Civil Happiness: Economics and Human Flourishing in Historical Perspective

Backhouse, R. E. — 2007-11-13

Walrasian Economics

De Vroey, M. — 2007-11-13

The Biographical Dictionary of British Economists

Dimand, R. W. — 2007-11-13

W. Arthur Lewis and the Birth of Development Economics

Jolly, R. — 2007-11-13

Theories of Financial Disturbance: An Examination of Critical Theories of Finance from Adam Smith to the Present Day

Lawlor, M. S. — 2007-11-13