Values and the Limits of Economic Rationality: Critical Remarks on ‘Economic Imperialism’

2010 ◽  
pp. 111-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Krijnen
Keyword(s):  
Economic Rationality ◽  
Economic Imperialism

Roman Retail Landscapes

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. R. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Social Economic ◽  
Economic Rationality ◽  
Retail Outlets ◽  
Basic Understanding ◽  
Urban Topography ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Made In

This chapter examines the socio-economic motivations behind the shaping of retail landscapes in Roman cities. It is about who opened retail outlets, as well as why and where. After critiquing some of the normal methods for illustrating the locations of shops and bars, including the conventional distribution plan itself, as well as questioning the economic rationality of operating tabernae, this chapter argues for the value in complicating our otherwise basic understanding of why urban investments were made in the places we find them. Rather than accepting profit as the single motivation to urban investment, a range of social, economic, and political motivations are considered as an explanation for the ultimate shape of Roman retail landscapes. Thus beyond discussions of space and urban topography, the subject of this chapter is investment.

THE EARLY MODERN ORIGINS OF BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-54
Author(s):  
Richard Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Economic Rationality ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Behavioral Psychology ◽  
Human Conduct ◽  
The Social

AbstractFor all the recent discoveries of behavioral psychology and experimental economics, the spirit of homo economicus still dominates the contemporary disciplines of economics, political science, and sociology. Turning back to the earliest chapters of political economy, however, reveals that pioneering figures such as Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and Adam Smith were hardly apostles of economic rationality as they are often portrayed in influential narratives of the development of the social sciences. As we will see, while all three of these thinkers can plausibly be read as endorsing “rationality,” they were also well aware of the systematic irrationality of human conduct, including a remarkable number of the cognitive biases later “discovered” by contemporary behavioral economists. Building on these insights I offer modest suggestions for how these thinkers, properly understood, might carry the behavioral revolution in different directions than those heretofore suggested.

Value Chains: The New Economic Imperialism

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-182
Author(s):  
Benjamin Selwyn
Keyword(s):  
Value Chains ◽  
Economic Imperialism

Profitable partnerships: The Chinese business elite and Dutch lawyers in the making of Semarang

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-245
Author(s):  
Peter Post
Keyword(s):  
Law Firm ◽  
Business World ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Housing Projects ◽  
Business Elite ◽  
Business Interests ◽  
Chinese Business ◽  
Coolie Trade ◽  
Economic Imperialism ◽  
The City

This article examines the collaboration between the law firm of C.W. Baron van Heeckeren from Semarang and the Oei Tiong Ham Concern (OTHC). From the 1880s this Dutch law firm became the centre of a close-knit group of Dutch lawyer-entrepreneurs who through interlocking business directorships developed important sectors of the Javanese economy and the city of Semarang. In doing so Van Heeckeren and his associates teamed up with the Chinese business elite of the port-city. In particular they worked with the foremost Overseas Chinese capitalist, Major Oei Tiong Ham, developing profitable partnerships. The Dutch lawyers acted not only as his legal advisors, but developed his sugar empire as directors-shareholders, held major stakes in his shipping business and coolie trade, and profited from his opium trade. They moreover helped Oei Tiong Ham to acquire real estate and enterprises formerly belonging to powerful Chinese opium farmers and collaborated with him in developing infrastructural and housing projects. This article provides new and revealing details about how the business world of colonial Java worked during the early phase of Dutch economic imperialism and how the Chinese business elite seized the opportunities provided by the Dutch colonial state to advance their business interests.

French Economic Imperialism in China 1885–1904/1906

Itinerario ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-61
Author(s):  
Dieter Brötel
Keyword(s):  
Economic Imperialism
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