Marshall: Just how Interested in Doing Good was he?

2004 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhead S. Bowman

This paper critiques the way Alfred Marshall is presented in many histories of economic thought, in particular, the typical neglect of the relation of his economic theory and method to his public policy proposals and views on economic evolution. A good example is the textbook of Stanley L. Brue, The Evolution of Economic Thought, which is specifically policy oriented. He notes in his remarks on Marshall's life and method: “Marshall's thinking left room for cautious reform, that is, modest departures from laissez-faire” (2000, p. 295). But the only illustration of this is Marshall's discussion of the welfare effects of industry taxes and subsidies. However, even here Brue concludes (2000, p. 316) with a quote from Marshall: “These conclusions, it will be observed, do not by themselves afford a valid ground for government interference.”

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (03) ◽  
pp. 325-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Boianovsky

The paper shows how William Barber’s background as a development economist influenced his research agenda in the history of economic thought, in terms of the questions he asked and the way he approached them. The links between the history of economic theory and of policy-making are highlighted, as well as Barber’s investigation of the engagement of British economists with India’s economic matters throughout the time span of the British East India Company.


2018 ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
L. D. Shirokorad

This article shows how representatives of various theoretical currents in economics at different times in history interpreted the efforts of Nikolay Sieber in defending and developing Marxian economic theory and assessed his legacy and role in forming the Marxist school in Russian political economy. The article defines three stages in this process: publication of Sieber’s work dedicated to the analysis of the first volume of Marx’s Das Kapital and criticism of it by Russian opponents of Marxian economic theory; assessment of Sieber’s work by the narodniks, “Legal Marxists”, Georgiy Plekhanov, and Vladimir Lenin; the decline in interest in Sieber in light of the growing tendency towards an “organic synthesis” of the theory of marginal utility and the Marxist social viewpoint.


2019 ◽  
pp. 135-145
Author(s):  
Viktor A. Popov

Deep comprehension of the advanced economic theory, the talent of lecturer enforced by the outstanding working ability forwarded Vladimir Geleznoff scarcely at the end of his thirties to prepare the publication of “The essays of the political economy” (1898). The subsequent publishing success (8 editions in Russia, the 1918­-year edition in Germany) sufficiently demonstrates that Geleznoff well succeded in meeting the intellectual inquiry of the cross­road epoch of the Russian history and by that taking the worthful place in the history of economic thought in Russia. Being an acknowledged historian of science V. Geleznoff was the first and up to now one of the few to demonstrate the worldwide community of economists the theoretically saturated view of Russian economic thought in its most fruitful period (end of XIX — first quarter of XX century).


2009 ◽  
pp. 4-27
Author(s):  
A. Cohen ◽  
G. Harcourt

The article written by the well-known theorists and historians of economic thought contains a detailed overview of the Cambridge capital controversy, which had raged from the mid-1950-s through the mid-1970-s. The authors track the origins of the controversy and cover arguments of both sides in chronological order. From their point of view, the discussion hasnt been resolved, and its main underlying aspects were ideological beliefs and fundamental methodological controversies on the nature of equilibrium and on the role of time in economic theory. The article is published with comments written by other leading theoreticians.


1980 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 773-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Coleman

The intention of this paper is to look at some of the problems which arise in attempts to provide ‘explanations’ of mercantilism and especially its English manifestations. By ‘explanations’ I mean the efforts which some writers have made causally to relate the historical appearance of sets of economic notions or general recommendations on economic policy or even acts of economic policy by the state to particular long-term phenomena of, or trends in, economic history. Historians of economic thought have not generally made such attempts. With a few exceptions they have normally concerned themselves with tracing and analysing the contributions to economic theory made by those labelled as mercantilists. The most extreme case of non-explanation is provided by Eli Heckscher's reiterated contention in his two massive volumes that mercantilism was not to be explained by reference to the economic circumstances of the time; mercantilist policy was not to be seen as ‘the outcome of the economic situation’; mercantilist writers did not construct their system ‘out of any knowledge of reality however derived’. So strongly held an antideterminist fortress, however congenial a haven for some historians of ideas, has given no comfort to other historians – economic or political, Marxist or non-Marxist – who obstinately exhibit empiricist tendencies. Some forays against the fortress have been made. Barry Supple's analysis of English commerce in the early seventeenth century and the resulting presentation of mercantilist thought and policy as ‘the economics of depression’ has passed into the textbooks and achieved the status of an orthodoxy.


1995 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Drabenstott

AbstractIndustrialization is rapidly becoming a topic of great attention. Driven by fundamental economic forces, industrialization seems likely to advance more quickly in the coming decade to more industry segments. By changing the way agriculture does business, industrialization will also bring change to public policy and agricultural institutions. Commodity policy will increasingly be out of step with a product-oriented industry. And as industrialization blurs the lines between producers and processors, land grant universities and the extension service will face challenges assessing who their customers are.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna P Durnová ◽  
Eva M Hejzlarová

In public policy scholarship on policy design, emotions are still treated as opposed to goals, and their presence is assumed to signal that things have gone wrong. We argue, however, that understanding how and for whom emotions matter is vital to the dynamics of policy designs because emotions are central to the capacity building of policy intermediaries and, with that, to the success of public policies. We examine the case of Czech single mothers in their role as intermediaries in ‘alimony policy’. Our interpretive survey provided single mothers an opportunity to express the way they experience the policy emotionally. The analysis reveals that the policy goal of the child’s well-being is produced at the cost of the mother’s emotional tensions and that policy designs defuse these emotional tensions, implicitly. These contradictory emotions expressed by mothers show us a gateway to problematising policy designs in a novel way, which reconsiders construing policy design as a technical, solution-oriented enterprise to one in which emotional tensions intervene in policy design and are essential for succeeding.


Vestnik NSUEM ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 22-34
Author(s):  
V. Z. Balikoev

The article analyzes and criticizes a vicious practice of the economists who attribute the ideas to the eminent economists who didn’t elaborate those ideas.The practice existed in the 19th and 20th centuries. It does exist today. It has done a huge damage to the development of economic theory and certain and specific economic sciences. Especially in the last century Keynesianism was at the receiving end since it clearly defined the watershed between the obsolete but die-hard «laissez-faire» economic theory – «invisible hand of the market»,free competition and government management of the economy.In this regard the economic theory constantly faces the question of certain «Keynesianism crisis», allegedly indicative of obsolescence of Keynesianism as economic theory.The article on the contrary proves that «Keynesianism crisis» is far-fetched and of ideological nature. Keynesianism itself is relevant today, more than ever, especially in the conditions of Russia, where, according to invincible belief of the author,state-directed market economy named state capitalism is being formed slowly and surely.


Studia Humana ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-36
Author(s):  
Pedro J. Caranti

AbstractMartín de Azpilcueta and his fellow Spanish Scholastics writing and teaching at the University of Salamanca during Spain’s Golden Age are rightly pointed to by historians of economic thought as being major contributors toward, if not outright founders of modern economic theory. Among these is the theory of time-preference for which Azpilcueta has repeatedly been given the credit for discovering. However, this discovery is a curious one given how the same man, Azpilcueta, condemned usury in general during his whole life. If Azpilcueta did in fact discover this theory and fully understand its implications, we would reasonably expect him to have questioned his support for the ban on charging an interest on a loan. This paper, therefore, challenges the claim that Azpilcueta understood and revived time-preference theory and shows how his understanding was much more nuanced, and, at times, inconsistent.


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