Introduction to Part II

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-72
Author(s):  
Ryan Walter
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Parliamentary Debate ◽  
Bank Of England ◽  
Abstract Level ◽  
Corn Laws ◽  
Development Of Economic Theory

This Introduction indicates the aim of the two chapters that follow: to illustrate how parliamentary debate provided political economy with its topics of discussion and forms of argument. The particular case studies are the Bullion Controversy and the Corn Laws debate. The first controversy concerned the role of the Bank of England in raising prices through an excessive note issue, and this question came to be examined by writers such as Malthus and Ricardo at an abstract level. But this style of argument was rejected as inappropriate for guiding the deliberations of Parliament in 1810–1811. In relation to the second case, the Corn Laws, c. 1813–1815, the question of whether or not the trade in corn should be free was treated in Parliament as a question requiring casuistical adjudication, a style of argument that Malthus and Ricardo were evidently obliged to adopt, along with other participants. Both topics have traditionally been studied as key moments in the development of economic theory, yet the account developed here suggests that we have typically misread the texts by placing them in unhistorical contexts.

John Bates Clark's Defense of Mandatory Arbitration and Minimum Wage Legislation

2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. Prasch
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Marginal Product ◽  
Minimum Wage Legislation ◽  
Development Of Economic Theory ◽  
Instrumental Role ◽  
The Ideal

The ideal of Political Economy is not unrestricted competition, but competition that is truly free, because controlled by justice and by law. The distinction between freedom and license needs to be preserved in this department of political philosophy. With that distinction clearly maintained, we may still retain, in economics as in politics, our beautiful watchword, liberty (John Bates Clark 1879, p. 167).John Bates Clark has had a formidable impact on the development of economic theory and the theory of income distribution. In addition, Clark's marginal product theory of distribution has often played an instrumental role in the defense of laissez-faire policies. His theory has been used to criticize a wide variety of market interventions, including minimum wage legislation. As a result it is not surprising that Clark's theory of income distribution, and Clark himself, have drawn more than a few critics.

scholarly journals Some Uses of Happiness Data in Economics

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Di Tella ◽  
Robert MacCulloch
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Empirical Measures ◽  
Happiness Research ◽  
Interpersonal Comparisons ◽  
Individual Welfare

Happiness research is based on the idea that it is fruitful to study empirical measures of individual welfare. The most common is the answer to a simple well-being question such as “Are you Happy?” Hundreds of thousands of individuals have been asked this question, in many countries and over many years. Researchers have begun to use these data to tackle a variety of important questions in economics. Some require strong assumptions concerning interpersonal comparisons of utility, but others make only mild assumptions in this regard. They range from microeconomic questions, such as the way income and utility are connected, to macroeconomic questions such as the tradeoff between inflation and unemployment, including large areas in political economy. Public policy is another area where progress using happiness data is taking place. Given the central role of utility notions in economic theory, we argue that the use of happiness data in empirical research should be given serious consideration.

The Role of Comparison in the Development of Economic Theory

1957 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 554-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia L. Thrupp
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Theory ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Development Of Economic Theory

Our conference today on comparative economic history is in some clanger of rushing into the wide-open spaces of ambiguity, for the term is new, and to agree too quickly on its meaning and implications may not even be desirable. In order to avoid engaging in a mere game of definitions, this paper will deal first with three general types of comparison in relation to their bearing on problems of evidence. It will then review some of the chief uses to which these types of comparison have been put in building up our body of knowledge about Western economic history. The survey will close with particular reference to our own preindustrial stages of economic growth, when western Europe was, in our uncomplimentary phrase, an underdeveloped or backward area.

The Aptitude for Methodological Analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-88
Author(s):  
Arut Delenyan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
State University ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Essential Tool ◽  
Economics Faculty ◽  
Rational Organization ◽  
Moscow State University

The article is dedicated to the memory of an outstanding scholar and economist, Nikolai Tsagolov, the 110 anniversary of his birth. Special emphasis is paid to the role of methodology in the development of a new paradigm of economic theory and methodological seminar as an essential tool for processing theorists’ factual material, which was effectively used by N. Tsagolov. The article describes the structure of the methodological seminar for many years operating at the department of political economy of the Economics faculty of Moscow State University. The author emphasizes the collective nature of scientific work aimed at rational organization of labor. Attention is also drawn to the risks inherent in the widespread use of methodological techniques as well as the issues which require the attention of social theorists.

A Rejoinder to Abraham Hirsch

2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Hollander ◽  
Sandra Peart
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Basic Order

The dispute between Hollander and Peart, and Hirsch, turns on the nature and role of verification in Mill's perception of the appropriate method for Political Economy. Professor Hirsch maintains against us that, for Mill, the models constructed by political economists are insulated from verification. His case is based on two counterclaims. First, that when Mill writes of “verification” in Book III of the Logic, he has in mind a procedure differing from that appropriate for Political Economy, which allows only “indirect verification” (outlined in Book VI). Hirsch finds that Hollander and Peart confuse the two. Secondly, since the contexts of our case studies often relate to policy formulation, Hirsch finds our elucidations of an appeal to experience of a more basic order to be unconvincing.

The Transfer of Technology to China in the Nineteenth Century: The Role of Direct Foreign Investment

1979 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon R. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Foreign Investment ◽  
Direct Foreign Investment ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Traditional System ◽  
Transfer Of Technology

The transfer of technology to China in the nineteenth century was carried out both by Chinese and foreigners. Given the half-hearted interest of the Chinese government in such activities, however, the role of direct foreign investment was enhanced. The profitability of such investments was determined not only by comparative costs and other conventional economic variables, but also by the interaction of each project with China's traditional system of political economy. The nature and importance of this interaction is examined by means of a number of case studies. The results emphasize the importance of cultural elements in the transfer of technology.

scholarly journals Theory, General Equilibrium, and Political Economy in Development Economics

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daron Acemoglu
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
General Equilibrium ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Development Economics ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Counterfactual Analysis

I discuss the role of economic theory in empirical work in development economics with special emphasis on general equilibrium and political economy considerations. I argue that economic theory plays (should play) a central role in formulating models, estimates of which can be used for counterfactual and policy analysis. I discuss why counterfactual analysis based on microdata that ignores general equilibrium and political economy issues may lead to misleading conclusions. I illustrate the main arguments using examples from recent work in development economics and political economy.

The Epistemology of Simulation, Computation, and Dynamics in Economics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Vela Velupillai
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Digital Computer ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Applied Economics ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Founding Father ◽  
Development Of Economic Theory

In this chapter the spirit of William Petty is the driving force, but it is given new theoret- ical foundations, mainly as a result of developments in the mathematic underpinnings of the tremendous developments in the potentials of computing, especially using digital technology. Computation and simulation have always played a role in economics, whether it be pure economic theory or any variant of applied economics. This tradition can be traced to the vision of Petty, the founding father of political economy as political arithmetic. A running theme is that, increasingly, the development of economic theory seems to go hand in hand with advances in the theory and practice of computing, which is, in turn, a catalyst for the move away from overreliance on any kind of mathematics for the formalization of economic entities that is inconsistent with the mathematical, philosophical, and epistemological foundations of the digital computer.

Krishna Bharadwaj on the Role of Expectations in Economic Theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 001946622110198
Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Marcuzzo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Explanatory Role ◽  
Neoclassical Theory ◽  
Jel Codes ◽  
Expectation Formation ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Classical Political Economy ◽  
What Matters

In this article, I discuss the approach favoured by Bharadwaj, in the tradition of classical political economy and of Sraffa, where the focus is on those factors that are observed as opposed to the subjective factors that are neither observable nor measurable. Unlike neoclassical theory, with this approach, there is no room for concepts such as ‘utility’ and the like; insofar as ‘expectations’ are conceived as subjective, non-observable entities, they are not attributed with an explanatory role in the theory of prices and distribution. Moreover, since expectation formation is seen as the effect rather than cause of behaviour, the focus shifts to those social, historical and contingent elements that seem to have a better explanatory force. In this approach, what matters is the persistence of forces leading the system to tend, in the long period, towards a position of rest. JEL Codes: B2, B31

Once Again About Political Economy as a Scientific and Educational Discipline (on the Debated Aspects of the Problem)

2020 ◽  
pp. 118-128
Author(s):  
A.A. Porokhovsky
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Russian Scientific ◽  
Current State ◽  
University Courses ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory

Russian scientific economic literature continues to discuss the problem of the modern evolution of political economy as a science and its return as an academic discipline in the number of mandatory university courses. In this regard, the article, firstly, examines the historical fate and the current state of Marxist political economy, emphasizes its fundamental difference from other economic theories. Secondly, — considerable attention is paid to neoclassical economic theory and an academic discipline called «economics». The historical circumstances of the emergence of this term are shown and the place of neoclassicism in the Western classification of economic sciences is characterized. Thirdly, — for a comprehensive analysis of the economy, it is proposed to use general economic theory as a combination (a special kind of aggregate) of all modern schools, directions and programs of economic theory, unified in the object, but differing in the subject and method of research. It is emphasized that the role of the basis and historically and logically the initial component of this theory is played by political economy.

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