scholarly journals On economic inequality and schools of economic thought

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 511-524

The question of inequality is not new in the history of economic thought; from the very birth of political economy as an independent discipline, the issues of the distribution of wealth, poverty and economic inequality were present. Obviously, the subject exceeds the disciplinary field of the economists because, as Piketty has pointed out at the beginning of his book: “... the distribution of wealth is too important an issue to be left to economists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers. It is of interest to everyone, and that is a good thing”. However, among economists the issue has become more important in recent years because of the deepening of the level of inequality that has accompanied the process of growth and globalization of the world economy. Transformations that accompanied the emergence of capitalism since the nineteenth century raised the first questions, and its evolution throughout the twentieth century and in the current century have faced different responses from different economic schools. Some very relevant questions which political economy can help answer are: Does capitalism inevitably lead to greater inequality? Or does the market mechanism itself tend to reduce inequalities? Does greater inequality contribute to economic growth? Or does inequality just cause cyclical crises? This last two questions are very relevant for less developed (emerging?) countries. The history of economic thought shows us that economists have given different answers, at different times of the evolution of economic ideas. In this paper the vision that the main thinkers of political economy have had on this issue is reviewed. Among the latter are the classical school, the extreme optimism of Adam Smith and Jean B. Say, the doubts on the future of David Ricardo, the negative predictions of Malthus and the eclecticism of Mill. Marx and his ideas about the fall of capitalism. Neoclassical blind confidence in the markets and Keynes and the capitalist crises. Lastly, a final consideration is made about the reality of inequality in the 21st century, neoliberalism and the commitment of economists as intellectuals.

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).


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-127
Author(s):  
Fasiha Fasiha

The development of Islamic economics can not be separated from the historical development of Islamic civilization. The study of the history of economic thought by analyzing the description of economic thinking Ibn Taymiyyah and the history of life that affect the economic thinking of Ibn Taymiyyah. According to Ibn Taymiyyah pricing by the government is good, but not absolute, because the actual prices are set by the forces of demand and supply. Another case, if the price increases caused by injustice market mechanism, the government may intervene in pricing. To achieve this purpose, it is necessary formation hisbah institutions with the aim of protecting the interests of buyers and sellers


Author(s):  
Jurgen Brauer

AbstractThis essay selectively reviews the history of economic thought on war and peace, starting with Adam Smith. Today, Smith’s trickle of thoughts has become a broad marshland. In this marshland, however, discrete currents are apparent – some stronger, some weaker – which this essay identifies, in rough chronological order, as war, defense, conflict, military, security, and peace economics. As these terms often are used interchangeably, one purpose of the essay is to more clearly delineate these intellectual currents and differentiate them from each other. By building canals in the marshlands as it were, the aim is to help all flows of contributions become stronger.


1946 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dudley Dillard

Although we still live in the shadow of the years between the First and the Second World Wars, already it seems quite clear that future historians of economic thought will regard John Maynard Keynes as the outstanding economist of this turbulent period. As one writer has recently said, “The rapid and widespread adoption of the Keynesian theory by contemporary economists, particularly by those who at first were highly critical, will probably be recorded in the future history of economic thought as an extraordinary happening.” Book after book by leading economists acknowledges a heavy debt to the stimulating thought of Lord Keynes. The younger generation of economists, especially those whose thinking matured during the great depression of the thirties, have been particularly influenced by him.


1991 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Todd Lowry

When I first began the serious study of the history of economic thought, my presumption was that one should always start at the beginning. This was some thirty-five years ago and I have been finding so much interesting material that I have had a hard time getting past Adam Smith. The search for the beginning, of course, led me to the question of what do we mean by economic thought and how do we define it for the purpose of identifying its origin?.


Author(s):  
Matthew Watson

This chapter focuses on the historical origins and the subsequent intellectual lineage of the three core theoretical positions within contemporary global political economy (GPE): realism, liberalism, and Marxism. ‘Textbook GPE’ privileges nineteenth-century understandings of political economy when discussing the pre-history of its own field. This helps explains GPE's treatment of feminist scholarship within the textbooks; feminism remains largely marginalized from textbook GPE, presented as something of a postscript to avoid accusations of it having been omitted altogether rather than being placed centre stage in the discussion. The chapter then looks at how the nineteenth-century overlay operates in textbook GPE. To do so, it makes sense to concentrate in the first instance on the issue that did most to divide nineteenth-century economists: namely, the free trade policies resulting from the general ascendancy of laissez-faire ideology. The most celebrated of the critics, Friedrich List, is treated much more as a dependable authority figure in GPE than he is in the history of economic thought. Indeed, in textbook GPE, the disputes between realist and liberal positions is very often presented initially through an account of List's work, despite the pre-history of liberalism being much the longer of the two.


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