As is known, original, or “old”, institutional economics (OIE) ─ we also indicate it as “institutionalism” ─ played a relevant role in its first stage, and it can safely be said that it came to be, although perhaps by a …
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Posted for review 3 Apr 2017
Published in Economic Thought ET7.1
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Disagreements amongst economists are more important about the rate of wage than about commodity prices. These divergent theories of wages reveal a deep disagreement about the status of labour in political economy. They are not only analytical; three more general …
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Posted for review 24 Mar 2017
Published
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In this paper, we propose a dualist view that economics exhibits the properties of both moral science and value-neutral approach, regardless of the normative-positive distinction. Our argumentation is derived from the understanding that, analytically, economics is a broadly-defined rational choice …
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Posted for review 1 Dec 2016
Unpublished
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Economic forecasting is famously unreliable. While this problem has traditionally been blamed on theories such as the efficient market hypothesis or even the butterfly effect, an alternative explanation is the role of money – something which is typically downplayed or …
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Posted for review 10 Oct 2016
Published
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Walras’ law is central to the formation of economic theory. For mainstream economics, it is a device for testing rigorousness and consistency of model-building; for heterodox economists, the refutation of Walras’ law is key to understanding Keynes’ revolutionary contribution to …
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Posted for review 5 Aug 2016
Published
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The ubiquitous partial equilibrium model of trade owes its origins to the work of Augustin Cournot. While Cournot’s name is a staple in economic textbooks, usually in relation to oligopoly theory, his work on trade has vanished from view. This …
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Posted for review 14 Jul 2016
Published
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The so-called Ricardian trade model of contemporary economic textbooks is not a rational reconstruction of Ricardo’s famous numerical example in chapter seven of the Principles. It differs from the latter in terms of definition of the four numbers, relevant cost …
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Posted for review 5 Jul 2016
Published
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The Currency and Banking School dispute is usually regarded by historians of economic thought as representative of divergent views on the nature and role of money and banking within society. However, there is more to be said of the dispute …
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Posted for review 21 Jun 2016
Published
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On several occasions, authors like Dani Rodrick and Thomas Piketty questioned the benefits of trade liberalization. The rationale for liberal economic policies refers inter alia to welfare concepts, in particular the producer and consumer surpluses which were proposed by Alfred …
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Posted for review 21 Jun 2016
Unpublished
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Poland has produced two of the greatest economists of the past century, namely Michal Kalecki and Oskar Lange. Both worked with a wide and penetrating view of the economy and society, more typical of the great classical economists than of …
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Posted for review 14 Jun 2016
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Jamie Morgan’s commentary (Morgan, 2016) on my paper ‘The Labour Theory of Property and Marginal Productivity Theory (Ellerman, 2016) largely focuses on a number of dogs that didn’t bark in the paper. My focus on the root institution of the …
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Posted for review 29 Apr 2016
Published
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The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 called for a radical reorganization of U.S. industry, substantial wage increases, workers’ right to bargain collectively as well as unprecedented government works projects. In a letter to President Roosevelt, British economist John …
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Posted for review 29 Apr 2016
Unpublished
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This paper challenges Tony Lawson’s account of the relationship between mainstream economics and ideology along two key axes. First off, we argue that Newtonian physics has been the primary version of pro-science ideology within mainstream economics, rather than mathematics per …
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Posted for review 18 Feb 2016
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The crisis happened in the world in the last years, describing a whole of interdependencies and interactions, highlighted the theory’s fundamental flaws of neoclassical economic theory: its unedifying focus on prediction and, above all, its inability to explain how the …
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Posted for review 18 Feb 2016
Published
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The answer to the question ‘what is money?’ has changed throughout history. During the gold standard era, money was seen as gold or silver (the theory known as bullionism). In the early 20th century, the alternative theory known as chartalism …
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Posted for review 18 Feb 2016
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Economics has largely failed to predict global financial crises. In an increasingly globalized world, the consequences of that failure are likely to become more severe. The present article attributes much of economics’ malaise to the traditional and continuing use of …
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Posted for review 11 Jan 2016
Published
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Graphing causal models while reading econometric papers can make it easy to understand assumptions that are vague in prose and to isolate those assumptions that are crucial to believe the main causal claims. The method is here illustrated with a …
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Posted for review 1 Dec 2015
Published
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Polanyi’s book on The Great Transformation provides an analysis of the emergence and significance of capitalist economic structures which differs radically from those currently universally taught in economic textbooks. This analysis is based on a methodological approach which is also …
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Posted for review 15 Oct 2015
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After Marx, dissenting economics almost always used “the labor theory” as a theory of value. This paper develops a modern treatment of the alternative labor theory of property that is essentially the property theoretic application of the juridical principle of …
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Posted for review 6 Jul 2015
Published
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10 comments
This paper traces a historical origin of the idea that the state (government) can and should implement a series of industrial policies to nurture domestic infant industries, in order to show how this economic theory sheds new light on contemporary …
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Posted for review 16 Apr 2015
Unpublished
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