Suchergebnisse

Abstract
The book Cambridge Economics in the Post-Keynesian Era: The Eclipse of Heterodox Traditions, by Ashwani Saith, explains how various approaches to the study of economics at Cambridge, UK, were replaced by mainstream economics, as practiced in leading North American universities. This article reviews the book, while also connecting the narrative provided in the book to central questions regarding the Cambridge economic tradition, and the various approaches that constitute it. The differences between the type of applied economics developed at Cambridge and in contemporary mainstream economics are also discussed. To do so, a distinction between Marshallian realism and Walrasian formalism is made here. Albeit this distinction is not emphasised in Saith's book, it helps to supplement and understand the persuasive and important narrative provided by Saith.

Copyright © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. ; This article addresses Piero Sraffa's critique of Alfred Marshall's supply-and-demand framework, and Sraffa's later book Production of Commodities, taking into account an aspect that has been relatively neglected in the literature, namely the ontology underlying the conceptions of Sraffa and Marshall. This ontological dimension can be best understood through Sraffa's critique of the principle of continuity. The principle of continuity was used by Marshall as a methodological justifcation for the use of partial equilibrium methods in the analysis of supply and demand, in a context where different causes are deeply interconnected. Sraffa acknowledges the existence of interconnectedness, but rejects Marshall's methodology, which is based on the principle of continuity, as it becomes clear in his unpublished manuscripts, which are examined here.

Paper come out of a small workshop's held in the South of France in June of 2012. The event enjoyed the presence of two eminent scholars: Hugh Willmott (Cambridge and Cardiff University) and Tony Lawson (Cambridge University). ; Copyright © Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 2013. ; Dans cet article, je discute de la manière dont le réalisme critique en économie peut contribuer à l'élaboration d'une théorie économique et sociale alternative. Les contributions de la tradition de Cambridge en économie, qui a également influencé le réalisme critique en économie, se révèleront précieuses dans ce contexte. Je ferai valoir que, même si une reprise précoce de l'économie politique classique dans la tradition de Cambridge se concentre sur la reproduction des structures économiques, le réalisme critique en l'économie s'est intéressé, quant à lui, à la reproduction des structures sociales. Ce dernier permet ainsi la reprise d'un cadre qui existait au sein de l'économie politique classique, et qui fut porté à son stade le plus avancé par Marx. Ce cadre est axé sur la reproduction économique d'un surplus, et sur sa distribution (institutionnelle) à travers les différentes classes sociales sous une structure sociale. L'ontologie sociale du réalisme critique nous permet de comprendre pourquoi l'étude de la reproduction d'un système (relationnel) est le meilleur point de départ pour le développement de la théorie économique et sociale. ; ABSTRACT: In this paper I discuss how critical realism in economics can help under-labouring for an alternative economic and social theory. The contributions of the Cambridge tradition in economics, which also influenced critical realism in economics, will prove most useful for developing an alternative economic and social theory. I will argue that while an earlier revival of classical political economy in the Cambridge tradition focused on the reproduction of economic structures, critical realism in economics has been concerned with the reproduction of social structures. I will discuss how these projects recover the framework that existed within classical political economy, and was brought to its most advanced stage by Marx. Such a framework focused on the economic reproduction of a surplus, and on its (institutional) distribution through the various social classes under a given social structure. The social ontology of critical realism enables us to understand why the study of reproduction of a (internally related) system is the best starting point for the development of economic and social theory.

Copyright © 2012 Taylor & Francis. ; In his new book The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen argues that political theory should not consist only in the characterisation of ideal situations of perfect justice. In so doing, Sen is making, within the context of political theory, a similar argument to another he also made in economic theory, when crtiticising what he called the 'rational fool' of mainstream economics. Sen criticised the ideal and fictitious agent of mainstream economics, while advocating for a return to an integrated view of ethics and economics, which characterised many classical political economists who inspired Sen's theory of justice, from Adam Smith to Karl Marx. I will examine Sen's revival of classical political economy, and argue that a revival of classical political economy, which was undertaken earlier by Piero Sraffa, has much potential for bringing a more plural and realist perspective to economics.

Copyright © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved. ; The interaction between neuroscience and economics has gained much prominence recently, leading to the emergence of the new and expanding field of neuroeconomics. I will argue that, although there is much insight to be gained from the interaction between neuroscience and economics, the implications of recent developments in neuroscience and neuroeconomics for the deductivist methodology of mainstream economics, and its emphasis on prediction of events, have not been sufficiently addressed. In fact, much research on neuroeconomics has contributed to the formulation of deductivist models aimed at the prediction of events, when the more fruitful use of neuroscience in economics consists rather in the utilisation of its insights for the development of an explanation of social behaviour that moves beyond the mainstream deductivist methodology. The somatic marker hypothesis, developed by Damasio and others working closely with him, will be suggested as an alternative framework for conceptualising the emergence of social behaviour from a neurobiological substrate.

Copyright © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved. ; The author argues that Sen's capability approach is primarily a philosophical under-labouring exercise aimed at elaborating certain central economic categories, and that the philosophical and methodological underpinnings of Sen's approach are radically different from those of contemporary welfare economics and mainstream economic practice. Sen's notion of 'capabilities' as the potential functionings to achieve well-being is interpreted here as a specification of the ontological category of 'causal power', presupposing an open system conception of reality that contrasts with much of contemporary economic practice.

Copyright © The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved. ; Methodological comments on critical realism in economics have proliferated over the past decade - typically focusing on Tony Lawson's Economics and Reality and Reorienting Economics, which constitute the core of this project. In the present paper we select a series of important, mostly very recent arguments against critical realism in economics and assess their merits and demerits.