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Full-Text Articles in Economic Theory

Governance By Economist: An Historical Note On The Keynesian Revolution, Lewis Karstensson Jan 2017

Governance By Economist: An Historical Note On The Keynesian Revolution, Lewis Karstensson

Economics Faculty Publications

An inferential analysis of the performance of the United States economy with respect to production, employment, and average price level over the twentieth century by presidential administration.


Institutional Divergence In Economic Development, Jonathan B. Wight Jan 2011

Institutional Divergence In Economic Development, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

The Anglo-American capitalist model (AACM) encompasses a set of theories and policies that advance the classical objectives of individual autonomy, wealth acquisition, and economic growth. In the twentieth century, the neoclassical goal of short-run Pareto efficiency was added yet remains in possible tension with these other aims. The AACM generally upholds the primacy of markets as the means for achieving its normative ideals through private, decentralized actions, with some exceptions. In the modern political arena this ideology is associated with the Reagan-Thatcher revolution of the 1980s and provides a framework for many who oppose statist solutions to social problems (Steger …


A Little Adam Smith Is A Dangerous Thing, Jonathan B. Wight Jan 2001

A Little Adam Smith Is A Dangerous Thing, Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

Adam Smith was trying to counter medieval church theology, which held that any self-interested behavior was sinful and detrimental. Smith countered that self-interest could yield valuable outcomes for society as people pursued specialization and market trade. Much later these quotes would be used to justify the greedy and grasping personae of homo economicus, illustrating how a little Adam Smith can prove to be a dangerous thing. For example, Max Lerner in 1937 would say that Adam Smith "sanctified predatory impulses" and "gave a new dignity to greed." By the 1980s the movie Wall Street has the financial tycoon Gordon …