Economic History Commons^™

Moral Markets: The Critical Role Of Values In The Economy By Paul J. Zak (Book Review), Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

This volume contains the fruits of a two-year seminar on ethics and economics funded by the John Templeton Foundation and administered through the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research. Participants came from the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities, and included Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith and other figures such as Frans de Waal, Herbert Gintis, Robert Frank, and Robert Solomon (for whom the book is dedicated in memoriam). The book’s editor, Paul Zak, is a pioneer in the emerging field of neuroeconomics, which uses medical technology to discover the physiological manifestations of cooperative and altruistic behavior. A theme of …

The U.S. Economic Crisis: Another "Lost Decade"?, Paula Chungsathaporn

Honors College Theses

America is experiencing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression originating with problems from mortgage backed securities and seeping into every major sector in the economy. We have witnessed the downfall or government takeover of some of the most powerful companies in the country, contributing to the highest unemployment rate America has seen in decades. During the 1990s, Japan experienced what is commonly referred to as “the lost decade,” a period of prolonged stagnant growth. Many similarities can be drawn between the current U.S. crisis and the Japanese crisis of the late 90s. The macroeconomic conditions that caused the …

The Ports Of Secession: The Economics Of Florida Ports In The Secession Crisis, Michael P. Robbins

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

The root of large-scale human conflict is the protection of economic interests. The economic motivations for the South to secede clashed with the interests of the North in preserving the trade relationships that existed. In choosing the path that led to conflict over peace, decision-makers leaned towards what they believed would be most profitable on the margins. The financial viability of a southern Confederacy was contingent upon the successful separation of Gulf states from the Union. The economic interests generated by Florida's Gulf ports provided a strong incentive for the state to secede, for the emerging Confederacy to support that …

Legacy Of The Clinton Bubble, Timothy Canova

Law Faculty News Articles, Editorials, and Blogs

This article looks at the economy following the Clinton administration period in the White House.

Tribal Nation Economics: Rebuilding Commercial Prosperity In Spite Of U.S. Trade Restraints–Recommendations For Economic Revitalization In Indian Country, Angelique Eaglewoman

Faculty Scholarship

Tribal commerce created the current highways that stretch from coast-to-coast in North America today. The roads that are traveled by semi-trucks full of cargo, grocery produce, and all manner of commercial goods are on top of the ancient trade routes Natives have traveled for centuries. Unfortunately, the history and sophistication of Native commercial activities have been largely suppressed and left out of the story of the North American continent as Euro-Americans rewrote the continent’s history to reflect the glorification of colonization. The truth is that there was no need for the 'rugged pioneer' to cut through tall grass to head …

[Introduction To] The Street Porter And The Philosopher : Conversations On Analytical Egalitarianism, Sandra J. Peart, David M. Levy

Bookshelf

Adam Smith, asserting the common humanity of the street porter and the philosopher, articulated the classical economists' model of social interactions as exchanges among equals. This model had largely fallen out of favor until, recently, a number of scholars in the avant-garde of economic thought rediscovered it and rechristened it "analytical egalitarianism." In this volume, Sandra J. Peart and David M. Levy bring together an impressive array of authors to explore the ramifications of this analytical ideal and to discuss the ways in which an egalitarian theory of individuality can enable economists to reconcile ideas from opposite ends of the …

The Economic Foundations Of Contemporary Slavery, Justin Guay

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“Slavery existed before money or law” (Hochschild 2005). Indeed the “peculiar institution” is one of humanity’s oldest. It has, however, evolved and manifested itself quite distinctly in different periods of history. In contrast to historical views of slavery that are associated with Chattel Slavery, numerous forms fall under the umbrella term of contemporary slavery. The United Nations (U.N.) Working Group recognizes such radically new forms as: child labor, children in conflict, trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, and the sale of children. The International Labor Office (ILO) approaches the topic through the lens of forced labor. The ILO recognizes slavery and …

From Tranquility To Secession And Other Historical Sequences: A Theoretical Exposition, Paul Hallwood

Economics Working Papers

A model is developed explaining many common historical sequences: inter alia, the rise and fall of empires, expansion or contraction in the geographic size of nations, wars of secession, non-contested secessions, and growth of supra-national unions. The basic unit of analysis is a transaction in international (or national) law that verifies and legitimizes transformations from one organizational entity to another. Decision-makers for national, or super-national entities as well as those at sub-levels are assumed to be welfare maximizers under cost constraints. Potential secessionists face dispute costs, and decision-makers for the higher-level entity incur persuasion costs. Both costs may include military …

[Introduction To] The Wealth Of Nations, Adam Smith, Jonathan B. Wight

Bookshelf

The Wealth of Nations is a treasured classic of political economy. First published in March of 1776, Adam Smith wrote the book to influence a special audience - the British Parliament - and its arguments in the early spring of that year pressed for peace and cooperation with Britain's colonies rather than war.

Smith's message was that economic exploitation, through the monopoly trade of empire, stifled wealth-creation in both home and foreign lands. Moreover, protectionism preserved the status quo, and privileged a few elites at the expense of long run growth.

Smith wrote, "It is the industry which is carried …

Adam Smith And Poverty, Jonathan B. Wight

English Faculty Publications

Can we end poverty in America? Does economic theory offer a solution? Humility would be a good starting place, because systemic problems like generational poverty rarely stem from single causes. Putting the broken pieces together is difficult when some edges are sharp, some are shattered, and others missing. This essay draws on insights from Adam Smith in order to examine the problem of poverty. It focuses on a case study involving Serena Robins (the real names have been altered).

Culture And Prosperity: The Truth About Markets—Why Some Nations Are Rich But Most Remain Poor (Book Review), Jonathan B. Wight

Economics Faculty Publications

John Kay’s latest book offers an absorbing romp through the history of economic thought in the 20th century. Kay attempts to explain the complex reality of a modern market system rather than resorting to simplistic theorizing about it. Gone are perfectly rational traders, perfectly competitive markets, incentive compatibilities, low transaction costs, informational symmetries, and no externalities. Kay highlights problems and problem solving as the ubiquitous and historical strata through which markets in the West evolved.

Review Of Northern Naval Superiority And The Economics Of The American Civil War By David G. Surdam, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Security Reform: An Expository Report, Nathan J. Voss

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Derrida's Debt To Milton Friedman, Michael Tratner

Literatures in English Faculty Research and Scholarship

This article draws on Derrida's account of economic history in Given Time I: Counterfeit Money to show that he is indebted to an economist he does not mention at all, Milton Friedman. Derrida calls for an investigation of the literary consequences of the "dematerialization of money" and proceeds to give his own version of this history by examining a Baudelaire story from 1864 and an economic treatise from 1925. Those texts may mark moments in economic history, but the dematerialization of money which Derrida sees in them is almost entirely a middle twentieth-century development, finalized in the demise of the …

Denying Human Homogeneity: Eugenics & Making Of Post-Classical Economics, Sandra J. Peart, David M. Levy

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The question we propose to address is how did economics move from the classical period characterized by the hardest possible doctrine of initial human homogeneity—all the observed differences among people arise from incentives, luck, and history¹—to become comfortable with accounts of human behavior which alleged foundational differences among and within races of people? (Darity 1995) In this paper, we shall argue that early British eugenics thinkers racialized economics in the post-classical period.²

[Introduction To] Saving Adam Smith: A Tale Of Wealth, Transformation, And Virtue, Jonathan B. Wight

Bookshelf

Every once in a while a great business novel is published. This is one of those novels. Follow an up-and-coming graduate student on a picturesque adventure involving terroristics and love, and learn, or better yet, re-learn, correctly this time, a little economics.

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 …

New Economic Policies: A Historical Perspectives (Iimb Foundation Day Lecture), I G Patel

IIMB Management Review

No abstract provided.

The State Of Economic Science: Views Of Six Nobel Laureates, Werner Sichel Editor

Upjohn Press

Six distinguished Nobel Laureates offer their views on the current state of economic science in a thought-provoking yet straightforward set of essays.

Review Of Economics As A Coordination Problem: The Contributions Of Friedrich A. Hayek By Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr., Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

2. Economics, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XXI: Meaning in the Social Sciences

The study of the way in which man makes a living — a short definition of economics — or of how he makes use of limited resources to satisfy unlimited wants -- another definition — has been traced in this work from Aristotle through the Middle Ages and mercantilism to the nineteenth century, when the classicists and their numerous critics, under the influence of industrialization and the intellectual trends of the day, created a large body of economic thought. In Chapter XIV we saw how, at the end of the century, Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) attempted to reformulate classical theory to …

The Structure And Functions Of The Federal Reserve System Of The United States Today, William Law Goode

College Books

An overview of the history of the Federal Reserve system from its creation in 1913 to the late 1930s, and a description of its structure as of the late 1930s.

An Appraisal Of The Roosevelt Monetary Policy, Robert J. Wright

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Probably no economic institution of our modern world is affected with a greater public interest than money. Few subjects have been more discussed and few factors have had more influence upon the progress of civilization than has money. It has become perhaps the most indispensable of all the tools which we use in our urbanized modern life. [...]

The Raisin Industry Of California, John W. Farrar

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This thesis has been prepared as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of faster of Arts, prescribed by the College of the Pacific, Stockton, California. It is sincerely hoped that it will be found useful to all of those who are at all interested in the great industry of raisin making, which has played no small part in the building up of the great San Joaquin Valley and has been responsible for bringing the much needed irrigation system to the valley.

Various types of data are here available, including personal opinions from the foremost leaders of the …

The Moral Causes Of The Welfare Of Nations: An Oration, Delivered 1st November, 1834, In The Chapel, Before The Society Of Graduates Of The College..., J. Adams D.D.

Rare Books

The Rev. Jasper Adams, Episcopal minister, President of the College of Charleston, and (ex-officio) Horry Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy delivered this oration on November 1, 1834 before the Society of Graduates of the College of Charleston. Noting that moral causes of the prosperity of nations had been ignored, Rev. Adams reviews and examines the effect of morality on the advancement of nations.