Working Paper No. 05, Proudhon, Bakunin And Anarcho-Socialism,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 05, Proudhon, Bakunin And Anarcho-Socialism, Lauren Sweger-Hollingsworth
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to establish that Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin advanced ideas supporting what can be identified as anarcho-socialism, and the distinctness in their approaches can also be associated with splits that emerged with the First International Workingmen’s Association. For Proudhon, the institution of property entrenches inequality. In Proudhon’s judgement, society must orient towards advancing independence, proportionality, equality, and individual autonomy without limitations from legal structures. In Bakunin’s anarcho-socialist view, society must reject all forms of authority. In Bakunin’s conception of society, economic and political structures must be constructed from base to summit, founded upon the rights of free …
Working Paper No. 13, Friedrich List And National Development,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 13, Friedrich List And National Development, Mitch B. Priestley
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to establish that Friedrich List offers an approach to national economic development based upon implementing policies. List conceptualizes and describes a situation wherein the United States, along with Germany and some other Continental European countries, face challenges dissimilar to Britain. List emphasizes an alternate approach towards national development that flies in the face of Adam Smith’s laissez-faire, free-trade prescription, focusing instead upon the powers of production, that he suggests, offer a proper measure of a nation’s wealth. List is a limited protectionist who advocates for national policies suited to a nation based upon its history and level …
Working Paper No. 15, Jevons’ Selective Interpretation Of Bentham,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 15, Jevons’ Selective Interpretation Of Bentham, Devin Bales
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to establish that in The Theory of Political Economy, W. Stanley Jevons offers a selective interpretation of Jeremy Bentham’s notion of utility. Moreover, Jevons does so in a manner that generates enduring implications for Economics as a science. Special emphasis is placed upon Jevons’ use of Bentham’s understanding of the circumstances that direct pursuits of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Emphasized is that Jevons’ omission of ‘fecundity, purity, and extent’ as quantifiers of utility, creates enduring implications that emerged years after his book’s publication in 1871. What is finally considered are some of the difficulties associated …
Working Paper No. 16, Had We Paid Attention To Keynes?,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 16, Had We Paid Attention To Keynes?, Saidhbhe Quigley
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to establish that a host of problems could have been averted had we paid attention to Keynes. In the view of Keynes (2013, pp. 23-28), the Versailles Treaty was unnecessarily punitive towards Germany. He explains that the terms negotiated during the Paris Peace Conference were at odds with the agreement that took place during the Armistice when both sides decided to lay down their weapons and end fruitless battling. Consequently, following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Germany registered as one of the most nations most tragically affected by the Great Depression. This is partially because of …
Working Paper No. 17, William Petty And Political Economy,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 17, William Petty And Political Economy, Clarissa Allen
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to establish that during the first part of the 1600s, William Petty generated original contributions to political economy. Subsequent to the Irish rebellion and in the wake of the English occupation of Ireland, Petty led a team of surveyors for measuring out areas of Ireland. The survey that he led mapped selected territories and detailed numerous characteristics, thus employing an early, rudimentary, but highly insightful census method. Petty sought to describe his world objectively and quantitatively through the use of numbers, weights, and measures – rather than subjectively. Petty developed a method of calculation still famously known …
Working Paper No. 18, Thomas Piketty On Capital And Inequality,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 18, Thomas Piketty On Capital And Inequality, Max Randall
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to establish that, in his Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty advances ideas concerning the origins and implication of economic inequality. Piketty commences his inquiry by considering and detailing wage differences amongst distinct classes of society. This mechanism for the distribution of income is compared across selected nations, and the differing tendencies over time are examined in detail. Distinct from working wages, Piketty considers income effects associated with capital ownership. Adding to this, Piketty shows that effects of inheritance need be considered as capital is passed to successive generations, thereby allowing the accruing of monetary …
Working Paper No. 20, Veblen And The Question Of Sexual Selection,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 20, Veblen And The Question Of Sexual Selection, Jenica M. Kramer
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to counter a hypothesis recently advanced by Jon D. Wisman; which states that Thorstein Veblen “missed” the opportunity to incorporate sexual selection into his evolutionary economics. To the contrary, I shall argue that Veblen’s vision is not at all lacking and that he intentionally failed to integrate into his evolutionary thinking the animal drive of sexual selection. First-off, I offer an account of Wisman’s thesis and this is followed by a refutation of his argument while making use of Veblen’s key concepts. Tracing the evolution of “conspicuous consumption” to its social inception, I endeavor to reveal the …
Working Paper No. 23, Hyman Minsky And Financial Instability,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 23, Hyman Minsky And Financial Instability, Gabriel Caballero
Working Papers in Economics
Hyman Minsky can readily be categorized as a post-Keynesian economist, for he advances a purist’s interpretation of John Maynard Keynes’ The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Through employing a rigorous Keynesian framework, Minsky developed an enduring contribution to the literature bearing the title: “The Financial Instability Hypothesis” (1992), that appears as Working Paper No. 74 at the Jerome Levi Institute. In this document Minsky considered forces and variables that induce financial instability—that are also specific to advanced capitalist economies. He challenges the classical economists and the notion that a general equilibrium will prevail. Instead, Minsky goes on to …
Working Paper No. 25, On The Importance Of Contributions By Robert Torrens,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 25, On The Importance Of Contributions By Robert Torrens, Mitchell Veele
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to establish that although hardly recognized, Robert Torrens’ contributions prove significant and also provided bases for advances later credited to David Ricardo. In his first published work, An Essay on the External Corn Trade [1815], Torrens discusses at length the negative consequences of Britain’s Corn Laws, based upon the practice of restricting foreign corn imports. Through this prescient work, Torrens should be considered as the first to advance several concepts and principles that prove foundational for classical economic thought. Though attributed to David Ricardo, the principle of comparative advantage was actually first described by Torrens and another …
Working Paper No. 26, Basic Tenets Of The Austrian School Of Economics,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 26, Basic Tenets Of The Austrian School Of Economics, Vladislav Yurlov
Working Papers in Economics
The Austrian school of economic thought has offered many ideas throughout its more than century old history. Beginning with Carl Menger’s Principles of Economics, the focus of this school dealt with individuals acting in a society for the benefit of everyone. With liberalism at their core, thinkers such as Friedrich von Wieser, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek saw economics as a practical approach to living. This inquiry seeks to establish that the Austrian school of economics advanced basic tenets. Building off of, and often creating their own ideas, Austrian economists gave rise to the principles of marginalism, significance …
Working Paper No. 27, Processes In Capital Accumulation Leading Towards Inequality,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 27, Processes In Capital Accumulation Leading Towards Inequality, Matthew Perez
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry considers, compares, and contrasts two different theoretical explanations of processes leading towards capital accumulation and also inequality. First considered is Immanuel Wallerstein’s Historical Capitalism. In this book he advances and stresses that processes leading towards capital accumulation are inherently unequal, as these processes are based upon commodification, proletarization, and jurisdiction. The second part considers the views advanced by Thomas Picketty. In his Capital in the Twenty First Century, Picketty offers a fundamentally different understanding of what drives and leads towards capital accumulation and income inequality. In contrasts to Wallerstein, Picketty explains that the dynamic generating capital …
Working Paper No. 31, Marx And Proudhon: Two Visions Of Socialism,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 31, Marx And Proudhon: Two Visions Of Socialism, Lillian Garcia
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to establish that Karl Marx and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon espoused fundamentally different visions of socialism. Marx regarded Proudhon with initial enthusiasm and joined the left at large in celebrating his 1840 essay, What is Property? However, in 1846, when Proudhon attempted to solve the problems of capitalism in his work, System of Economic of Contradictions or The Philosophy of Poverty, Marx took to his pen for an unsparing attack, authoring his The Poverty of Philosophy. At the crux of their split were two analyses of the status of labor and two competing prescriptions for change. While …
Working Paper No. 34, Rosa Luxemburg And Joan Robinson On The Accumulation Of Capital,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 34, Rosa Luxemburg And Joan Robinson On The Accumulation Of Capital, Brian Vistica
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to establish that both Rosa Luxemburg and Joan Robinson advanced ideas on the accumulation of capital. Related to their social status in their respective eras, each proposed their distinct ideas on the expansion of production and the accumulation of capital. Both scholars bring into consideration the alarming ways that a seemingly ceaseless expansion in turn calls for an expansion of a marketplace for generating sufficient levels of demand for output. These two authors offer historical examples drawn from around the globe, ranging from the commodification of land on the Indian subcontinent to the Opium Wars in China, …
Working Paper No. 24, Economic Thought During Japan’S Meiji Era,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 24, Economic Thought During Japan’S Meiji Era, Karson M. Pence
Working Papers in Economics
This inquiry seeks to establish that it was Fukuzawa Yukichi who played a key roled in developing ideas that assisted the modernization of Japan, leading up to and especially after the Meiji Reformation of 1868. In An Outline of a Theory of Civilization [1875], Fukuzawa advances a clear understanding that Japan should make the shift from a producer nation to a manufacturer nation, and without having to bear the costs of importing vast sums of foreign capital. Under suspicion that the 250 year rule of the Bakufu left the Japanese economy stagnant and weak, Fukuzawa asserted that the only means …
Working Paper No. 33, Behavioral Assumptions In Jevons And Menger,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 33, Behavioral Assumptions In Jevons And Menger, Yvan Saastamoinen
Working Papers in Economics
In their key works, W. Stanley Jevons (1835-1882) and Carl Menger (1840-1921) introduce crucial behavioral assumptions as these relate to individual and aggregate economic activity. The assumptions found in Jevons’ work primarily focus on the ‘Pain and Pleasure Principle’, originally established by Jeremy Bentham, and how the human characteristic of inevitable variability interacts with basic needs. Subsequently, Menger’s contribution is centered on the idea that the value of a good is inherently subjective and also dependent upon human variability. This inquiry, therefore, seeks to establish that Jevons’ and Menger’s behavioral assumptions led to their being classified as early ‘behavioral’ economists. …
Forests And Health In Mexico: Preliminary And Pre-Preliminary Work - June 2019,
2019
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Forests And Health In Mexico: Preliminary And Pre-Preliminary Work - June 2019, Alejandro López-Feldman
Forest Collaborative Research
Presentation focuses on subjective wellbeing and natural protected areas in Mexico
Review Of Creditworthy: A History Of Consumer Surveillance And Financial Identity In America,
2019
Chapman University
Review Of Creditworthy: A History Of Consumer Surveillance And Financial Identity In America, Lynne Doti
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
A book review of Josh Lauer's Creditworthy: A History of Consumer Surveillance and Financial Identity in America.
Working Paper No. 12, Technological Convergence And Institutional Evolution In The Energy Sector,
2019
Portland State University
Working Paper No. 12, Technological Convergence And Institutional Evolution In The Energy Sector, James Bennett
Working Papers in Economics
Over a span of more than a hundred years, fossil fuel production could be considered as a long-standing ceremonial technology in the Veblenian sense. However in recent times, due to rapid innovation through technological convergence, renewable energy is becoming just as cost effective and threatens to replace fossil fuels. Robert McCullough observes this change in renewable energy costs, in his report “The End of Big Iron”. Thorsten Veblen’s dichotomy between ceremonial and instrumental technologies, and his thoughts on institutional change can also aide in explaining this recent struggle between “ceremonial” fossil fuels and “instrumental” renewable energy technologies. Nathan Rosenberg should …
Charleston And The Emergence Of Middle-Class Culture In The Revolutionary Era. By Jennifer L. Goloboy,
2019
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Charleston And The Emergence Of Middle-Class Culture In The Revolutionary Era. By Jennifer L. Goloboy, Elizabeth White Nelson
History Faculty Research
No abstract provided.
A Statistical Analysis Of Economic Perceptions In The 2015 United Kingdom General Election,
2019
Durham University
A Statistical Analysis Of Economic Perceptions In The 2015 United Kingdom General Election, Amarvir Singh-Bal Mr.
Undergraduate Economic Review
This paper characterises the vote which took place in the United Kingdom's (U.K.) 2015 General Election as an ‘accountability instrument.’ In doing so, the research interrogates which sections of the electorate hold the incumbent government more accountable for economic outcomes between the 2010 and 2015 U.K. General Elections. The Rational Choice Theory and the Michigan Model are used in this study to present two interlinked, and yet distinct, hypotheses – that less politically informed and non-partisan voters are more likely to hold the government accountable for economic performances; compared to the politically informed and partisan voters within the electorate. Implementing …
