Applications for this program have closed.
Developed in partnership with Dr. Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, and co-hosted with the Penn Initiative for the Study of Markets (PISM), this program is designed to showcase what economists can offer other disciplines as well as what it can gain from them.
“Economics Meets Its Historiography” will be held in person in Philadelphia, PA, from April 29 to May 1. The program will focus on the advantages and costs of studying our intellectual past by emphasizing how the market of ideas operates. Critical debates around topics whose importance still exerts influence on how we think about what is valid and invalid in our profession will be discussed. The emphasis will be placed on exploring the development of 20th-century economics, but will touch on how classical economists like Adam Smith have shaped said development. Dr. Michael C. Munger of Duke University will join us as discussion leader.
Readings:
Session 1: Is History of Economic Thought Worthwhile?
Trade-offs and opportunity costs of studying it.
- Stigler, G. J. “Does Economics Have a Useful Past?” History of Political Economy, 1(2):217–230, 1969.
- Blaug, M. “On the Historiography of Economics.” Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 12(1):27–37, 1990.
- Boettke, P. J., Coyne, C. J., and Leeson, P. T. “Earw(h)ig: I can’t hear you because your ideas are old.” Cambridge Journal of Economics, pages 531–544, 2013.
Session 2: What Is Economics?
Economics is what Economists do. Isn’t it?
- Robbins, L. The Subject Matter of Economics. In An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, 1–22. MacMillan and Co., London, 1932
- Buchanan, J. M. “What Should Economists Do?” Southern Economic Journal, 30(3):213–222, 1964
Session 3: Economic Theory and Its Postulates
What is valid in Economic Theory?
- Machlup, F. “Marginal Analysis and Empirical Research.” The American Economic Review, 36(4):519–554, 1946.
- Lester, R. A. “Marginalism, Minimum Wages, and Labor Markets.” The American Economic Review, 37(1):135–148. 1947.
- Stigler, G. J. “Professor Lester and the Marginalists.” The American Economic Review, 37(1):154–157. 1947
Session 4: Economic Theory and Economic Statistics
What comes first? My theoretical insight or the empirical “facts”?
- Koopmans, T. C. “Measurement Without Theory.” The Review of Economics and Statistics, 29(3):161–172. 1947
- Vining, R. “Koopmans on the Choice of Variables to be Studies and the Methods of Measurement.” The Review of Economics and Statistics, 31(2):77–86. 1949.
- Koopmans, T. C. “Koopmans on the Choice of Variables to be Studies and the Methods of Measurement: A Reply.” The Review of Economics and Statistics, 31(2):86–91. 1949.
- Vining, R. “Koopmans on the Choice of Variables to be Studies and the Methods of Measurement: A Rejoinder.” The Review of Economics and Statistics, 31(2):91–94. 1949.
Session 5: Beyond High Theory
Bottom-up insights on cooperation and the functioning of Markets.
- Smith, V. L. “Constructivist and Ecological Rationality in Economics.” The American Economic Review, 93(3):465–508. 2003.
Session 6: Back to Basics — The Scope of Economics
Rethinking what economics is, again and again.
- Hayek, F. (1937). “Economics and Knowledge.” Economica, 4(13):33–54
- Smith, V. L. and Wilson, B. Adam Smith’s Program for the Study of Human Socioeconomic Betterment. In Humanomics: Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations for the Twenty-First Century, 197–207. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2019.
OPTIONAL: Smith, V. L. and Wilson, B. Humanomics Spans the Two Worlds of Adam Smith. In Humanomics: MoraSentiments and the Wealth of Nations for the Twenty-First Century, 1–17. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2019.