Relevance, Concepts, Criticisms and Limitations of Classical Economic Theory

Relevance, Concepts, Criticisms and Limitations of Classical Economic Theory
Author: Bortolina Habtamu
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 31
Release: 2024-03-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3389003398

Seminar paper from the year 2024 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, Addis Ababa University (Business and Economics), course: development theory, language: English, abstract: The classical school of economic thought began taking shape in the late 18th century, led by Scottish philosopher Adam Smith. In his groundbreaking book The Wealth of Nations published in 1776, Smith introduced several foundational concepts that came to define early classical theory. He observed the immense productive gains achieved through the division of labor in a pin factory, recognizing specialization as a primary driver of economic progress (Smith, 1776). Moreover, Smith theorized his famous metaphor of the "invisible hand”, suggesting that through unhindered individual self-interest and competition in a free market, social welfare is indirectly maximized (Smith, 1776). In the early 19th century, English political economist David Ricardo built significantly upon Smith's foundations. His 1817 work On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation proposed the influential labor theory of value. Ricardo argued that the cost of production, and therefore the true value, of a good or service is determined by the quantity of labor required to produce it (Ricardo, 1821). He also formulated the principle of comparative advantage to explain patterns of international trade. During this period, Reverend Thomas Malthus published his Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798. In it, he contended that human populations tended to grow at a faster rate than the food supply, potentially resulting in recurrent famines unless checks like disease, war, or birth control intervene (Malthus, 1798 ).

Revisiting Classical Economics

Revisiting Classical Economics
Author: Heinz Kurz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2014-08-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317907973

The financial crisis and the economic crisis that followed triggered a crisis in the subject of economics, as it is typically being taught today especially in macroeconomics and related fields. A renewed interest in earlier authors, especially the classical economists from Adam Smith to David Ricardo and John Maynard Keynes, developed. This book may also be seen as a response to this interest. What can we learn from the authors mentioned, what we could not learn from the mainstream? This volume contains a selection of essays which deepens and widens the understanding of the classical approach to important problems, such as value and distribution, growth and technical progress, and exhaustible natural resources. It is the fourth collection in a row and reflects an on-going discussion of the fecundity of the classical approach. A main topic of the essays is a comparison between the classical approaches with modern theory and thus an identification of what can be learned by elaborating on the ideas of Smith and Ricardo and Marx above and beyond and variously in contradiction to certain mainstream view. Since the work of Piero Sraffa spurred the revival of classical economic thought, his contributions are dealt with in some detail. The attention then focuses on economic growth and the treatment of exhaustible resources within a classical framework of the analysis.

Economics, Culture and Social Theory

Economics, Culture and Social Theory
Author: William A. Jackson
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1849802114

. . . the book is excellent in setting out and explaining a fundamental critique of economics one moreover that has been missed by most other current critics of the field. Making this case is an achievement. Hopefully, it will have a greater impact than its author probably expects. Journal of Cultural Economics Economics evolved by perfecting the taking of culture out of its reductionist and virtual world. But culture has recently been reintroduced, both as a sphere of application for an otherwise unchanging methodology and as a weak form of acknowledging that the economic alone is inadequate as the basis even for explaining the economy. This volume is an essential critical starting point for understanding the changing relationship between economics and culture and in offering a more satisfactory and stable union between the two. Ben Fine, University of London, UK Economics, Culture and Social Theory examines how culture has been neglected in economic theorising and considers how economics could benefit by incorporating ideas from social and cultural theory. Orthodox economics has prompted a long line of cultural criticism that goes back to the origins of economic theory and extends to recent debates surrounding postmodernism. William A. Jackson discusses the cultural critique of economics, identifies the main arguments, and assesses their implications. Among the topics covered are relativism and realism, idealism and materialism, agency and structure, hermeneutics, semiotics, and cultural evolution. Drawing from varied literatures, notably social and cultural theory, the book stresses the importance of culture for economic behaviour and looks at the prospects for a renewed and culturally informed economics. The book will be invaluable to heterodox economists and to anyone interested in the links between culture and the economy. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, arguing against the isolation of economics, and will therefore hold wide appeal for social scientists working in related fields, as well as for economists specialising in cultural economics and economic methodology.

Contemporary Meanings of John R. Commons’s Institutional Economics

Contemporary Meanings of John R. Commons’s Institutional Economics
Author: Hiroyuki Uni
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2017-02-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9811032025

This book is the first to reinterpret John R. Commons's Institutional Economics with a newly discovered manuscript written in 1927 in order to find its contemporary meanings in economic theories. Commons aimed to establish institutional economics to understand capitalism in the USA of that time, when people’s collective actions were gaining importance with the emergence of powerful labor unions, oligopolistic corporations, and national judicial systems. Setting three types of transactions as his central concepts for analysis, Commons described dynamics of capitalism as multiple and cumulative causal processes of transactions, through which the final goal should be achievements of a "reasonable value". He also believed that the reasonable value could be achieved by the evolution of institutions. There is no doubt that Commons's ideas proposed in Institutional Economics such as transactions and collective actions greatly inspired later economists; however, few studies have contributed to comprehensive understanding of the origin of his masterpiece. To what extent and in what sense had Commons rejected or accepted previous classical economics or marginalism for constituting his original institutional economics? What are the meanings and limitations that reasonable value may have for contemporary political economy? Institutional Economics as attempts to resolve deep economic problems at that time. Commons's efforts create important implications for us, those who are living in an era after the global financial crisis and confronting various challenges to political economy.

Criticisms of Classical Political Economy

Criticisms of Classical Political Economy
Author: Gilles Campagnolo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 442
Release: 2012-08-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134098596

The role of the German Historical School and of Carl Menger (founder of the Austrian School) is appraised in this new book. This important period of the history of economics is vital to understand how the discipline developed over the next half-century. Gilles Campagnolo has produced an impressive original work which makes use of rarely seen research by Carl Menger and as such this book will be of interest across several discplines, including history of economic thought, economic methodology, philosophy of science and the history of ideas.

A History of Economic Thought, 10th Edition

A History of Economic Thought, 10th Edition
Author: Lokanathan V.
Publisher: S. Chand Publishing
Total Pages: 392
Release:
Genre: History
ISBN: 9352533372

This book provides a comprehensive coverage of the origin and development of economic thought from the ancient times to the present day. It documents the contributions of major thinkers from the time of Hebrews to Maurice Dobb, and the perspectives that influenced the economic thought. The book also provides an account of the recent trends in Indian economic thought and will be of interest and relevance to all students and scholars of the subject. It covers the syllabus of economic thought of major Indian universities.

Modern Economic Theory

Modern Economic Theory
Author: Dewett K.K. & Navalur M.H.
Publisher: S. Chand Publishing
Total Pages: 992
Release: 2010
Genre: Banks and banking
ISBN: 9788121924634

Modern Economic Theory is a critique on how monetary revolution across the globe is changing the course of world economies, financial systems and markets. Beginning with discussion on price theory and microeconomics, this classic textbook progresses to describe comprehensively, theory of income and employability or macroeconomics, money and banking, international economies and public finance. Economic systems, economics of development and planning and economies of welfare provide a clear idea about recent developments in and criticism of compensation principle, market structures and social welfare. It adequately meets the requirements of the BA and B.Com courses (Pass and Honours). In addition, postgraduate students of Arts and Commerce and aspirants of various competitive examinations will also find the book very useful and informative.

Competition, Value and Distribution in Classical Economics

Competition, Value and Distribution in Classical Economics
Author: Heinz D. Kurz
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021-09
Genre: Competition
ISBN: 9780367687052

Drawing in particular on the work of Sraffa, Smith, Ricardo and Marx, the essays in this volume explore the characteristic features of the Classical economists' approach to economic problems, and the renewal of interest in that approach in modern times. In recent years, new material has been made available on both Sraffa and Marx which have made new insights and interpretations possible. The release of Sraffa's hitherto unpublished papers and correspondence has led to reconsideration of doctrinal questions such as to what extent Sraffa built upon, or deviated from the analyses of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and other representatives of the classical British school and Karl Marx. A major theme is also to what extent we can today, equipped with Sraffa's insights and analytical tools, re-interpret and develop ideas of classical authors, which they could present only in primitive forms, on technological progress, exhaustible resources and other contemporary issues. On Marx, the publication of the MEGA2 edition of the works, papers and correspondence of Marx and Engels also gives rise to a reconsideration of this relationship, given Marx's disenchantment with some of his own work and return to ideas advocated by Ricardo, especially as regards the long-term tendency of the rate of profits. Finally, the classical notion of competition and monopoly deserve to be scrutinized carefully again and frequent misinterpretations in the literature refuted. This volume is vital reading for scholars of classical economics, Marx and Sraffa, and the history of economic thought more broadly. It also deals with issues in the areas of machinery and technical progress, joint production, and economic development and growth.

The Canon in the History of Economics

The Canon in the History of Economics
Author: Michalis Psalidopoulos
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 488
Release: 2000-03-09
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134653484

The construction and the role of the economic canon, the accepted list of great works and great authors, has been the subject of much recent literary and historical debate. By contrast, the concept of the canon has been largely dormant in the study of the history of economics, with the canonical sequence of Smith, Ricardo, Marx, etc. constituting t