Richard Arena

Handbook of Knowledge and Economics

Why do societies benefit differently from knowledge? How exactly does social interaction interfere with knowledge acquisition and diffusion? This original Handbook brings together a wide range of differing approaches to shed light on these questions and others relating to the role and relevance of knowledge in economic analysis. By illuminating the philosophical roots of the various notions of knowledge employed by economists, this Handbook helps to disentangle conceptual and typological issues surrounding the debate on knowledge amongst economists. Wide-ranging in scope, it explores fundamental aspects of the relationship between knowledge and economics - such as the nature of knowledge, knowledge acquisition and knowledge diffusion. This important compendium embraces various fields and traditions of economic analysis and discusses the role of knowledge in 21 papers from outstanding international scholars. Advanced scholars and PhD students interested in cross-fertilization between different fields of economic analysis will find this Handbook of considerable importance.

On the foundations of Minsky's business cycle theory: an interpretation*

Hyman Minsky is renowned for his theoretical and empirical investigation of the capitalist economy. In this book, a distinguished group of contributors provides an authoritative account of his contribution to the analysis of capitalism and, more particularly, to the fields of monetary and post Keynesian economics.

Knowledge, Beliefs and Economics

This book surveys how economists engage with knowledge and beliefs in various fields of economic analysis, such as general equilibrium theory, decision theory, game theory, experimental economics, evolutionary theory of the firm, financial markets and the history of economic thought.

Trust, Codification and Epistemic Communities: Implementing an Expert System in the French Steel Industry 1

Introduction The aim of this paper is to examine the relation between trust and knowledge codification in the context of the implementation of an expert system in the French steel company, Usinor. The Sachem (Systeme d’Aide a la Conduite des Hauts Furneaux en Marche) expert system project, which was designed to improve blast furnace control, was initiated by Usinor in the 1980s as part of a larger programme of knowledge codification and centralisation. One of the objectives was to preserve knowledge and practices the company felt might face extinction during a period of massive layoffs that threatened to disrupt the traditional knowledge transfer patterns which had hitherto been carried out primarily via an apprenticeship system.

Structural Dynamics and Economic Growth: Introduction: structural dynamics and contemporary growth theory

The essays collected in this volume address the role of structural dynamics in the context of the current state of the theory of economic growth. Given the many extensions and ramifications of contemporary growth theory, it would seem far too ambitious an undertaking, within the space of an introductory essay, to attempt a comprehensive survey. Instead, our more modest purpose here is to draw attention specifically to developments in the study of structural dynamics. Over the past four or five decades, the theory of economic growth has made enormous progress. Much as in other fields of scientific enquiry, this progress tends to take the form of cumulative knowledge acquisition and formation clustered around a few lines of research. Even so – and notwithstanding the emergence of an overarching and powerful analytical framework – other less well-explored lines of research tend to survive and coexist. In their introduction to the Handbook of Economic Growth (2005, p. xi), Aghion and Durlauf note that ‘interest in economic growth has been an integral part of economics since its inception as a scholarly discipline’. In fact, one of the few undisputed facts in the history of the discipline is perhaps that what is at the heart of political economy through the Modern Age (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries) is a focus on aggregate wealth. Defining the nature of wealth, as well as suggesting ways to increase aggregate wealth and to improve its quality, is foremost among the questions addressed by the political economy of the modern age.

Structural Dynamics and Economic Growth

Ever since Adam Smith, economists have been preoccupied with the puzzle of economic growth. The standard mainstream models of economic growth were and often still are based either on assumptions of diminishing returns on capital with technological innovation or on endogenous dynamics combined with a corresponding technological and institutional setting. An alternative model of economic growth emerged from the Cambridge School of Keynesian economists in the 1950s and 1960s. This model - developed mainly by Luigi Pasinetti - emphasizes the importance of demand, human learning and the growth dynamics of industrial systems. Finally, in the past decade, new mainstream models have emerged incorporating technology or demand-based structural change and extending the notion of balanced growth. This collection of essays reassesses Pasinettis theory of structural dynamics in the context of these recent developments, with contributions from economists writing in both the mainstream and the Cambridge Keynesian traditions and including Luigi Pasinetti, William Baumol, Geoffrey Harcourt and Nobel laureate Robert Solow.

Knowledge and beliefs in economics: the case of the Austrian tradition

The contribution focuses on the problem of the influence of individual knowledge and beliefs on the working of economic activity, within the Austrian tradition of economic thought. More specifically, the contributions of von Mises, Hayek and Schumpeter are investigated. These contributions show a large variety of answers concerning the relation between individual and social beliefs. This variety is not exhaustive but it substantially contributes to a better understanding of contemporary theoretical debates.

Friedrich von Wieser on institutions and social economics

In a former essay dedicated to a part of Wieser s contribution to economics and economic sociology (Arena, 2003), we noted that, within the triumvirate of the founders of the Austrian School, Friedrich von Wieser is certainly not the one who is the most esteemed by modern historians of economic thought. On the one hand, he is frequently considered as a mere and faithful follower of Carl Menger; and his theoretical originality is supposed to be much weaker than that of Bohm-Bawerk. On the other hand, his observations on human races and his inclination in favour of authoritarian political regimes did not contribute to making him very likeable. These circumstances led certainly to an undervaluation of his economic works. Wieser s economic theory, however, offers a very interesting mixture of economic analysis and economic sociology and its insights strongly contributed to the development of the intellectual achievements of the second generation of the Austrian School (see Streissler, 1986: 85, 91–3, 1988: 195). Moreover, if a part of Wieser s work contributed to the formation of what was later called the ‘Marginal Revolution’ (see for instance Wieser, 1889/1893), another part certainly participated in the process of transition which favoured the emergence of an original Austrian approach. In this contribution we would like to focus mainly on this second part of Wieser s social and economic theory, also because it is too often ignored.

On the Relation between Economics and Sociology: Marshall and Schumpeter

This unique and original work contends that, despite the differences between Marshallian and Schumpeterian thinking, they both present formidable challenges to a broad type of social science beyond economics, particularly under the influence of the German historical school. In a departure from the received view on the nature of the works of Marshall and Schumpeter, the contributors explore their themes in terms of an evolutionary vision and method of evolution; social science and evolution; conceptions of evolution; and evolution and capitalism.

Macroeconomic Analysis and Individual Economic Rationality: Some Lessons from Wicksell, von Mises and Schumpeter

The purpose of this contribution is to investigate the problem of the room attributed to individual economic rationality by circulation approaches. The expression ‘circulation approaches’ here refers to an analytical framework in which income distribution, production and exchange activities cannot be simultaneously implemented on interdependent markets but are organized according to a given logical and chronological order which implies the preeminence of the production of commodities and of the existence of the means of payment that permit the circulation of these commodities (Arena, 1985, p. 47; see also Deleplace and Nell, 1996). Our investigation will not privilege however the modern versions of these approaches (see Graziani 2003a, ch.1). We will instead utilise the works of some economists of the past, namely, Knut Wicksell, Josef Schumpeter and Ludwig von Mises. The reason of the choice of these three authors is that their respective contributions to economic analysis belong to what Leijonhufvud called the ‘Wicksell Connection theories’ (Leijonhufvud, 1981, p. 132). In this context, Schumpeter’s and von Mises’s theories of money and economic progress appear to be two possible extensions of Wicksell’s original work. Our view is that, by contrast with Wicksell’s economic theory, they both give an essential role to individual economic rationality.