Theofanis Papageorgiou

Joseph Schumpeter and Thorstein Veblen on technological determinism, individualism and institutions

Abstract This article investigates Joseph Schumpeters affinities with Thorstein Veblen with respect to technological change and determinism, the future of capitalism, individualism and institutions. From a methodological point of view, a common point in their analysis is their anti-teleological view regarding economics as a discipline. Also, in the Schumpeterian system, technology is the cornerstone of economic evolution and appears as the making of new combinations. In the Veblenian theoretical framework, the bearer of change is to be found, inter alia, in technology, just like in Schumpeters works, although not without differences. They also share the opinion that technology revolutionises capitalism and has serious implications for its future as a system. Furthermore, regarding individualism, in his work Schumpeter stresses the importance of the social milieu on individual action, a fact which bears strong resemblance to the Veblenian notion of evolution as ‘depersonalized evolution’. In this sense, Schumpeter is very close to Veblen, although Schumpeters approach could be classified in what is called institutionalist individualism, whereas Veblen could be classified as holist. Undoubtedly, the role of institutions is of great importance in both Schumpeter and Veblen. Ιnstitutions in the Schumpeterian schema play a central role closely related to the future of capitalism. Institutional and non-institutional factors enter into complex forms of interaction just like in Veblens approach. There, institutions are part of the social milieu and their underlying framework, much wider than mere economic and social. Of course, the theoretical analyses of Schumpeter and Veblen are not devoid of differences springing mainly from their methodological approach such as the role of the individual in the capitalist process which is probably the most significant difference regarding the importance attributed to it in Schumpeters early works. Also, the way technical change appears constitutes another difference. However, his views are quite close to Veblens. After all, Schumpeter began to write in a social, political, theoretical and ideological environment at a time when evolutionary ideas dominated social thought.

Technology and economic fluctuations in the US food sector (1958‐2006): An empirical approach from a political economy perspective

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to deal with questions of instability and economic crises, deriving theoretical arguments from Marxs and Schumpeters works and presenting relevant empirical evidence for the case of the US food manufacturing sector. Design/methodology/approach - The paper attempts to interpret the economic fluctuations in the US food sector and find causal relationships between the crucial variables dictated by Schumpeterian and Marxian theory, such as technological change, output and profitability. In this context, a number of relevant techniques have been used, such as de-trending, cointegration analysis, white noise tests, periodograms, cross-correlations and Granger causality tests. Findings - Most economic variables in the food manufacturing sector exhibit a similar pattern characterized by periodicities exhibiting a short-term cycle, a mid-term cycle and a long-term cycle. Also, the economic variables investigated follow patterns which are consistent with the total economy. Furthermore, a relatively rapid transmission of technology in the economy takes place along with bidirectional causality between technology and output/profitability, which can be interpreted as indicating an ambivalent relationship in the flow of cause and effect. These findings give credit to certain aspects of the Schumpeterian and Marxist theories of economic crises, respectively. Originality/value - This paper contributes to the literature in the following ways: first, it introduces a relevant methodological framework building on Schumpeterian and Marxist insights. Second, it uses several variables to study the economic fluctuations instead of delimiting its analysis, for instance, to industrial output. Third, the results are discussed in a broader political economy context, related to the US economy, as a whole.

Sector size, technical change and stability in the USA (1957-2006): a Schumpeterian approach

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate two famous postulates of the Schumpeterian doctrine and its implications for the US economy. Design/methodology/approach - – Analytically, the authors investigate whether sector size matters for sectoral: technological change and stability, as expressed through the relevant quantitative measures and variables. To this end, the authors test a number of relevant models that express the various forms of this relationship. More precisely, the authors use panel data for the 14 main sectors of economic activity in the USA over the period 1957-2006, just before the first signs of the US and global recession made their appearance. Findings - – The results seem to be in line with the Schumpeterian postulate that market size matters for technological change and economic stability, for the US economy (1957-2006). Clearly, further research would be of great interest. Originality/value - – This work contributes to the literature in the following ways: first, it provides an extensive review of the literature on the subject and adopts two relevant methodological approaches. Second, based on these quantitative approaches, the paper offers a complete investigation of two famous postulates of the Schumpeterian theory for the US economy, and it is the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to do so by sector of economic activity, in a panel data framework. Third, the paper uses a wide data set (1957-2006) to examine the US economy up until the first signs of the US and global economic recession made their appearance.

Is the Greek crisis in the EMU contagious

In this article, we employ a number of econometric techniques in order to examine, on a quarterly basis, the transmission of fluctuations between the Greek and the other economic and monetary union (EMU) countries, respectively, after the introduction of the common currency in the period 2001–2012, which fully captures the recent recession. Our main finding is that the Greek crisis is, indeed, transmitted to several of its EMU counterparts, especially due to its various forms of debt but cannot (Granger) cause their economic activity except for in the short-run.