What are some books debunking mainstream economics like. Review of stephen marglin on economics and community. Get the best deal by comparing prices from over 100,000 booksellers. Mar 10, 2008 i disagree with stephen marglins premise that embracing economics nurtures cold, materialistic values at the expense of community values. I believe myself to be writing a book on economic theory which will largely revolutionizenot, i suppose, at once but in the course of the next ten yearsthe way the world thinks about economic problems john maynard keynes to george bernard shaw, january 1, 1935, in keynes, 1973, p. Once the jewel of the economics department today marglin is the black.
The dismal science goodreads share book recommendations. Blending historical analysis with economic theory, this work presents essays that scrutinize the institutions that fostered this growth and high employment as well as the forces which later undermined the effectiveness of these. Growth, distribution, and prices harvard economic studies. Marglin fills in the theoretical gaps, revealing the deeper meaning of the general theory. Stephen marglin is walter barker professor of economics at harvard university. Alternatives to mankiws ideology stephen marglin, walter. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext.
Approaches to the economics of work organization london, 1984, pp. While he was trained in economics and teaches at harvard, he has not worked professionally for decades, and his only research that i am aware of is from the 1970s. The second oil shock, opec ii in 1979, is conventionally argued to have ushered in the current phase of neoliberalism, monetarism, and the return to the. I believe myself to be writing a book on economic theory which will. His point is to blame the ideology of economics for some of the features of modernity that he laments. He is a past guggenheim fellow and member of the harvard society of fellows. In the early 1990s, in a building full of professors extolling of the virtues of american. Public economics builds on the theory of welfare economics and is ultimately used as a tool to improve social welfare public economics provides a framework for thinking about whether or not the government should participate in economic. In a flexprice regime the goodssupply schedule is a locus of stationary output. But the harvard economist fails to correct the problem for two reasons. This is an exlibrary book and may have the usual libraryused book markings inside.
Apr 26, 1990 the period after world war two, with its sustained growth and high employment rate, has been referred to as the golden age of capitalism. The dismal science download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi. Apr 20, 2010 stephen marglin emphasizes the costs of market transactions and blames economics for supplying the associated frame of reference. The authors miles, scott and breedon talk about their new book, macroeconomics.
Guidelines for project evaluation partha dasgupta, amartya. The dismal science, stephen amarglin shop online for books. If by mainstream economics you mean economics that believes that government works better than the market, then books by friedrich hayek and thomas sowell are good at debunking mainstream economics. He attributes the success of structuralist diagnoses in dominating development economics until the 1960s to two factors. Invitation from marglin to galbraith to participate in a discussion with his microeconomics students in january 1970 harvard university. How thinking like an economist undermines community, by stephen marglin. The dismal science, stephen amarglin shop online for. He became a tenured professor at harvard in 1968, one of the youngest in the history of that institution. Review of radical political economics 6 1974, 60 112, deutsch. But, argues stephen marglin, its radical implications were obscured by keyness lack of the mathematical tools necessary to argue convincingly that the problem was the market itself, as distinct from myriad sources of friction around its margins.
A critical approach stephen a marglin department of economics, littauer center 221. A study prepared for the world institute for development economics research of the united nations university unuwider. Stephen marglin makes a powerful and convincing argument for how thinking like an economist undermines community. Marglin dissects the ways in which the foundational assumptions of economics justify a world in which individuals are isolated from one another and social connections are impoverished as people define themselves in terms of how much they can afford to consume. His published papers and books range over the foundations of costbenefit analysis, the workings of the laborsurplus. An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations, by adam smith.
See stephen marglin on the future of capitalism at. How thinking like an economist undermines community, focuses on the foundational assumptions of economics and how these assumptions make community invisible to economists. His published papers and books range over the foundations of costbenefit analysis, the workings of the laborsurplus economy, the. Much of littles book is taken up not with the actual economic conditions of the poor nations but with the rise and fall of structuralist theory and the subsequent rise of neoclassical theory. Alternatives to mankiws ideology stephen marglin, walter barker professor of economics, faculty of arts and sciences, harvard. That is not to say his opinion is unimportant, but it is not that of one engaged in the field. How thinking like an economist undermines community by stephen amarglinbuy. How thinking like an economist undermines community, 2010. He knows neoclassical economics very well look at his earliest publications which earned him tenure at harvard and hasnt forgotten it and thus understands a good deal more about production, exchange, and distribution than who spout off their opinions without any backing. The dismal science is patently the result of a lifetime of reading and cogitating about conceptual issues related to market exchanges and economists approaches to them.
Public economics or economics of the public sector is the study of government policy through the lens of economic efficiency and equity. Marglin is the walter barker professor of economics at harvard university. In fact, the article is part of a larger stream of revisionist literature on the organization of labor and the structure of the firm and. Why thinking like an economist can be harmful to the. Economists celebrate the market as a device for regulating human interaction without acknowledging that their enthusiasm depends on a set of halftruths. Today, he sits surrounded by floortoceiling shelves with books on topics. A critical interpretation of the social role of modernization tariq banuri.
Book dominating knowledge development, culture, and resistance. Insurance may be an efficient way of organizing resources, but the deep social and human ties that constitute community are weakened by the shift from reciprocity to market relations. Since the time of adam smith or thereabouts, economics has been in the thrall of what marglin calls modernity. Understanding the global economy, 3rd edition by miles, scott and breedon. Stephen alan marglin ist ein usamerikanischer wirtschaftswissenschaftler. Bianca jagger in this timely and eloquent critique of the conventional economists ideology of knowledge, stephen marglin pinpoints a. His recent work focuses on the foundational assumptions of economics and how these assumptions make community invisible to economists. The tiny liberal caucus in the economics department, which sided with him in many of the battles over his departed fellowradicals, is dwindling, galbraith will be making movies for bbc next year, and leontief, disgusted with the department, has announced his intentions to vote with my feet and is leaving for new york university. Author of the golden age of capitalism, public investment criteria, growth, distribution and prices, approaches to dynamic investment planning, lessons of the golden age of capitalism, public investment criteria unwin university books, profit squeeze and keynesian theory, the dismal science. May 10, 2010 stephen marglin emphasizes the costs of market transactions and blames economics for supplying the associated frame of reference. Marglin holds the walter s barker chair in the department of. What determines the rate of growth, the distribution of income, and the structure of relative prices under capitalism. Stephen a marglin holds the walter s barker chair in the department of economics at harvard university. A critical approach stephen a marglin department of economics, littauer center 221 office hours.
Suddenly, the choices of those who reject global capitalism seem far more reasonable, because the globalization of capital brings with it the economistic thinking that destroys local values, forcing us to choose between material. Secondly, it disadvantages a society that ought to be benefiting from what economists can tell us about the world. Stephen marglin is absolutely right that something is wrong with modern economics, particularly its treatment of communities of all kinds, including the family. Economists celebrate the market as a device for regulating human interaction without. This work, reflected in his book, the dismal science. The black sheep of harvard economics the harvard crimson. The hardcover of the growth, distribution, and prices by stephen a. It notes that conventional wisdom dates the end of the golden age by the first oil shock, opec i in 1973. Document guidelines for project evaluation, stephen a. Journal of economic literature, june 2009, volume xlvii. Economics is a social science with enormous potential for making a. This golden age of capitalism did not survive the economic traumas of the 1970s. Otherwise, however, the book is largely a grabbag of criticisms of economics and modernity. This chapter provides an overview of the historical and theoretical arguments of the book.
How thinking like an economist undermines community, by stephen a. How thinking like an economist undermines community is the title. In that book length essay, marglin argued that keyness central point about no selfregulating mechanism existing that could guarantee full employment has been distorted by mainstream keynesians to mean that the problem lies with the warts on the body of capitalism and not with capitalism itself. How thinking like an economist undermines community and growth, distribution, and prices. Economists celebrate the market as a device for regulating human interaction without acknowledging that their enthusiasm. For some twenty years after the second world war, keynesian economic policies in countries of the capitalist west were successful in generating rapid growth with high employment. Blending historical analysis with economic theory, this work presents essays that scrutinize the institutions that fostered this growth and high employment as well as the forces which later undermined the effectiveness of these institutions in the 1960s and 70s. Marglin has contributed to many aspects of economics over his long career. The extreme change in marglin s beliefs led some to believe that he had been a closet marxist at the time he was a candidate for tenure. They are the toxic consequences of pretensions that the modern western view of knowledge is a universal neutral view, applicable to all people at all times. Blending historical analysis with economic theory, this work presents essays that scrutinize the institutions that fostered this growth and high employment as well as the forces which later undermined the effectiveness of these institutions in the 1960s. Marglin, 9780198287414, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Why did harvard give tenure to some crank marxist moron.
The source and evolution of these ideas is ignored, as is the existence and status of competing theories. Marglin 59 is an infamous presence in the halls of his department. This book dissects the ways in which foundational assumptions of economics justify a world in which social connections are impoverished. Malcolm gillis, professor of economics, attributes this. Please note the image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,1100grams, isbn. The period after world war two, with its sustained growth and high employment rate, has been referred to as the golden age of capitalism. Stephen marglins the dismal science is a beautifully written and powerfully argued book that shows how the ideology of economics has justified and supported the trend towards selfishness and hyperindividualism in advanced societies. The extreme change in marglins beliefs led some to believe that he had been a closet marxist at the time he was a candidate for tenure. While much of my experience with economists is through econtalk thank you, i find most of your guests to be thoughtful on the human forces driving economics. Economics many failings, says the dismal science, are the product of its enlightenment origins.
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