For long, economics and sociology have been exploring rationality and decision-making with analytical tools of their own. This paper aims at comparing Keynes’s theories with Bourdieu’s in this regard. It hinges around three headings, namely: 1) a spontaneous, embodied view on action; 2) the...

This paper reviews the question of cycles in the Marxist theory from the methodological indications given by Marx in the first book of the Capital. It expounds on the properties of a nonlinear dynamic model of accumulation of capital which analyses the interactions between the rate of...

Keynes’ rationale in Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren uses three pivotal themes: economic growth, man’s occupation and the love of money. Interpretations either focus on one specific theme, or disregard parts of the rationale. We consider the rationale as a whole and show that...

Character is commonly recognised as a crucial notion in Alfred Marshall’s thought, and more broadly in Victorian thought. However, this concept is never intrinsically defined. This paper offers an intellectual reconstruction of the notion of character in Marshall’s thought. While not denying...

The paper tries to clarify the status of the market in Social Choice and Individual Values. It shows how Arrow at first intended to propose a third theorem of welfare economics (Feldman [1991]), which would show that the market achieves not only Pareto-optimality, but also equitable social...

The population matter in Jean-Baptiste Say’s work is not a subject traditionally covered by secondary literature. The limited existing works, which consist of general studies on the question, only refer to some theoretical elements of Say’s theory. No approach actually examines how Say’s...

The monetary policy regime of inflation targeting was born in 1989 in New Zealand. Inflation targeting has now become the mainstream view in the literature, it has been adopted by more than 25 countries and it is the norm of the International Monetary Fund. Conventional wisdom sees the origins...

This paper sheds light on economic policy discussions in the early 1960s about whether there is an optimal level of demand to maximise the rate of growth. This discussion was influenced by the Cold War, which urged policy makers particularly in the USA to achieve higher rates of growth than the...

In The Trade Cycle, Roy Harrod [1936a] propounded the Law of Diminishing Elasticity of Demand. The present paper tries to clarify the precise role Harrod assigned to this law in his The Trade Cycle Theory. We discuss the micro and macro foundations of the Law of Diminishing Elasticity of Demand...

Schumpeter’s business cycle and growth theory encompasses two distinct types of superposition. The first one is well known from its graphical representation provided in Schumpeter’s Business Cycles [1939], namely the superposition of different waves or cycles of varying magnitude. There...