There are two elements which make Smith's ethics unique as well as more universal in nature. The first is that it is a positive theory of ethics in the sense that it is not about what is intrinsically good or just as it is about the way in which people form their opinion about it. The second is...

Obituaries are traditionally seen as expressions of grief and remembrance. We argue that they also have an underappreciated economic role: they are vehicles for strategic social and economic signaling. In this paper, we develop a simple theoretical framework in which paid obituaries serve as a...

Leszek Jasiński [2019] attempts, as the title indicates, "a reading after half a century" of Michał Kalecki's thought. We dispute the main claim in the book, i.e. that Kalecki has a firm place in contemporary mainstream economics and was the originator of many ideas generally accepted today....

This essay provides the first comparison of the political economic thought of Sadie T.M. Alexander and Abram Harris Jr., the first Black American economists, through an analysis of Alexander’s dissertation and Harris’ master’s thesis. Alexander and Harris studied the Great Migration of...

This Discussion Paper examines Friedrich Hayek's visits to Brazil during the military dictatorship, contrasting them with his experiences in Chile and Argentina. Using primary sources, including letters and newspaper records, we reconstruct Hayek's activities in Brazil and analyze the cold...

Ever since the first edition of Economic Theory in Retrospect, written by Mark Blaug and published in 1962, the distinction between 'rational reconstruction' and 'historical reconstruction' has been a central topic of debate regarding theory vs. methodology within the field of History of...

This year we celebrate 130 years since the birth of Victor Slăvescu, one of the most prominent Romanian economists. His various activity took place over a period of time marked by a succession of exceptional events: two world wars, the Great Union of 1918, the interwar period and the beginning...

The paper serves as an introduction to the RuJE special issue on the circulation of economic ideas between Russia and the West. This circulation is a contentious issue, especially among Russian economists. In this article a specific pattern of West-Russia-West transfer is investigated. The...

Mikhail Tugan‑Baranovsky was one of the most prolific Russian economists at the turn of the 19–20th centuries. His thought was largely influenced by Western ideas, like most of his fellow Russian economists. But Tugan‑Baranovsky’s theories in turn also influenced Western economic thought...