The sciences tell us that fears are physical feelings and mental emotions that play a key role in any society. Not many issues related to fear are explored by economists today. The aim of this paper is to go backwards through the history of economic thought, and examine if and how Adam Smith...

Neoclassical economists of the current era frequently pay lip service to Adam Smith's theories to certify the validity of natural-laws-based, laissez-faire policies. However, neoclassical theories are fundamentally disconnected from Adam Smith's notion of value, his understanding of the economic...

A majority of people living in rural areas depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Investing in smallholder farming can be a sustainable way to revitalise agricultural production based on local and diverse food systems. Inclusive agricultural growth has the potential to reduce rural...

This paper presents a critical analysis of income and profit taxes in Brazil, demonstrating how measures adopted in the 1980s and 1990s, as a result of mainstream recommendations, hindered the redistributive role of taxes in the country. Investigation of tax data reveals a high degree of income...

This paper studies the link between television and divorce in Brazil by exploiting variation in the timing of availability of the signal of Rede Globo - the network that had a virtual monopoly on telenovelas in the country - across municipal areas. Using three rounds of Census data (1970, 1980...

Starting on 18 October 2019, Chile experienced the largest mass protests in its history. The movement was immensely broad in its demands and diverse in tactics and participants. The citizens' discontent went beyond solely one issue, addressing a more equal welfare system and social justice,...

Starting from the mid-nineteenth century, this paper analyzes two periods of financial instability connected with financial globalization. The first culminates with the 1929 crisis, while the second characterizes the more recent experience starting from the 1970s. The period in between is...

This paper argues that a hierarchy of ideals exists in market interactions that sets the benchmark on the norm of fairness associated with these interactions, thus affecting pricing decisions associated with market exchange. As norms emerge, an ideal determines the criteria of optimal behavior...

Orthodox and heterodox theories of financial crises are hereby compared from a theoretical viewpoint, with emphasis on their genesis. The former view (represented by the fourthgeneration models of Paul Krugman) reflects the neoclassical vision whereby turbulence is an exception; the latter...

A number of Marxist scholars have tied aspects of Marx's thought to certain Aristotelian categories, yet remarkably little is said of Marx's dialectical materialism in this literature. Here we attempt to lay a foundation for such an effort, paying particular attention to the way in which...