Historians of economic thought are paying greater attention to issues of social ontology (that is, to the assumptions that economists make about the nature of social reality). In this paper, we contribute to this burgeoning literature by exploring the hitherto neglected way in which James...

Ronald Coase (1910-2013), who sadly died at the remarkable age of 102, made significant contributions to economics based on common sense and the detailed study of his topics. Coase was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1991 “for his discovery and clarification of the significance...

Although we generally teach economics as if markets formed a perfect system, in reality, there are many instances of partial and complete market failure in the real economy. Imperfections complicate models and analyses. Therefore, it is better to first introduce students to the model of the...

Most late 19th-century US economists gave a rather cool welcome to the Sherman Act (1890), but not to the Clayton and FTC Acts (1914). A large literature has identified several explanations for this attitude, calling into play the relation between big business and competition, a non-neoclassical...

This paper conducts a systematic comparison of behavioral economics’s challenges to the standard accounts of economic behaviors within three dimensions: under risk, over time and regarding other people. A new perspective on two underlying methodological issues, i.e., interdisciplinarity and...

The Sherman Act's distinction between "unilateral" and "concerted" action is particularly salient where intrabrand restraints are concerned. Minimum resale price maintenance that takes the form of concerted action is unlawful per se, while price maintenance that takes place within a single firm...

This paper uses George Soros' theory of boom--bust cycles to argue that mainstream economics, as built on Samuelson's Foundations, followed such a cyclical prototype. It underwent a reflexive, positive feedback pattern of development before 1980 followed by a reflexive, negative feedback pattern...

Milton Friedman is usually regarded as an instrumentalist on the basis of his infamous claim that economic theories are to be judged by their predictions and not by the realism of their assumptions. This interpretation sits oddly with Friedman's empirical work - e.g., Friedman and Schwartz''s...

Is economics a science or a theology? Nelson sensibly argues that economists are a priestly class; they issue authoritative (scientific) blessings upon the marketplace. The bishops of this class are the mathematicians, who convert ideology into science. This essay, in contrast, argues that...

Is economics a science or a theology? Nelson sensibly argues that economists are a priestly class; they issue authoritative (scientific) blessings upon the marketplace. The bishops of this class are the mathematicians, who convert ideology into science. This essay, in contrast, argues that...