Independent authorities have a number of advantages compared to politically dependent institutions, namely because of their superior specific qualification and performace, long-run incentive structure, influence of interest groups being less effective, and other reasons. Concerns are often...

Das Papier zeigt zunächst mögliche Gründe und Ursachen für die Errichtung und die Bewahrung unabhängiger Institutionen in demokratischen Rechtsstaaten auf. Danach werden formelle und behavioralistische Kriterien benannt, anhand derer der Grad der Unabhängigkeit auf einem Kontinuum zwischen...

Paul Samuelson's famous 1948 "factor price equalization theorem" was his main contribution to international trade theory. He demonstrated conditions under which trade in goods only would lead to full equalization of the remuneration of productive factors across countries. In practice, general...

This paper discusses the similarities and differences in the plurality of practices regarding the use of interviews by historians of economics - i.e., either the use of someone else's interviews as sources or the use of interviews conducted by the historian for her or his work.

In the 1970s and early 1980s Paul Samuelson reformulated the conditional prediction made by Joseph Schumpeter in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by replacing socialism with populism. According to Samuelson, "populist democracy" had attained its fullest development in the Southern Cone. He...

In the paper, Edwin B. Wilson's influence on the rise of mathematical economics in America between the 1920s and 1940s is explored. The focus is laid on showing how on the grounds of his foundational ideas about science Wilson worked at the organizational and educational fronts to modernize...

Economic History and the History of Economic Thought haven been relegated increasingly from the teaching and research curricula of economics in recent years. The paper starts off arguing that this trend is due to the mechanistic ontology of mainstream economics, and it continues setting out an...

Die Begriffe Wohlfahrt und Wohlstand werden in ihrem dogmenhistorischen Entstehungskontext untersucht. Dabei wird zum einen der Schwerpunkt auf die von den Physiokraten, aber auch von John Stuart Mill, W. Stanley Jevons und sogar von deutschen Ordoliberalen thematisierten Wachstumsgrenzen gelegt...

Economics was traditionally viewed as part of a wider study of human things, including ethics. It has drifted away from ethics despite the fact that ethical considerations inevitably form part of economics. After a brief introduction, the second section outlines the state of play in the...

The theory and practice of stabilization policy has taken many turns as it evolved over the past century, oscillating between high hopes and deep skepticism regarding the capacity - and desirability - of governments taking responsibility for macroeconomic stability. This paper reviews the...