Frank Jan de Graaf argues that the domination of neoclassical economic thinking in academia has contributed to the economic crisis and hindered thinking about sustainable development. Currently, ethics is re-entering the debate about how to develop prosperous open societies. A group of NGOs...

Ever since the dire predictions of The Limits to Growth (Meadows & al. 1972) failed to come true on time, it's been all too easy to ridicule environmentally-based arguments against economic growth as pessimistic and "Malthusian." In contrast, this paper accepts, for the sake of argument, the...

Amidst the economists that are concerned about the method, it is common to make reference on the subject of a new economic methodology. It was from the deception and the abandon of the search toward a unique criterion to give scientific status to research programmes that this new movement came...

This article, presented to the Annual Conference of the History of Economics Society, Vancouver July 1996, gives a historical analysis of the origins of the general equilibrium or comparative static approach and demonstrates that economic thought as a whole is divided, in each of its schools of...

In this paper we have presented arguments for simplicity as epistemological criterion of economic research. In particular, have been important aspects that show how the tradition of the theory, to make principle simplicity to represent many empirical data of experience or information, was one of...

All that has been proven to be thorough from the previous strains of thought has been continuously polished and integrated in what we call the dominant economic theory. Yet, there have been countless debates and contradictions regarding the economic ideas in mainstream (which includes classical...

Milton Friedman’s “The Methodology of Positive Economies” is still one of the most widely read pieces on economic methodology. One reason for this might be Friedman’s attractive proposal that economists use theories and hypotheses as pragmatic devices to summarize data and make...

Ivan Pososhkov (1652-1726) is the author of the first systematic economic treatise in Russia. His works are interesting due to three reasons at least. Firstly, it is worth-introducing some original non-European authors, who are often underestimated, in order to determine their specific features...

In this paper, I will try to address some criticism to Bruno Leoni’s general theory of law and society. In his well known book Freedom and the Law (1961) –in the opinion of some Italian scholars, to be considered a libertarian Manifesto–, he stressed at least five main points: i)...

Ce rapport fournit un diagnostic sur la relative fragilité du positionnement de la France dans l'économie du savoir et propose des recommandations pour le consolider. Il montre qu'au-delà des secteurs de haute technologie, tous les acteurs économiques et sociaux sont concernés par la...