Adam Smith Lives!

HOPE conference announcement

The annual /History of Political Economy/ Conference -- this year on the topic "Robert Solow and the Development of Growth Economics" -- will be held 25-27 April 2008 at Duke University.  Further information, including the tentative program, can be found on the Duke History of Economy Group website (http://econ.duke.edu/HOPE), following the links to HOPE Conferences and then to the 2008 conference or, directly, to the HOPE 2008 website
http://econ.duke.edu/HOPE/HOPEconference2008OpenAccess/HOPE2008master.htm

Mauro Boianovsky <mboianovsky@gmail.com>
Kevin Hoover <kd.hoover@duke.edu>
    Organizers

Conferences in the History of Economics

3 conference announcements of interest to historians of economics have come in recently:

1  )from Steve Medema) The 40th annual UK History of Economic Thought
Conference will be held at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, over 3-5 September,
2008. The conference will retain its traditional intimate format, with substantial
time devoted to the presentation and discussion of each of the papers.
Papers on all aspects of the history of economics and economic thought
are welcome. Those wishing to present a paper at the conference should
send an abstract of five hundred words to the conference organizer,
Professor Steven Medema, by email at steven.medema@cudenver.edu or via
the post to Department of Economics, CB 181, University of Colorado
Denver, Denver, CO 80217-3364, USA. The deadline for receipt of
proposals is April 1, 2008, and decisions will be made by April 15,
2008. Further information about the conference will be made available in
the coming months.
___________

2  (from David Teira Serrano) XI Summer School on Economics and Philosophy: SOCIAL NORMS

San Sebastian (Spain), 14-17 July 2008;   Director: Cristina Bicchieri (UPenn)
Coordinators: Alfonso Dubois (UPV), David Teira & Jesús Zamora (UNED)

Preliminary list of speakers: Jason Alexander (LSE), Daniel Andler (Paris
IV-ENS), Cristina Bicchieri (UPenn), Pablo Brañas (Ugr), Jordi Brandts
(CSIC), Cristiano Castelfranchi (ISTC-  CNR), Jason Dana (UPenn), Jon
Elster (College de France), Diego Gambetta (Oxford), Herbert Gintis
(UMass), Russell Hardin (NYU), Shaun Nichols (U. Arizona), Edna
Ullmann-Margalit (Tel-Aviv)

Since 1998 the Urrutia Elejalde has annually organized a Summer School on
frontier topics between philosophy,  economics and other social sciences,
bringing together scholars from all these fields to explore them. The aim
of this year Summer School is to introduce participants to the vast
research that is taking place in the area of  social norms. >From
philosophy and psychology to evolutionary game theory and experimental
economics, recent work on social norms is shedding light on why and under
what circumstances people engage in pro-social behavior, and how norms may
emerge, stabilize or decay.

We encourage submission of papers that cover one or more of the above
areas. The scientific committee will consider a number of submissions by
young scholars at graduate or postgraduate level. The Foundation will
cover the registration fees and accomodation expenses of the authors.

Please send a 2000 words pdf abstract to David Teira (dteira [at]
fsof.uned.es) before Jan 31st 2008. A decision will be made by March 15th.

For further information on the School, visit:
http://www.urrutiaelejalde.org/SummerSchool/2008.html
___________
 
3  (from Pedro Duarte)  The New Zealand Association of Economists and the Econometric Society will hold
a symposium (in New Zealand, July 2008) on the Phillips Curve. The selected
papers will be published in the North American Journal of Economics and
Finance. Although the main concern of the symposium is with "the estimation,
inference, and policy implications of the Phillips Curve, and its place in
macroeconomic analysis," the 50th anniversary of Phillips' original article
opens up the possibility that some historian of economics participate in the
symposium and reach a broader audience of macroeconomists. For more details on
this symposium, please visit:

http://www.phillips08.org.nz/

Nature and Significance: Robbins at 75

The Robbins conference website is now set to go! 
http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/_new/events/lionelrobbins/conferenceprogramme.asp

Lionel Robbins, Nature and Significance of Economic Science

Readers know that I studied with Sam Hollander.  Perhaps because of this, I have long felt that Sam's teacher, Lionel Robbins, deserves more recognition than he has been given by the profession.  So I am very pleased that N&S is now 75 years old; we can use the occasion to celebrate Robbins and to sort out just what he said that was so important. Frank Cowell and Amos Witztum have sent the HES list this announcement of the upcoming Robbins conference at the London School of Economics.   

A Conference on

The Nature And Significance of Economic Science

75th Anniversary of Lionel Robbins’s Essay. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Lionel Robbins’s Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. The Department of Economics at LSE and the editors of Economica are marking the event by a conference and a special issue of the journal. The purpose of this conference is to renew the considerations of Robbins’s theme and reflect on the current nature and significance of economic science as well as examine Robbins’s own position from a historical perspective.

Speakers include: Tony Atkinson, Ken Binmore, Lawrence Blume, RichardLipsey and Robert Sugden

The Conference will take place at LSE on 10-11 December 2007.

There are no conference fees. Participation includes luncheon on bothdays of the conference and a conference dinner on Monday, 10/12.However, there are a limited number of places and registration is on the basis of first come first served.

You can obtain your registration form and examine the programme of the conference at:

http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/_new/events/lionelrobbins/

HES line up for Allied Social Sciences Association annual meeting

Perry Mehrling has lined up a terrific set of sessions for the ASSAs.  If you're going, check these out.  The ASSAs allocate sessions and pay attention to attendance (someone counts!) so we need a good turn out for all.  Last year, there were people standing in the doorway and sitting on the floor for the HES session on Chicago-style economics! 

Also (another reminder later):  the HES will host a reception for those interested in talking about teaching or research in the history of economic ideas.  Friday.  6:30-8:3 p.m.  Room tba. Plan to attend and meet up with some like-minded types.
_______________
The History of Economics Society is sponsoring the following sessions at the 2008 ASSA meetings in New Orleans.
Jan. 4, 10:15 am
HES/AFA

What Was/Is Financial Economics? (B2)

Presiding: STEPHEN BUSER, Ohio State University

GEOFFREY POITRAS, Simon Fraser University, and FRANCK JOVANOVIC, University of Quebec-Montreal--Pioneers of Financial Economics

HICHEM BEN-EL-MECHAIEKH and ROBERT DIMAND, Brock University--Louis Bachelier's 1938 Volume on the Calculus of Speculation: Efficient Markets and Mathematical Finance in Bachelier's Later Work

PETER BERNSTEIN, Peter L. Bernstein, Inc.--In the Thick of This World: The True Story of Modern Finance

PERRY MEHRLING, Barnard College, Columbia University--The Spirit of Finance and the Development of Macroeconomics


Jan. 4, 12:30 pm
HES

Keeping the Faith: The Continuing Engagement of Economics with Religion (B1)

Presiding: SPENCER BANZHAF, Georgia State University

STEPHEN MEARDON, Bowling Green State University--Whence Commerce Followed the Missionary: Religions Origins of Doctrines of U.S. Trade and Expansion

HARRO MAAS, Amsterdam School of Economics--A Hard Battle to Fight: The Dismal Science in Cambridge 1820-1850

DANIELA PARISI, Catholic University of Milan--Economics to the Service of Humankind: The Political Economy of Francesco Vito

Discussants: BRAD BATEMAN, Grinnell College
PAUL OSLINGTON, University of New South Wales
SPENCER BANZHAF, Georgia State University


Jan. 5, 10:15 am
HES/AFEE

Thorstein Veblen at 150: Rethinking a Survivor (B1)

Presiding: ANNE MAYHEW, University of Tennessee

MATTHEW WILSON, University of Denver--Veblen on Veblen: Social Critic, Evolutionary Scientist, or Both?

ROBERT PRASCH, Middlebury College--Thorstein Veblen's Theory of Consumption

ERIC HAKE, Eastern Illinois University--Thorstein Veblen's Theory of Business Enterprise, Business Cycles, and Industrial Organization

Discussants: MALCOLM RUTHERFORD, University of British Columbia
JANET KNOEDLER, Bucknell University


Jan. 5, 2:30 pm
HES

Rawls and the Economists (B3)

Presiding: SANDRA PEART, University of Richmond

SANDRA PEART, University of Richmond, and DAVID LEVY, George Mason University--The Buchanan-Rawls Correspondence

JOHN DAVIS, Marquette University and University of Amsterdam--Rawls and Sen on Deliberative Democracy

JOE PERSKY, University of Illinois-Chicago--Rawls' Thin Defense of Property

Discussants: STEVEN DURLAUF, University of Wisconsin
DAVID COLANDER, Middlebury Coll

website for European Conference on HE

http://www.econ-pol.unisi.it/eche07/

European Conference on the History of Economics

The program for the ECHE conference, to be held at the Certosa di Pontignano, Siena
   (Italy), on 4-6 October, is below. 


   -----------------------------
   Thursday, 4 October

   7.00 pm Registrati=n

   8.00 pm Welcome Dinner

   Friday, 5 October

   9.00 am Welcome

   9.15 am Opening Lecture
   Hilbert and the Axiomatic Approach: Its Background and Development    Leo Corry (Tel-Aviv University)

   10.15 am Coffee/tea break

   10.45 am
   Gerard Debreu: from Nicolas Bourbaki to Adam Smith. A phenomenology of
   becoming an economist
   Till Duppe (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
   Discussant: Bruna Ingrao (University of Rome, La Sapienza)

   11.45 am
   Schelling's non-axiomatics
   Alessandro Innocenti (University of Siena)
   Discussant: Philippe Fontaine (ENS Cachan)

   1.00 pm Lunch

   2.30 pm
   On Robert Remak's Superposed Price Systems: Before Axiomatization<=r>
   Harald Hageman (Univ. of Hohenheim) and Lionello F. Punzo (Univ. of Siena)
   Discussant: Ivan Moscati (Bocconi University, Milan)

   3.30 pm   Ragnar Frisch's Axiomatic Approach in Econometrics
   Olav Bjerkholt (University of Oslo) and Ariane Dupont (INRETS, Paris)
   Discussant: Lionello Punzo (Univers=ty of Siena)

   4.30 pm Coffee/tea break

   5.00 pm
   Dynamics  versus  axiomatisation:  the  case of the Italian Paretian
   Mario Pomini (University of Padua) and
   Gianfranco Tusset (University of Padua)
   Discussant: Massimo Di Matteo (University of Siena)

   8.00 pm Conference Dinner

   Saturday, 6 October

   9.15 am
   A  Pioneering  Argument for the Axiomatic Method Revealed in Whatelyâ&#65533;&#65533;s
   Economics
   Chikakazu Tadakoshi (Yokohama City University)
   Discussant:    Jose   Luis   Cardoso   (Technical University of Lisbon)

   10.15 am
   Robbins's Essay and the axiomatisation of economics
   Roger Backhouse (Univ. of Birmingham) and Steve Medema (Univ. of Colorado at
   Denver)
   Discussant: Annalisa Rosselli (University of Rome, Tor Vergata)

   11.15 am Coffee/tea break

   11.45 am
   The  significance  of  modelling  in  Economics for the development of
   Mathematics: The minimax-, the duality-, and the Kuhn-Tucker theorem
   Tinne Hoff Kjeldsen (Roskilde University)
   Discussant: Nicola Giocoli (University of Pisa)

   1.00 pm Lunch

   2.30 pm
   Axiomatization, Immunization, and Convention in Economics
   Arnis Vilks (Leipzig Graduate School of Management)
   Discussant: Marco Dardi (University=f Florence)

   4.30 pm Visit to Siena

History of Economics alive and well at ASSAs

I've been to general conferences in Economics where the History of Economics sessions had no more people in the audience than giving presentations.  Not so, at this year's ASSAs, where the HES sessions were organized by the 2005-6 HES VP, Jerry Evensky.  I was able to attend 2 of the 4 HES sponsored sessions.  (One took place before I arrived, given I opted to spend the extra night at home with my family.  An HES executive mtg kept me away from the Friday afternoon session, on "Adam Smith as Theologian".)  By all accounts both were wonderful; I heard there were over 60 people at the Robbins session.

The two sessions I DID take part in were, I thought, terrific.  At the session entitled, "Chicago Economics in Historical and Philosophical Perspective", it was standing room only.  I counted:  all seats taken (40), 10 standing, one sitting on the floor, 4 presenters and the session chair.  56.  I was told there were people standing outside the room as well, listening.  Then, a session late in the afternoon on Saturday, "Great Ideas for teaching the HET" was attended by another 40 people. 

For the first time, as well, the Society sponsored a reception.  We weren't sure what to expect, though we did send out letters of invitations to people who might attend.  The experiment was a huge success:  a great mix of the regular HES-ers and, just as important, new people who wanted to check out the conversations (and the free food and drink!).

I don't think there's any doubt that the society on the move.  More thoughts on that before long.

Summer Institute scholar wins essay prize

Even for a Canadian who can't vote, it's hard to think about much besides the upcoming election.  But some good news has arrived for those of us who have been part of the Summer Institute for the Preservation of the History of Economics.  One of the participants this summer was Huei Chun Su, who gave a fascinating talk on Hayek and Mill on liberty and social justice.  You can see the paper at the Summer Institute's website (thanks to Lisa Hill-Corley for her work to put the papers up!).  Su then submitted the paper to Don Lavoie Memorial contest run by the Society for Development of Austrian Economics (SDAE).  Her paper won! 

With Su's permission I paste in her message to me below so you can see the influence of the small but strong Summer Institute, which tries to support young scholars in the field.  The SI is supported in the main by a grant from the Earhart Foundation.  The History of Economics Society provides additional support for students, as does George Mason University's Department of Economics.

Dear Sandy,

How are you doing? I hope this email finds you well. 

I got good news to share with you. Last month, I entried the Don Lavoie Memorial Essay Competition held by SDAE with the revised version of the paper I presented in the SI. Few days ago, I was informed that I won the prize. Now I am planning the trip to the annual meeting this Novermber to present my paper.

 

I would like to thank you for your support and encouragement. As I said in the SI, your paper on Mill and Hayek gave me the inspiration to put an issue I have been always interetsed in a way I had not thought. And your support for the trip was the main reason to push me write down this article. And of course, the feedback of the audience is also unforgettable. So, if this prize is a kind of achievement, I would like to share this honour with you.

 

Best regards,

Su

Storep

Claudia Sunna has kindly sent pictures from the Storep conference in Lecce, taken at the 7 course dinner provided by the conference organizers!