What Was “It” that Robbins Was Defining?

Experimental Economics: Contributions, Recent Developments, and New Challenges

A Brief History of Production Functions

LIONEL ROBBINS’S ESSAY ON THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE -

75TH ANNIVERSARY

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 have decided to mark this anniversary by a
conference and a special issue of the journal.

      The purpose of this conference is both 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.

      PAPER SUBMISSIONS/FURTHER INFORMATION:

      The conference will take place at LSE on the 10 & 11 December

      2007. Authors who wish to present a paper should send an

      abstract (no more than 300 words) be E-mail to:

      ec.robbins.conference@lse.ac.uk

      by 31st July 2007.

      Amos Witztum and Frank Cowell

      Conference organizers

The next HES Annual Conference will be held at York University, in Toronto, Canada,
27-30 June 2008. As details become available, they will be posted on the HES website http://historyofeconomics.org/

Building on its previous research in the history of econometrics, modelling and measurement in economics, the History and Methodology Group of the Faculty of Economics and Business at the UvA is starting a new project. A recently awarded innovational research grant (VIDI) from the Netherlands Science Foundation (NWO) will enable us to write a history of observational practices in economics. We invite applications for Two PhD positions in the History and Methodology of Economics at the Universiteit van Amsterdam

full time

vacancy number 07-5043

For both internal and external candidates

The project will investigate the observational technologies and practices economists use and used to identify their objects of study and to investigate their nature. The project will link these technologies and practices to three different sites of observation, each of which has its own particular history: the ‘armchair’, the ‘observatory’ and the ‘laboratory’. The PhD candidates will be expected to write a historical and comparative study on one of the last two mentioned sub-projects.

We ask:

The position is open to excellent students with a Master’s or equivalent in Economics, Cognitive Psychology or other social science, or in the History of the Sciences / Social Sciences. The students should have or be ready to acquire knowledge of historical and ethnographical methods of research.

We offer:

An inspiring international research environment. Our group maintains regular contacts with the Economic History Department and the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences at the LSE in London and at The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, and with the Economics Department at Duke University and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan in Paris.

More information

Inquiries about the project should be directed to Dr Harro Maas (email: h.b.j.b.maas@uva.nl, website http://www1.fee.uva.nl/pp/hmaas/). A brief description of the project is available by clicking on the PDF attachment below. An extensive description is available on request. For more information about the Amsterdam History and Methodology Group, see http://www.fee.uva.nl/hme/.

Appointment

The selected PhD candidates will be given full-time contracts for one year (starting 1 February 2008), which will be concluded by an evaluation. Upon positive outcomes, the contracts will be extended for a further three years. The students will be expected to complete their PhD theses by the end of their appointments. The gross monthly salary will range from €1,956 in the first year to €2,502 in the fourth year. The students will spend an extended period at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.

Job application

Candidates should submit a letter of interest, a curriculum vitae, a reflection on the sub-project of interest (max. 2000 words), a transcript of courses taken (including grades) and two letters of recommendation. Application packages should be sent to: Universiteit van Amsterdam, Personnel Department, attn J.J. Bast, Roetersstraat 11, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Applications may also be emailed to applications-feb@uva.nl. Please include the job reference number. The deadline for applications is 1 December 2007.

Attachments

A History of Observation in Economics, brief description http://www.uva.nl/vacatures/object.cfm/objectid=EB2B351A-1321-B0BE-68D5B71BD2B658DC/download=true

history of observation, brief description.pdf/ 19 KB

Refer to

History and Methodology Group http://www.fee.uva.nl/hme/

Salary scales Collective Employment Agreement (CAO-VSNU) (Dutch language) http://www.vsnu.nl/web/show/id=44822/langid=43

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 College

ESHET Young Scholars Seminar
The European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET) invites four young scholars (i.e. those who are working on, or have just completed a PhD, regardless of their age) to present their work at the Young Scholars Seminar to be held during the ESHET Conference in Prague, May 15-17, 2008 . The Society will provide for board, accommodation, registration fees and travel expenses up to €200. Each young scholar will have 30 minutes to present his/her paper and a senior scholar, appointed by the ESHET Council, will discuss it.

Papers may be on any topic relevant to the history of economics, and are not restricted to the conference theme.

Candidates should E-mail a paper no longer than 9000 words to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the ESHET council, Professors Ragip Ege and Harald Hagemann (ege@cournot.u-strasbg.fr and hagemann@uni-hohenheim.de), by February 28, 2008. (When submitting, ask for an acknowledgement, and follow up if you do not receive one. Last year a submission failed to arrive, and the judges had no way of knowing it was missing.) The results of the selection process will be communicated to the candidates by March 31, 2008.

Papers that have not been selected will be considered for presentation at other conference sessions. The ESHET encourages as many young scholars as possible to participate at the conference.- the limitation of four awards is dictated by financial considerations.

A one-year ESHET membership is offered to all young scholars who submit a paper.

Tony Brewer (A.Brewer@bris.ac.uk) ESHET secretary

Call for Papers

The 12th Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET) will be held at the University of Economics, Prague (Czech Republic), 15th - 17th May, 2008.

The special theme of this year’s conference is Development and Transition in the History of Economic Thought. (Proposals for papers or sessions on all other aspects of the history of economic thought are also welcome.)

An abstract of no more than 200 words for a paper, or no more than 500 words for a session should be submitted before December 15 2007. To submit an abstract register at the conference website ( http://www.eshet.net/conference/2008 ) and follow the instructions.

Theme: the processes of transition which Central and Eastern European and other countries have been involved in for several years have generated a mixed record of success and failure. Why did some economies do better than others? What are the reasons for continuing stagnation in some countries and quick recovery and growth in others? What can we learn from the history of thinking about economic development, a subject whose beginnings go back to the beginnings of political economy? What can be learned from writers like Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Friedrich List and others?

Topics for discussion could include:

Stages theories of economic development
Contributions to the problem of development and transition by single scholars or entire schools of thought
Early debates on human and social capital, and education
Capital accumulation and structural change
The relationship between economic and other determinants of development and growth
Development and transition and the ‘Social Question’
Considerations on development and transition reflecting the experience of different countries or regions

A selection of papers on this theme given at the Conference will be published in a conference volume.

Tony Brewer (A.Brewer@bris.ac.uk) ESHET secretary

Subjective Measures of Well-Being and the Science of Happiness: Historical origins and philosophical foundations Date: February 2-3, 2008 Website: <http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~angner/swb.html>

Workshop organized by the Department of Philosophy and the Center for Ethics

and Values in the Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham

INTRODUCTION

Subjective measures of well-being ­ that is, measures based on answers to

questions like: “Taking things all together, how would you say things are

these days?” ­ emerged in the study of marital happiness and educational

psychology shortly after WWI, and have since been used for a variety of

purposes by psychologists, psychiatrists, gerontologists, economists, and

other social and behavioral scientists.

By now, these measures have inspired a sizeable body of work ­ sometimes

referred to as “eupathics,” “the science of happiness,” or “positive

psychology” ­ that aspires to shed light on the determinants and

distribution of happiness, satisfaction, and other “positive” mental states.

As of late, proponents of subjective measures have argued that subjective

measures of well-being should be used as a guide for public policy and that

governments, to this end, should establish so-called National Well-Being

Accounts, designed to track the dynamics of well-being in the population.

CALL FOR PAPERS

In spite of psychologists’ inroads into what has traditionally been regarded

as philosophical territory, this body of work has only recently attracted

the attention of historians and philosophers of science. Given that the

empirical literature raises a host of interesting issues, this is fertile

territory for further work. The aim of this workshop is to shed light on the

historical origins and philosophical foundations of subjective measures of

well-being in particular and the science of happiness / positive psychology

in general.

Goals include to trace the historical roots of the psychologists’ efforts;

to explore various foundational assumptions that go into the enterprise and

to assess their relative plausibility; to examine the manner in which

philosophical analysis (whether inspired by ethics, political philosophy,

the philosophy of science, or other branches of philosophy) can inform

empirical work; and to investigate how empirical results might feed into

philosophical argument.

Philosophers, historians, psychologists, economists, and others who might be

interested in participating are invited to submit complete papers

electronically or in hard copy to the organizer (see contact information

below) before December 1, 2007. The number of slots is very limited. Papers

that are firmly grounded in the empirical literature are strongly preferred.

In order to maximize the amount of discussion, presentations will be

relatively short. Instead, accepted papers will be circulated ahead of time.

Presenters will be offered a limited amount of funding to help offset the

costs of their participation in the workshop.

Deadline for submission: December 1, 2007

Notification of accepted papers: December 15, 2007

Workshop: February 2-3, 2008

CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS

Anna Alexandrova, University of Missouri­St Louis

Erik Angner, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Dan Haybron, Saint Louis University

Don Ross, University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Cape Town

Valerie Tiberius, University of Minnesota

CONTACT INFORMATION

Erik Angner

Dept. of Philosophy and Dept. of Finance, Economics and Quantitative Methods

University of Alabama at Birmingham

1530 3rd Avenue South, HB414A

Birmingham, AL 35294-1260, USA

Phone: +1 205 934 4805

Fax: +1 205 975 6610

E-mail: <angner@uab.edu>