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Relatively little is known about the relationship between Carl Menger, founder of the Austrian school of economics, and his son, Karl Menger, the mathematician, geometer, logician, and philosopher of science, whose mathematical colloquium at the University of Vienna was essential for the development of mathematical economics. Based on Karl Menger’s diaries and correspondence, the present paper considers the development and struggles of the young Karl Menger, focusing on the years 1919–23, when Vienna was a vanquished city. We discuss the various relations within the Menger family and their significance for Karl Menger’s intellectual development. Additionally, we consider his acquaintances with economists such as Knut Wicksell, David Davidson, and Eli Heckscher as well as the younger Menger’s work in economics. We shed new light on his editorship of the second edition of his father’s Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre.
There are three different interpretations of Adam Smith's trade theory in modern literature: first, the neoclassical theory of absolute advantage; second, an interpretation based on increasing returns; third, an interpretation of uneven development. These interpretations come to widely different conclusions, especially considering the development of the pattern of trade in Smith's theory. I discuss how these three interpretations emerged. They do not stem from a more detailed analysis of Smith's works itself but reflect changes within international trade theory. They all result from the fact that economists have imposed nineteenth- and twentieth-century modes of thoughts on Smith's theory, forcing his writings into later-developed theoretical frameworks. In contrast to classical economists in the nineteenth century, these subsequent interpretations misrepresent Smith's trade theory in order to portray him as a forerunner of later theories. The differing interpretations can thus be explained only against the backdrop of the development of international trade theory.
This survey provides an overview of topics related to the history of economics that have been discussed within the last two years in journal articles. The survey format has been started by History of Economic Ideas last year with the survey by Giulia Bianchi (2016) and is aimed to increase the visibility of research in the history of economics. The emphasis of our survey is on the big three journals in the history of economics: the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, the Journal of the History of Economic Thought and History of Political Economy. We also included additional journals that frequently publish articles related to the history of economics. These include, in alphabetical order, the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Contributions to Political Economy, Economic Thought, the Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, History of Economic Thought and Policy, the History of Economics Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Economic Methodology, the Journal of Economic Perspectives, OE conomia, Oxford Economic Papers and Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology.
If war is an inevitable condition of human nature, as David Hume suggests, then what type of societies can best protect us from defeat and conquest? For David Hume, commerce decreases the relative cost of war and promotes technological military advances as well as martial spirit. Commerce therefore makes a country militarily stronger and better equipped to protect itself against attacks than any other kind of society. Hume does not assume commerce would yield a peaceful world nor that commercial societies would be militarily weak, as many contemporary scholars have argued. On the contrary, for him, military might is a beneficial consequence of commerce.
Is trade a promoter of peace? Adam Smith, one of the earliest defenders of trade, worries that commerce may instigate some perverse incentives, encouraging wars. The wealth that commerce generates decreases the relative cost of wars, increases the ability to finance wars through debts, which decreases their perceived cost, and increases the willingness of commercial interests to use wars to extend their markets, increasing the number and prolonging the length of wars. Smith, therefore, cannot assume that trade would yield a peaceful world. While defending and promoting trade, Smith warns us not to take peace for granted.
This thesis deals with two theories of international trade: the theory of comparative advantage, which is connected to the name David Ricardo and is dominating current trade theory, and Adam Smith’s theory of absolute advantage. Both theories are compared and their assumptions are scrutinised. The former theory is rejected on theoretical and empirical grounds in favour of the latter. On the basis of the theory of absolute advantage, developments of free international trade are examined, whereby the focus is on trade between industrial and underdeveloped countries. The main conclusions are that trade patterns are determined by absolute production cost advantages and that the gap between developed and poor countries is not reduced but rather increased by free trade.
Biosensors representing the technological counterpart of living senses have found routine application in amperometric enzyme electrodes for decentralized blood glucose measurement, interaction analysis by surface plasmon resonance in drug development, and to some extent DNA chips for expression analysis and enzyme polymorphisms. These technologies have already reached a highly advanced level and need minor improvement at most. The dream of the "100-dollar' personal genome may come true in the next few years provided that the technological hurdles of nanopore technology or of polymerase-based single molecule sequencing can be overcome. Tailor-made recognition elements for biosensors including membrane-bound enzymes and receptors will be prepared by cell-free protein synthesis. As alternatives for biological recognition elements, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have been created. They have the potential to substitute antibodies in biosensors and biochips for the measurement of low-molecular-weight substances, proteins, viruses, and living cells. They are more stable than proteins and can be produced in large amounts by chemical synthesis. Integration of nanomaterials, especially of graphene, could lead to new miniaturized biosensors with high sensitivity and ultrafast response. In the future individual therapy will include genetic profiling of isoenzymes and polymorphic forms of drug-metabolizing enzymes especially of the cytochrome P450 family. For defining the pharmacokinetics including the clearance of a given genotype enzyme electrodes will be a useful tool. For decentralized online patient control or the integration into everyday "consumables' such as drinking water, foods, hygienic articles, clothing, or for control of air conditioners in buildings and cars and swimming pools, a new generation of "autonomous' biosensors will emerge.