Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T07:11:13.116Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What is Economic Action? From Marshall and Robbins to Polanyi and Becker

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Elias L. Khalil
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the past three decades economics has entered a new phase in its development. The new stage did not involve a revolutionary change of basic tools as occurred with the triumph of neoclassical economics at the turn of the twentieth century and Keynesian economics in the post World War II era. Rather the recent mutation involves the introduction of economic tools of analysis into areas which have traditionally been part of contiguous disciplines. The invasion of economics came to be referred to, even by its enthusiasts (e.g., Stigler 1984; Radnitzky and Bernholz 1986), as “economics imperialism.”

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , Spring 1996 , pp. 13 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, Elizabeth. 1993. Value in Ethics and Economics, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Axelrod, Robert. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation, Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1968. “Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach,” Journal of Political Economy, 76, March, 169–217.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1976a. The Economic Approach to Human Behavior, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1976b. “Altruism, Egoism, and Genetic Fitness: Economics and Sociobiology,” Journal of Economic Literature, 4, September, 817–26.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S. 1991. A Treatise on the Family, enlarged edition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Duran. 1991. “Modes of Exchange: Gift and Commodity,” Journal of Socio-Economics, 20, Summer, 155–67.Google Scholar
Bohannan, Paul. 1955. “Some Principles of Exchange and Investment Among the Tiv,” American Anthropologist, 57, 60–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohannan, Paul. and Dalton, G. (eds.). 1962. Markets in Africa, Northwest University Press, Evanston.Google Scholar
Borch, K. 1968. The Economics of Uncertainty, Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Boulding, Kenneth E. 1981. A Preface to Grant's Economics: The Economy of Love and Fear, Praeger, New York.Google Scholar
Boulding, Kenneth E. 1989. Three Faces of Power, Sage, Newbury Park.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James and Gordon, Tullock. 1962. The Calculus of Consent, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Burling, Robbins. 1962. “Maximization Theories and the Study of Economic Anthropology,” American Anthropologist, 64, 802–21.Google Scholar
Charnov, Eric L. 1976. “Optimal Foraging, the Marginal Value Theorem,” Theoretical Population Biology, 9, 129–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coase, Ronald. 1978. “Economics and Contiguous Disciplines,” Journal of Legal Studies, 7, June, 201–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, James. 1990. Foundations of Social Theory, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Collard, David A. 1991. “Love is not Enough,” in Tulip Meeks, J. Gay, ed., Thoughtful Economic Man: Essays on Rationality, Moral Rules and Benevolence, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 17–28.Google Scholar
Cook, Scott. 1966. “The Obsolete Anti-market Mentality: A Critique of the Substantive Approach to Economic Anthropology,” American Anthropologist, 63, 1–25.Google Scholar
Cook, Scott. 1974. “Structural Substantivism: A Critical Review of Marshall Sahlins' Stone Age Economics,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 16, 355–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, George. 1961. “Economic Theory and Primitive Society,” American Anthropologist, 63, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demetz, Harold. 1967. “Toward a Theory of Property Rights,” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 57, May, 347–59.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1984. Ulysses and the Sirens: Studies in Rationality and Irrationality, revised edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Etzioni, Amitai. 1988. The Moral Dimension: Toward a New Economics, Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Evensky, Jerry. 1992. “The Role of Community Values in Modern Classical Liberal Economic Thought,” Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 39, February, 21–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Firth, Raymond. 1959. Economics of the New Zealand Maori, R.E. Owen, Government Printer, Wellington, New Zealand.Google Scholar
Frank, Robert H. 1987. “If Homo Economicus Could Choose His Own Utility Function, Would He Want One with a Conscience?” American Economic Review, 77, September, 593–604.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. 1976. Price Theory: A Provisional Text, Aldine, Chicago.Google Scholar
Fudenberg, Drew and Eric, Maskin. 1986. “The Folk Theorem in Repeated Games with Discounting or with Incomplete Information,” Econometrica, 54, 533–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Georgescu-Roegen, Nicholas. 1973. “Utility and Value in Economic Thought,” in Wiener, Philip P., ed., Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas, 4, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 450–58.Google Scholar
Granovetter, Mark. 1985. “Economic Action and Social Structure: A Theory of Embeddedness,” American Journal of Sociology, 91, November, 481–510.Google Scholar
Gray, Robert F. 1960. “Sonjo Bride-Price and the Question of African ‘Wife Purchase,’” American Anthropologist, 62, 34–57.Google Scholar
Gregory, C.A. 1982. Gifts and Commodities, Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Herskovits, Melville J. 1952. Economic Anthropology, Alfred Knopf, New York.Google Scholar
Hirshleifer, Jack. 1985. “The Expanding Domain of Economics,” American Economic Review, special issue, 75, December, 53–68.Google Scholar
Keyes, Charles F. 1983. “Economic Action and Buddhist Morality in a Thai Village,” Journal of Asian Studies, 42, August, 851–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khalil, Elias L. 1989. “Adam Smith and Albert Einstein: The Aesthetic Principle of Truth,” History of Economics Society Bulletin, 11, Fall, 222–37.Google Scholar
Khalil, Elias L. 1995a. “On the Scope of Economics: What is the Question?” Finnish Economic Papers, 8, Spring, 40–55.Google Scholar
Khalil, Elias L. 1995b. “The Socioculturalist Agenda in Economics: Critical Remarks of Thorstein Veblen's Legacy,” Journal of Socio-Economics, 24, Winter, 545–69.Google Scholar
Klein, Benjamin and Keith, Leffler. 1981. “The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance,” Journal of Political Economy, 89, 615–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Frank. 1952. “Anthropology and Economics,” in Herskovits, Melville J., Economic Anthropology, Alfred Knopf, New York.Google Scholar
Landes, W. and Richard, Posner. 1978. “Salvors, Finders, Good Samaritans, and Other Resources: An Economic Study of Law and Altruism,” Journal of Legal Studies, 7, 83–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, Lynn. 1986. “Hegel and the Ethics of Marriage,” Social Concept, 3, June, 27–39.Google Scholar
Lodewijks, John. 1994. “Anthropologists and Economists: Conflict or Cooperation,” Journal of Economic Methodology, 1, June, 81–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacArthur, Robert H. and E.R., Pianka. 1966. “On the Optimal Use of a Patchy Environment,” American Naturalist, 100, 603–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macauly, J. and Berkowitz, L., eds. 1970. Altruism and Helping Behavior, Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Marshall, Alfred. 1920. Principles of Economics, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Mauss, M. 1974. The Gift, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Mayhew, Anne. 1987. “Culture: Core Concept Under Attack,” Journal of Economic Issues, 21, June, 587–603.Google Scholar
Milgrom, Paul R., North, Douglass C., and Weingast, Barry R.. 1990. “The Role of Institutions in the Revival of Trade: The Law Merchant, Private Judges, and the Champagne Fairs,” Economics and Politics, 2, March, 1–23.Google Scholar
Neale, Walter C. 1987. “Institutions,” Journal of Economic Issues, 21, September, 1177–1206.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C. 1977. “Markets and Other Allocation Systems in History: The Challenge of Karl Polanyi,” Journal of European Economic History, 6, Winter, 703–16.Google Scholar
Plattner, Stuart, ed., 1989. Economic Anthropology, Stanford University Press, Stanford.Google Scholar
Polanyi, Karl. 1957a. The Great Transformation, Beacon Press, Boston.Google Scholar
Polanyi, Karl. 1957b. “The Economy as Instituted Process,” in Karl, Polanyi, Arensberg, Conrad M. andPearson, Harry W., eds., Trade and Market in the Early Empires: Economies in History and Theory, Free Press, Glencoe, IL, 243–70.Google Scholar
Posner, Richard. 1986. Economic Analysis of Law, Little, Brown, Boston.Google Scholar
Radnitzky, Gerard, ed., 1992. Universal Economics: Assessing the Achievements of the Economic Approach, ICUS Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Radnitzky, Gerard and Peter, Bernholz, eds., 1986. Economic Imperialism: The Economic Method Applied Outside the Field of Economics, Paragon House, New York.Google Scholar
Robbins, Lionel Charles. 1935. An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, Macmillan, London.Google Scholar
Rowe, Nicholas. 1989. Rules and Institutions, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall. 1965. “On the Sociology of Primitive Exchange,” in Banton, M., ed., The Relevance of Models for Social Anthropology, Tavistock, London.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall. 1969. “Economic Anthropology and Anthropological Economics,” Social Science Information, 8, 13–33.Google Scholar
Samuelson, Paul A. 1993. “Altruism as a Problem Involving Group versus Individual Selection in Economics and Biology,” American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 83, May, 143–48.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1954. History of Economic Analysis, Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Shalom H. 1970. “Elicitation of Moral Obligation and Self-Sacrificing Behavior: An Experimental Study of Volunteering to Be a Bone Marrow Donor,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 15, 283–93.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya K. 1982. “Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory,” in Sen, A. K.Choice, Welfare and Measurement, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, ch. 4.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya K. 1987. On Ethics and Economics, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Carl. 1983. “Premiums for High Quality Products as Returns to Reputations,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 98, 659–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Eric Alden. 1987. “Optimization Theory in Anthropology: Applications and Critiques,” in John, Dupré, ed., The Latest on the Best: Essays on Evolution and Optimality, MIT Press, Cambridge, 201–49.Google Scholar
Smith, Eric Alden and Bruce, Winterhalder, eds. 1992. Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior, Aldine de Gruyter, New York.Google Scholar
Spiro, Melford E. 1966. “Buddhism and Economic Action in Burma,” American Anthropologist, 68, 1163–73.Google Scholar
Stanfield, J.R. 1989. “Karl Polanyi and Contemporary Economic Thought,” Review of Social Economy, 47, Fall, 266–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stent, Gunther, ed. 1980. Morality as a Biological Phenomenon: The Presuppositions of Sociobiological Research, University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Stigler, George J. 1984. “Economics—The Imperial Science?” Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 86, 301–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tullock, Gordon. 1971. The Logic of the Law, Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Tullock, Gordon. 1994. The Economics of Non-Human Societies, Pallas Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E. 1983. “Credible Commitments: Using Hostages to Support Exchange,” American Economic Review, 73, September, 519–40.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E. 1985. The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting, Free Press, New York.Google Scholar
Wilson, Edward. 1975. Sociobiology: the New Synthesis, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Winfield, Richard Dien. 1988. The Just Economy, Routledge, New York.Google Scholar
Winterhalder, Bruce and Eric Alden, Smith, eds. 1981. Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar