In this special open session of the Economic History and Ideas Working Group (EHIWG), Brecht Rogissart and Ian J. Murray build on the group’s engagement this year with the Austrian School of Economics by presenting reflections from their research on the role of theory in two transformative moments economic history.
Brecht Rogissart will start by arguing why the 1870’s and 1970’s can be considered as similar transitions in capitalism. Drawing on theories of financialization, he will sketch out the basic differences and similarities of these periods of crisis. Although theories of financialization are mostly focused on the post-World War II era, historians engaging with these debates have showed the broader significance and applicability of these concepts. Rather than focus on purely economic changes, he will also consider the linkages between the rise of financial markets from the 1870s and the shift from objective theories of value rooted in production to subjective theories of values rooted in utility.
Ian J. Murray will then turn attention towards the transitions in capitalism that occurred roughly a century later and that are commonly analysed under the rubric of neoliberalism. In keeping with the theme of this session, rather than focusing on material considerations like the Bretton Woods collapse or stagflation crises, his remarks will examine the role of economic theory in promoting market expansion, with a particular focus on the economic analysis of law movement, behavioural economics, and advances in mathematical modeling. Fusing Donald McKenzie’s notion of the performativity of economics with the legal institutionalist insight that law sets the outer limits of market society, he will argue that the colonization of law by a certain strain of economic thought opened up new frontiers for commodification through derivative financial instruments and evolved modes of industry self-regulation.
Please register with Cosimo Pantaleoni (Jitsi meet app).