The Classical and Neoclassical theoretical traditions and the evolutionary study of the dynamics of globalization

Charis VLADOS

Abstract


Abstract. This article aims to present the theoretical foundations of the classical political economy through the contributions of Adam Smith and David Ricardo and to find out how their neoclassical followers interpreted, evaluated, and transformed this classical theoretical basis. Specifically, we analyze from a critical point of view the neoclassical interpretation of globalization by arguing that this theorization is probably insufficient in analytical terms. We conclude that an analytical counterproposal for the relative explanatory insufficiencies of the neoclassical synthesis is based on the modern evolutionary approach of globalization.

Keywords. Classical political economy, Neoclassical economics critique, Evolutionary approach, Globalization.

JEL. B12, F11, B52.

Keywords


Classical political economy; Neoclassical economics critique; Evolutionary approach; globalization.

Full Text:


References


Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J.A. (2012). Why nations fail: The origins of power, prosperity, and poverty. New York, NY: Crown Publ.

Aglietta, M. (1997). Régulation et crises du capitalisme (Nouv. éd.). Paris: Jacob.

Agmon, T. (2010). Markets globalisation by firms from emerging markets and small countries: An application of the neoclassical trade model. Review of Market Integration, 2(2–3), 291–316. doi. 10.1177/097492921000200305

Allen, W.R. (1970). Modern defenders of mercantilist theory. History of Political Economy, 2(2), 381–397. doi. 10.1215/00182702-2-2-381

Andersen, E.S. (2009). Schumpeter’s evolutionary economics: A theoretical, historical and statistical analysis of the engine of capitalism. London; New York: Anthem Press.

Anquetil, A. (2019). The free liberalism of Adam Smith. In T. Hoerber & A. Anquetil (Eds.), Economic Theory and Globalization (pp. 101–123). Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi. 10.1007/978-3-030-23824-7_5

Aspers, P., & Kohl, S. (2015). Economic theories of globalization. doi. 10.4324/9781315867847.ch3

Aspromourgos, T. (2010). ‘Universal opulence’: Adam Smith on technical progress and real wages. The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 17(5), 1169–1182. doi. 10.1080/09672567.2010.522241

Atanasov, A.P. (2013). Toward global neoclassical economics: A critical point of view. Economic Alternatives, 2, 21-31.

Berdell, J.F. (1998). Adam Smith and the ambiguity of nations. Review of Social Economy, 56(2), 175-189.

Bhattacharya, A., Khanna, D., Schweizer, C., & Bijapurkar, A. (2017, April 25). The New Globalization: Going Beyond the Rhetoric. Retrieved September 26, 2018, from BCG Henderson Insitute. [Retrieved from].

Boschma, R.A., & Frenken, K. (2006). Why is economic geography not an evolutionary science? Towards an evolutionary economic geography. Journal of Economic Geography, 6(3), 273–302. doi. 10.1093/jeg/lbi022

Boyer, R. (1986). La théorie de la régulation: Une analyse critique. Paris: La Découverte.

Boyer, R., & Saillard, Y. (1995). Régulation Theory (Edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005). London; New York: Routledge.

Brett, W. (1973). The development of Clarence Ayres’s theoretical institutionalism. Social Science Quarterly, 54(2), 244–257.

Brugger, F., & Gehrke, C. (2018). Skilling and deskilling: Technological change in classical economic theory and its empirical evidence. Theory and Society, 47(5), 663–689. doi. 10.1007/s11186-018-9325-7

Chen, W. (Ed.). (2017). The Beijing Consensus?: How china has changed Western ideas of law and economic development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi. 10.1017/9781316481370

Cho, D.-S., & Moon, H.-C. (2000). From Adam Smith to Michael Porter: Evolution of Competitiveness Theory. New Jersey; London; Singapore; Hong Kong: World Scientific.

Choudhury, M.A., Al-Ghamdi, M., & Umar, Y. (2002). Ummatic globalization versus neoclassical capitalist globalization: Formalism and application. Review of Islamic Economics, (12), 5–46.

Coad, A. (2010). Neoclassical vs evolutionary theories of financial constraints: Critique and prospectus. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 21(3), 206–218. doi. 10.1016/j.strueco.2010.05.003

Costinot, A., & Donaldson, D. (2012). Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage: Old idea, new evidence. American Economic Review, 102(3), 453–458. doi. 10.1257/aer.102.3.453

Delapierre, M., & Milelli, C. (1995). Les firmes multinationales. Paris: Vuibert.

Delapierre, M., Moati, P., & Mouhoud, E.M. (2000). Connaissance et mondialisation. Paris: Economica.

Dopfer, K., & Potts, J. (2008). The general theory of economic evolution. London; New York: Routledge.

Formaini, R.L. (2001). The engine of capitalist process: Entrepreneurs in economic theory. Economic and Financial Review, 4, 2–11.

Forsgren, M., & Yamin, M. (2010). A commentary on Adam Smith and international business. Multinational Business Review, 18(1), 95–112. doi. 10.1108/1525383X201000006

Foster, J. (1997). The analytical foundations of evolutionary economics: From biological analogy to economic self-organization. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 8(4), 427–451. doi. 10.1016/S0954-349X(97)00002-7

Freeman, C. (2019). History, co-evolution and economic growth. Industrial and Corporate Change, 28(1), 1–44. doi. 10.1093/icc/dty075

Geisler Asmussen, C., Pedersen, T., Devinney, T.M., & Tihanyi, L. (2011). Dynamics of globalization: Location-specific advantages or liabilities of foreignness? Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Ghazinoory, S., Narimani, M., & Tatina, S. (2017). Neoclassical versus evolutionary economics in developing countries: Convergence of policy implications. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 27(3), 555–583. doi. 10.1007/s00191-017-0490-z

Gilpin, R. (2001). Global political economy: Understanding the international economic order. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.

Graham, D.W. (2009). Heraclitus: Flux, order, and knowledge. In P. Curd & D. W. Graham (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy (Vol. 1). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. doi. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195146875.003.0006

Guttmann, R. (2015). The heterodox notion of structural crisis. Review of Keynesian Economics, 3(2), 194–212.

Hamilton, D. B. (2017). Evolutionary economics: A study of change in economic thought (Originally published in 1970 by the University of New Mexico Press). London; New York: Routledge.

Hayek, F. A. (1967). Studies in philosophy and economics. London: Routledge.

Heames, J., Crowley, G. R., & Sobel, R. S. (2010). Adam Smith: Managerial insights from the father of economics. Journal of Management History, 16(4), 504–508. doi. 10.1108/17511341011073979

Hodgson, G. M. (1998). Competence and contract in the theory of the firm. This article is dedicated to the memory of Edith Penrose. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 35(2), 179–201. doi. 10.1016/S0167-2681(98)00053-5

Hodgson, G.M. (2002). Darwinism in economics: From analogy to ontology. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 12(3), 259–281. doi. 10.1007/s00191-002-0118-8

Hodgson, G.M., & Lamberg, J.-A. (2018). The past and future of evolutionary economics: Some reflections based on new bibliometric evidence. Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, 15(1), 167–187. doi. 10.1007/s40844-016-0044-3

Jaeckel, J.K. (2015). Inside the capitalist firm: An evolutionary theory of the principal-agent relation. Review of Political Economy, 27(2), 240–242. doi. 10.1080/09538259.2015.1010741

Keynes, J.-M. (1936). The general theory of employment, interest and money. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

King, J.E. (2013). Ricardo on trade. Economic Papers: A Journal of Applied Economics and Policy, 32(4), 462–469. doi. 10.1111/1759-3441.12057

Krugman, P.R., & Obstfeld, M. (1994). International economics: Theory and policy. New York: Harper Collins.

Kuhn, T.S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ((3rd edition: 1996)). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Kwasnicki, W. (1999). Evolutionary economics and simulation. In T. Brenner (Ed.), Modelling learning in economics (pp. 3–44). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. doi. 10.1007/978-1-4615-5029-7_1

Labini, F.S. (2016). Science and the economic crisis: Impact on science, lessons from science. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing

Landmann, O. (2014). Short-run macro after the crisis: The end of the “new” neoclassical synthesis? (Working Paper No.27). Retrieved from Discussion Paper Series. [Retrieved from].

Lesourne, J., Orléan, A., & Walliser, B. (2006). Evolutionary microeconomics. Berlin; New York: Springer.

Lim, K.F. (2017). International division of labor. In D. Richardson, N. Castree, M.F. Goodchild, A. Kobayashi, W. Liu, & R.A. Marston (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology (pp. 1–4). Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. doi. 10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg1035

Lakatos, I. (1968). The problem of inductive logic: Proceedings of the international colloquium in the philosophy of science, London, 1965, volume 2 (First Printing edition). Amsterdam: North-Holland Amsterdam.

Laudicina, P.A., & Peterson, E. R. (2016). From Globalization to Islandization (p. 26). Retrieved from ATKearney [Retrieved from].

Lauridsen, L.S. (2018). New economic globalization, new industrial policy and late development in the 21st century: A critical analytical review. Development Policy Review, 36(3), 329–346. doi. 10.1111/dpr.12299

Levitt, T. (1983). The globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review., 61(3), 92–102.

Löfflmann, G. (2019). From the Obama Doctrine to America First: The erosion of the Washington consensus on grand strategy. International Politics. doi. 10.1057/s41311-019-00172-0

Mazzocchi, R. (2013). Scope and flaws of the new neoclassical synthesis. DEM Discussion Papers, 13.

Merkel, W. (2014). Is capitalism compatible with democracy? Zeitschrift Für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, 8(2), 109–128. doi. 10.1007/s12286-014-0199-4

Michalet, C.A. (1985a). Le capitalisme mondial. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.

Michalet, C.A. (1985b). Les multinationales face à la crise. Genève; Paris: Institut de recherche et d’information sur les multinationales; Presses universitaires de France.

Mitchell, K., & Sparke, M. (2016). The new Washington Consensus: Μillennial philanthropy and the making of global market subjects. Antipode, 48(3), 724–749. doi. 10.1111/anti.12203

Mises, L. von. (1949). Human action: A treatise on economics (first edition in 1949, New Haven: Yale University Press). Alabama, US: Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Mises, L. von. (1957). Theory and history: An interpretation of social and economic evolution (first edition, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press). Alabama, US: Ludwig von Mies Institute.

Nelson, R.R., Dosi, G., Helfat, C.E., Winter, S.G., Pyka, A., Saviotti, P.P., … Dopfer, K. (2018). Modern evolutionary economics: An overview. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nelson, R.R., & Winter, S.G. (1974). Neoclassical vs. evolutionary theories of economic growth: Critique and prospectus. The Economic Journal, 84(336), 886–905. doi. 10.2307/2230572

Nelson, R.R., & Winter, S.G. (1982). An evolutionary theory of economic change. Cambridge, MA; London, UK: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Nooteboom, B. (2008). In what sense do firms evolve? (No. 2008–12). Retrieved from Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography. [Retrieved from].

Ohlin, B.G. (1933). Interregional and international trade. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Orléan, A. (2009). De l’euphorie à la panique: Penser la crise financière. Paris: Éd. Rue d’Ulm.

Peneder, M. (2017). Competitiveness and industrial policy: From rationalities of failure towards the ability to evolve. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 41(3), 829–858. doi. 10.1093/cje/bew025

Perilla Jimenez, J.R. (2019). Mainstream and evolutionary views of technology, economic growth and catching up. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 29(3), 823–852. doi. 10.1007/s00191-019-00606-1

Polanyi, M. (2000). The republic of science: Its political and economic theory. Minerva, 38(1), 1–21. doi. 10.1023/A:1026591624255

Ricardo, D. (1817). On the principles of political economy and taxation. London: J. Murray.

Rodrik, D. (2006). Goodbye Washington Consensus, hello Washington Confusion? A review of the World Bank’s Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform. Journal of Economic Literature, 44(4), 973–987. doi. 10.1257/jel.44.4.973

Romer, P.M. (1990). Endogenous technological change. Journal of Political Economy, 98(5, Part 2), S71–S102. doi. 10.1086/261725

Roy, K. (2018). Among the “Presocratics”: Heraclitus. In K. Roy (Ed.), The Power of Philosophy: Thought and Redemption (pp. 143–170). Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi. 10.1007/978-3-319-96911-4_5

Rubdy, R., & Alsagoff, L. (2014). The cultural dynamics of globalization: Problematizing hybridity. In The global-local interface and hybridity: Exploring language and identity (pp.1–14). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Salvadori, N., & Signorino, R. (2015). Defense versus Opulence? An appraisal of the Malthus-Ricardo 1815 controversy on the Corn Laws. History of Political Economy, 47(1), 151–184. doi. 10.1215/00182702-2847351

Samuelson, P. A. (1949). International Factor-Price Equalisation Once Again. The Economic Journal, 59(234), 181–197. doi. 10.2307/2226683

Schumacher, R. (2012). Adam Smith’s theory of absolute advantage and the use of doxography in the history of economics. Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 5(2), 54–80. doi. 10.23941/ejpe.v5i2.105

Schumpeter, J. (1939). Business cycles: A theoretical, historical and statistical analysis of the capitalist process. New York; London: McGraw-Hill.

Schumpeter, J. (1942). Capitalism, socialism and democracy. New York; London: Harper & Brothers.

Schumpeter, J. (1954). History of economic analysis (Edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006). New York: Oxford University Press.

Senga, S., Fujimoto, M., & Tabuchi, T. (2017). Ricardo and international trade. London; New York: Taylor & Francis.

Smith, A. (1776). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations (An electronic classics series publication. Jim Manis, Editor, 2005). London: Strahan and Cadell.

Steger, M.B. (2005). Ideologies of globalization. Journal of Political Ideologies, 10(1), 11–30. doi. 10.1080/1356931052000310263

Stiglitz, J.E. (2002). Globalization and its discontents. London: Penguin Books.

Veblen, T. (1898). Why is economics not an evolutionary science? The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 12(4), 373–397. doi. 10.2307/1882952

Veltmeyer, H. (2017). Globalization and antiglobalization: Dynamics of change in the new world order. London: Routledge.

Vlados, Ch., Deniozos, N., Chatzinikolaou, D., & Demertzis, M. (2018). Towards an evolutionary understanding of the current global socio-economic crisis and restructuring: From a conjunctural to a structural and evolutionary perspective. Research in World Economy, 9(1), 15–33. doi. 10.5430/rwe.v9n1p15

Vlados, Ch., Deniozos, N., & Chatzinikolaou, D. (2018). Global crisis, innovation and change management: Towards a new systemic perception of the current globalization restructuring. International Business Research, 11(8), 9–29. doi. 10.5539/ibr.v11n8p9

Vlados, Ch., Deniozos, N., & Chatzinikolaou, D. (2019a). Dialectical prerequisites on geopolitics and geo-economics in globalization’s restructuration era. Journal of Economic and Social Thought, 6(2), 65–92. doi. 10.1453/jest.v6i2.1877

Vlados, Ch., Deniozos, N., & Chatzinikolaou, D. (2019b). Global crisis and restructuring: Theory, analysis, and the case of Greece. KSP Books: Istanbul. [Retrieved from].

Watson, M. (2017). Historicising Ricardo’s comparative advantage theory, challenging the normative foundations of liberal International Political Economy. New Political Economy, 22(3), 257–272. doi. 10.1080/13563467.2016.1216535

Weeks, J. (2012). The irreconcilable inconsistencies of neoclassical macroeconomics: A false paradigm. London; New York: Routledge.

Williamson, J. (1993). Democracy and the “Washington consensus.” World Development, 21(8), 1329–1336. doi. 10.1016/0305-750X(93)90046-C

Zang, W.-B. (2016). Economic globalization and interregional agglomeration in a multi-country and multi-regional neoclassical growth model. Investigaciones Regionales – Journal of Regional Research, (34), 95–121.

Zeleny, M. (2010). Machine/organism dichotomy and free-market economics: Crisis or transformation? Human Systems Management, 29(4), 191–204. doi. 10.3233/HSM-2010-0725

Zouboulakis, M. S. (2015). Elements of a theory of the firm in Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill. In G. C. Bitros & N. C. Kyriazis (Eds.), Essays in Contemporary Economics: A Festschrift in Memory of A. D. Karayiannis (pp. 45–52). Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi. 10.1007/978-3-319-10043-2_4

Βλάδος, Χ. Μ. (2006). Η δυναμική της παγκοσμιοποίησης και οι επιχειρήσεις στην ελλάδα. Αθήνα: Εκδόσεις Κριτική.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1453/jepe.v6i3.1941

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.




.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Journal of Economics and Political Economy - J. Econ. Pol. Econ. - JEPE - www.kspjournals.org

ISSN: 2148-8347

Editor: [email protected]   Secretarial: [email protected]   Istanbul - Turkey.

Copyright © KSP Library