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6 Cards in this Set
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American Institutionalists |
Who: American economists (John Roger Commons, Wesley Clair Mitchell, Thornstein Veblen) When: Late 19th to early 20th c. Where: US What: explaining individual economic behavior and the process of institutional change in the economy History: US fully monetized and integrated market economy. Second industrial revolution |
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Intellectual influences: American Institutionalism |
German historicism American pragmatism (revolt against deductive reasoning) American economic/social progressive tradition Social Darwinism (Darwinists adhered to laissez faire, institutional economists did not) |
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Root ideas/methods: American Instrumentalists |
-evolutionary stages and reform as changed from within -cultural relativity -value experience/empirical work -reject: deductive theorizing, man as hedonistic pleasure machine, conflation of money with material goods, naturalism of property rights -lack interest in the state |
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Thornstein Veblen background |
1857-1929 Anthropologist Main fields:consumption and production Born in US to Norwegian community Cornell then U Chicago Teacher: JB Clark |
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Veblens Leisure Class |
Unproductive/exploitative roles (business men, army, religious, govt) Contrast to industrial workers and engineers Motivation for consumption is emulation, not need Societies' patterns of consumption based on leisure class, including waste and vicarious pleasure Conspicuous consumption |
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Veblens process of institutional change |
Pragmatic adaptation drives institutional change forward: ceremonial ways and vested interests (nationalism and religion) hold it backEngineers make society richer, not businessmenEndogenous technological change with unintended consequences back Engineers make society richer, not businessmen Endogenous technological change with unintended consequences |
