This paper analyzes Japan's economic experience through the interpretive framework of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), focusing on the interaction between fiscal policy, monetary policy, and macroeconomic stability. Japan represents a unique case: it combines a public debt exceeding 240 % of GDP with persistently low interest rates and inflation, challenging conventional economic predictions. Using a mixed-methods approach-integrating theoretical review and a descriptive and interpretative analysis of the main macroeconomic indicators-this paper examines how the coordination between public spending and the Bank of Japan's monetary policy has supported aggregate demand and prevented insolvency or high inflation. The findings indicate that sustained fiscal deficits have helped stabilize the economy within a liquidity-trap and balance-sheet-recession environment, without eroding confidence in sovereign debt. Nevertheless, Japan's fiscal policy has remained cautious, alternating between stimulus and consolidation phases, thereby limiting its capacity to achieve full and sustained employment. Overall, Japan's experience is broadly consistent with the core tenets of MMT, particularly regarding monetary sovereignty and debt sustainability, although it does not represent a deliberate implementation of the theory. These conclusions invite a reconsideration of the role of public deficits and fiscal-monetary coordination in advanced economies.
Jose Ortega y Gasset, the most prominent Spanish philosopher of the 20th century, addressed the situation and evolution of economics since the 19th century in various passages of his work. Critical of the abstract and positivist approach adopted by the discipline, he rejected the excessive influence of the natural sciences on the humanities, which he believed ignored human freedom and complexity. Opposed to the mechanistic assumptions present in both Millian utilitarianism and Marxist economism, he proposed an understanding of economics as a historical science linked to culture, yet still retaining its normative aspirations. Rooted in his philosophical stance, his reflections can be placed within the debate between theory and history that unfolded since the beginning of the so-called Methodenstreit. Critical as well of the concept of homo economicus and of reductionist economism, he envisioned economics as focused on scarcity, the superfluous and life, in dialogue with philosophy and the humanities.
This paper examines the notion of justice in Adam Smith's two major works -The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations- with the aim of elucidating the theoretical and conceptual reasons behind the incompleteness of his projected science of jurisprudence. It argues that Smith adopted from the classical tradition the notion of commutative justice, establishing the laws protecting life, person, possessions, and property as a sacred and irreducible legal core. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, justice appears as a coercive and necessary virtue, grounded in the instinctive approval of punishment in response to harm; in The Wealth of Nations, these same laws constitute the necessary, though not sufficient, condition of the system of natural liberty and commercial progress. The analysis suggests that this irreducible legal core was assumed -without further questioning or foundation- by nineteenth-century political economy.
The objective of this paper is to analyse and interpret the two main schools of economic thought that clashed in the Mexican Republic between 1824 and 1876. The study is developed using the historical method, adopting a hermeneutic paradigm and a qualitative approach. During this period, the country experienced marked political and social instability, which resulted in a lack of economic growth over a period of sixty years. In this context, two currents emerged that disputed the direction of the nation. On the one hand, the liberal school, based on the theories of Smith, Ricardo, Say, Mill and Bentham, represented in Mexico by Jose Luis Mora, Ignacio Ramirez "the Necromancer" and Guillermo Prieto. On the other hand, there was the protectionist school, based on the ideas of Colbert, List and Hamilton, with figures such as Garcia Salinas, Estevan de Antu & ntilde;ano, Carlos de Olaguibel and Lucas Alam & aacute;n. The liberals saw agriculture and mining as the engines of the economy, while the protectionists believed that the real impetus should come from national industry, protected and promoted by the state.
This article reappraises Georgescu-Roegen's bioeconomics, grounded in the entropy law, alongside Herman Daly's steady-state program. Conceiving the economic process as irreversible matter-energy transformations (throughput) makes the limits of substitution assumptions visible and foregrounds the determining role of "useful work (exergy)" alongside the energy quantity in production. At the measurement level, the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) and Material Flow Accounting (MFA) enable an asset-based tracking of welfare. On the normative plane, Daly's sequencing of scale-distribution-allocation is institutionalized through carbon and material budgets, cap-auction-dividend mechanisms, and ecological tax reform. Within Weitzman's "prices versus quantities" framework, the superiority of quantity instruments is examined for domains characterized by high uncertainty. The study argues that this chain-from theory to indicators to rule design-grounds sustainability policy in the principle "rules (scale) first, allocation (prices) second."
The primary purpose of this article is to integrate relevant documentation on the endeavors and contributions of women economists between 1900 and 1939 within Original American Institutional Economics (OAIE). In this regard, I identify nineteen women economists who made significant and original contributions to fields such as the theory of consumption and savings, women's labor, and feminist economics. Unlike the existing literature, which separately explores women economists and OAIE, this article takes an integrated approach. Through a comprehensive review of various bibliographic sources, it presents a unique exploration that identifies women economists within the OAIE as a cohesive group. These women, with shared affinities, worked in cooperation and through networks, and their endeavors- which I reviewed in this article -are highly relevant to current research. In this article, I discuss the claim that, after the pioneering work of Thorstein Veblen and Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the early twentieth Century on the social and economic status of women, institutional economics entirely overlooked the issue.
Este artículo estudia el pensamiento económico de los ingenieros chilenos que idearon e implementaron los planes de electrificación del país a partir de 1939. Muestra que estos profesionales formularon un pensamiento complejo sobre el desarrollo económico, en el que la electrificación era un elemento indispensable (pero no suficiente) para el desarrollo económico y social de Chile. Vincularon la ingeniería (eléctrica), la economía y la política al abordar los numerosos desafíos que implicaba desarrollar una infraestructura eléctrica robusta y duradera que impulsara el desarrollo industrial del país y mejorara el nivel de vida de la población.
EN Abstract. In this study, the issues addressed are examined in the context of the concept of economic justice in the works of Adam Smith who is considered the founder of the Classical School. Smith has gained a reputation for himself with his intellectual knowledge and studies in the field of economics in Britain and hence all over the world. In an age when the colonialist empire mentality and overprotective trade mentality adorned with mercantilist policies were at their peak, his handling of basic issues such as free trade, labor market, opposition to monopolies and his works on economic justice contain information worth examining. For this purpose, Smith's life and major works are discussed first. Then, his evaluations on justice and economic justice are examined. His most notable works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations are analyzed from the perspective of economic justice, taking into account the perspectives of various researchers working on them.
This paper examines the development and current standing of the theory of value and distribution dominant in the classical and Marxian traditions of economic thought, while exploring its empirical adequacy in Spanish input-output data for the years 2010, 2015 and 2016. Estimates of direct prices and prices of production are used to measure their respective proximity, as well as the distance from each to market prices. The classical/Marxian system of prices of production is also subjected to testing for the possibility of pronounced price curvature. The results suggest that all three sets of prices are significantly close to each other, thereby strengthening the empirical support for the cross-sectional hypothesis derived from such account of relative prices. In addition, the evidence gathered from the Spanish economy does not support the case for twisted price curves as an empirically relevant phenomenon.
We propose a unifying dynamical systems approach to states of rest and fluctuations grounded in four models offered by Jump & Stockhammer (2023). Our treatment permits reflection on the claim of heterodoxy made of the models. We conclude that only models 2 and 3 are heterodox. Models 1 and 4 are orthodox.
This study explores whether marginal utility theory particularly in the form of diminishing marginal utility conception during the Marginal Revolution of the 1870s was a redundant statement and elaboration of obvious facts, so a truism or self-evident principle. Related, it examines whether marginal utility theory was a restatement and re-elaboration of prior statements and elaborations of the same obvious facts by its anticipations prior to the Marginal Revolution. In addition, the study investigates whether the representatives of the Marginal Revolution and its exponents deemed marginal utility theory a new ultimate truth and final discovery in economics. The study finds both the first and the second and therefore suggests that its exponents committed a logical error or inconsistency in their construction and presentation of marginal utility theory.
China's economic and business success in recent decades has caught the attention of the academic community, which has analyzed the Chinese case from different perspectives. This interest in the Chinese case has been accompanied by a certain neglect of other cases of economic success of particular interest from the perspective of Economic History and Economic Thought, such as the Japanese case, which was almost a century ahead of the Chinese one. Japan has come to be considered an appendix of China on multiple occasions. This paper analyzes, under institutionalist premises, the elements of the social organization of feudal Japan that influenced modern economic organization, as well as the most significant thoughts in this model, emphasizing that Confucianism cannot be the central element that explains the configuration and emergence of modern Japan during the Meiji era.
This note aims to conduct a comparative analysis of the theoretical contributions of Germ & aacute;n Bern & aacute;cer and Eugen von B & ouml;hm-Bawerk to the problem of interest, highlighting the significant parallels between them. Both authors shared a concern for explaining the origin and nature of the phenomenon of interest and based their theories on Turgot's principles. B & ouml;hm-Bawerk regarded time preference as a key explanation, while Bern & aacute;cer identified the fixed-income sector as the source of interest and proposed its elimination to prevent economic inefficiencies. Despite their differences and considering that Bern & aacute;cer was one of the first thinkers to study and assimilate B & ouml;hm-Bawerk's work, the question arises as to whether the Alicante economist can be considered one of his continuators and to what extent he truly disagreed with his theory of interest.
Juan Plaza Prieto (Madrid, 1924) made the first estimate of the provincial distribution of income in Spain in 1953. In the following years he made new estimates for the Trade Union Organization, the National Institute of Industry, and the Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks, and interested the Bank of Bilbao to start his series The national income of Spain and its provincial distribution. He was also one of the pioneers in the introduction of the regional economy in Spain.
The general theory of the division of labor system on a social scale is analyzed and developed, based on what Adam Smith set forth at the beginning of The Wealth of Nations. In accordance with this theory, an explanation of the category of use value and the notion of utility is presented here. Smith identifies this category in chapter four but does not deal with it explicitly afterwards and only considers some aspects of utility as something intrinsic to things. This sense of utility, which prominent academics analyze as an error in Smith, is shown in the present work to also represent an inconsistency with respect to his general theory of the division of labor. It is also shown that this can be considered induced by the partial inconsistency with this general theory, which is noted in his theory of exchange value.
ES Resumen. This article examines the influence of the French Liberal School (FLS) on the economic thought of Antonio Flores, a prominent 19th-century Ecuadorian statesman (diplomat, congressman, and president), son of Ecuador's first president, educated in Paris and Lima. It explores how the ideas of economists such as Jean-Baptiste Say and Charles Dunoyer shaped his views on free markets, property, and the role of the State. Traditionally, the FLS has been seen as an extension of the British Classical School; however, this study argues that it exhibits distinct characteristics that resonated in Flores intellectual context. Through a comparative analysis of key FLS texts and Flores works, similarities and divergences in themes such as economic freedom and social utility are explored. The methodological approach combines traditional close reading with a qualitative analysis of recurring concepts, revealing that Flores adapted French liberal principles to the historical and economic particularities of his environment. The findings suggest that the FLS legacy in Flores was not mere imitation but a creative reinterpretation that enriched the economic discourse of his time. This work contributes to a reassessment of transnational influences in 19th-century economic thought, emphasizing the relevance of the FLS as an autonomous intellectual tradition.
Este artículo muestra la evolución del concepto utilitarista de racionalidad desde la perspectiva de Bentham, que en el siglo XIX formuló la definición clásica de la racionalidad utilitarista como un “cálculo hedonista”. Este concepto fue posteriormente articulado en las tradiciones intelectuales de Cambridge y Oxford, y ampliamente desarrollado por filósofos australianos y estadounidenses. El artículo evalúa cuatro críticas clave al paradigma utilitarista clásico y extrae algunas conclusiones, planteando dudas sobre su idoneidad como guía para el sentido de la vida.
Analizamos cómo se ha relacionado el neomarxismo occidental con el debate contemporáneo sobre la racionalidad, cómo ha condicionado su comprensión del capitalismo y cómo ha modificado su relación con otras corrientes del pensamiento económico. A partir de un acontecimiento desconcertante, la defensa de la teoría de la elección racional por parte del marxismo analítico se analiza cómo este fenómeno contemporáneo se relaciona históricamente con una asimilación por parte del neomarxismo occidental de las categorías establecidas por la tradición liberal en el debate sobre la racionalidad para estabilizar funcionalmente al capitalismo. Se concluye que, si las diversas corrientes contemporáneas del neomarxismo quieren dejar de representar una vertiente progresista del pensamiento liberal reformulado por Rawls, tienen que relacionar la irracionalidad sustantiva del capitalismo, no con un sistema de valores, sino con la forma social de la producción económica.
Rationality is a loaded term. When we say that a person’s behaviour is rational, we hint that she acts as she ought to act. The normative dimension of rationality is often conflated, if not confounded, by social scientists. Historians of economic thought are not immune to this problem. The main thesis of this essay is that the earliest use of the term rationality in Economics appears in the work of Lionel Robbins and Paul Samuelson in the 1930s who identify rationality with consistency or transitivity of preferences. Using textual evidence, I show that the neoclassical economists who antedated them did not use the term ‘rationality’ and, although they did use the term ‘Logic,’ they did so without any normative pretensions. I identify three milestones in the process of emergence of an account of rationality in Economics. The first one was Jevons’ separation of Economics from Ethics and the demarcation of the scope of the Science of Economics. The second milestone was Carl Menger’s twin notions of economic goods and scarcity. The third and last milestone is Vilfredo Pareto’s reinterpretation of utility as a scale of preferences and its refinement by Hicks and Allen. Last, I briefly discuss some conceptual shortcomings of the prevailing account of rationality in Economics.
This paper explores the life and work of Frederick Adams Woods (1873–1939), a prominent yet neglected figure in Progressive Era eugenics. Known as the “American Galton,” Woods advanced an uncompromising hereditarianism and developed historiometry, a quantitative method aimed at demonstrating the primacy of heredity in shaping intelligence, morality, and historical outcomes. His studies of European royalty and his theory of “alternative inheritance” sought to refine Galton’s approach while reinforcing eugenic claims. While his influence faded as environmentalist perspectives gained ground, Woods remains significant as both a leading hereditarian voice and an early advocate for quantifying history as science.
