Heterodox Economics Newsletter
Issue 276 February 22, 2021 web pdf Heterodox Economics Directory
A few months ago, I wrote an editorial related to John King’s new book on alternative Austrian economics and provided a very rough bird’s eyes view on heterodox traditions in Austria. In doing so, I also promised to write a little more about Kurt W. Rothschild, who is not only my personal archetype of a good economist, but who can also be considered to be a leading pioneer among post-WWII heterodox authors in Austria and beyond.
First of all, Kurt W. Rothschild, who lived from 1914 to 2010, was a congenial character, one of these fine combinations of modesty and brilliance. I had the honor of meeting Rothschild a few times, although I was only born shortly before he formally went into retirement (as a hint: both events happened in the 1980ies). I was always impressed by the intellectual versatility he embodied and his curiosity & interest for the attitudes and opinions of other people - including my own, although I had only just finished my Masters-degree. To underscore these observations, it could be added, that Kurt W. Rothschild was often asked whether he bears any relation to the famous bankers family of the same name. In such situation his characteristic move was to put on a playful smile (basically an offline precursor of the winking smiley) and respond ironically with a simple „regrettably not“.
In his economics, Kurt Rothschild was a decidedly pluralist researcher, who always tried to make use of those theoretical approaches and ideas that have the best fit to the problem at hand. This strategy was closely in line with his general conviction that „a plurality of paradigms in economics and in social sciences is […] a necessary and desirable phenomenon in a very complex and continually changing subject“ (see here or here). Needless to say, that this kind of pragmatic openness, that often aims for identifying the comparative advantages and complementarities between different approaches rather focusing on competing or contradicting hypotheses, led Rothschild to take a heterodox stance on important theoretical or applied questions. Nonetheless, he was well respected also among the broad majority of mainstream researchers in Austria and, hence, was able to take an intermediating position between different paradigmatic approaches, that seems largely out of reach today due the increasing closure of the economic mainstream with respect to alternative conceptual views.
Probably Rothschild’s intellectual upbringing, which combined early neoclassical and Austrian economics taught at the University of Vienna in the 1930s and Marxian analyses as practiced within the Austrian socialist movement at the same time with the Keynesian stimulus that came in form of the General Theory, was especially conducive to the kind of open-mindedness practiced by Rothschild throughout his career. Nonetheless, it should be emphasized that Rothschild managed to assess, master and constructively integrate these different approaches under partially dire circumstances as a Jewish refugee in Switzerland and the UK.
Eventually, his approach towards economics allowed him to tackle a huge diversity of topics, issues & questions. Throughout his career he challenged Oskar Lange and inspired Kenneth Arrow with his philosophical take on rationality, developed novel approaches towards analyzing wages, unemployment and distribution or tried to advance new ideas for better understanding oligopolistic competition, e.g. by reintroducing explicit considerations of strategy and powerin economics. He often made the implicit relations between economics and other disciplines explicit in his work and aimed to make economics more receptive for insights from philosophy (e.g. when discussing the role of military spending in particular or the relation between ethics and economics in general) as well as neighbouring social sciences (e.g. by advocating for research programs that aim to understand the emergence of individual preferences out of social setups and relationships).
While an editorial can surely do no justice to a giant like Rothschild (who, by the way, would most probably object to this characterization), I hope to have at least inspired you to do some further reading on the subject – and if it’s only a glimpse into his official post-humous bibliography, that you will find here.
All the best,
Jakob
PS: In this context I should also point out that the Call for Submissions for this year’s Rothschild-Prize is still running till the 26th of April (international submissions are highly welcome!).
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Table of contents
- Call for Papers
- 25th FMM Conference: "Macroeconomics of Socio-Ecological Transition" (Berlin, Oct. 2021)
- ESPAnet Conference 2021 (online, August 2021)
- 18th Annual STOREP Conference (online, June 2021)
- 23rd Annual Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics (online, July 2021)
- 33th Annual EAEPE Conference (online, Sept. 2021)
- 91st Annual Meeting of the Southern Economic Association: Session on "Economics, Policy and Morality" (Houston, Nov. 2021)
- ASE Sessions @ ASSA 2022: The Multiple Facets of Inequality (Boston, Jan. 2022)
- Fiscaoeconomia International Congress on Social Sciences-FsCongress 2021 (online, May 2021)
- International Conference on Carl Menger: One Cetury Later: Originality and Modernity (Nice, November 2021)
- Call for Participants
- WINIR-sponsored Virtual Event on "Repugnant Behaviours" (online, Feb. 2021)
- 2021 Godley-Tobin Lecture: Marc Lavoie on “Godley versus Tobin on Monetary Matters” (online, Feb. 2021)
- 8th International FMM Summer School: "Keynesian Macroeconomics and European Economic Policies" (Berlin, Aug. 2021)
- An Intensive Course in Gender-Sensitive Macroeconomic Modeling for Policy Analysis (online, June-July 2021)
- Association for Heterodox Economics: Postgraduate Workshop on Advanced Research Methods (online, April 2021)
- Call for Applications: Labour Relations in A Globalized World - International Program
- Center for the History of Political Economy: 2021 Summer Institute (online, June 2021)
- Global Labour University online event: Migration and Trade Unions (online, March 2021)
- Online Symposium in Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of Rosa Luxemburg's Birth (online, March 2021)
- The Review of Political Economy (ROPE): Webinar Series (online, March-April 2021)
- Third International Webinar of SDMRG: Kaldor, Goodwin and Cambridge Growth Economics
- Job Postings
- Lund University, Sweden
- Stockton University, US (1/2)
- Stockton University, US (2/2)
- University of Geneva, Italy (1/2)
- University of Geneva, Italy (2/2)
- University of Massachusetts, US
- Awards
- Call for Nominations: AFEE Awards 2022
- Call for Nominations: Young Scholars STOREP Awards @ 18th Annual STOREP Conference
- Journals
- American Journal of Economics and Sociology 79 (5)
- Brazilian Journal of Political Economy / Revista de Economia Política 41 (1)
- Ecological Economics 182
- Forum for Social Economcis 50 (1): Special Issue on Identity, Institutions and Power
- Industrial and Corporate Change 29 (5)
- Journal of Evolutionary Economics 31 (1)
- Metroeconomica 72 (1)
- Problemas del Desarrollo. Revista Latinoamericana de Economía 51 (201)
- Review of Keynesian Economics 9 (1)
- The Review of Austrian Economics 34 (1): Speical Issue on Innovation and Austrian Economics
- Books and Book Series
- A Behavioural Theory of Economic Development: The Uneven Evolution of Cities and Regions
- China Risen? Studying Chinese Global Power
- Debtfare States and the Poverty Industry Money, discipline and the surplus population
- Handbook of Marxism and Post-Marxism
- Heterodox Challenges in Economics: Theoretical Issues and the Crisis of the Eurozone
- How Social Forces Impact the Economy
- Reducing Inter-generational Ethnic Poverty: Economics, Psychology and Culture
- Remaking Political Institutions: Climate Change and Beyond
- The Commons in an Age of Uncertainty: Decolonizing Nature, Economy, and Society
- The Ironic State: British Comedy and the Everyday Politics of Globalization
- The Palgrave Handbook of Comparative Economics
- The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology
- Trouble of the World: Slavery and Empire in the Age of Capital
- Vicarious Warfare: American Strategy and the Illusion of War on the Cheap
- Heterodox Graduate Programs, Scholarships and Grants
- John Jay College Masters program at City University of New York, US
- Levy Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy Now Accepting Students for Fall 2021
- MSc in the Political Economy of Capitalism (University of Geneva, Italy)
- PhD studentship in "Financing 'Green' and 'Sustainable' Transitions at the University of Warwick, UK
- Calls for Support
- Call for Support: Open Letter to the University of Leicester School of Business (ULSB)
- For Your Information
- 2021 Hyman P. Minsky Conference on the State of the US and World Economies (online, May 2021)