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Technological change is one of the most important forces shaping modern society. Which perspectives can help us understand technological change, especially from a political economy lens? The first part of this article provides a basic overview of debates that shaped this scientific field, starting with nineteenth century British political economy. Liberal political economists as well as their critics of the time both saw the machinery question as a paramount challenge to British society, especially with regard to the problem of technological unemployment. The second part of the article turns to neoclassical economics and the conceptual tools that it uses to understand technology. Critiques of the neoclassical approach are also included, of which Schumpeter’s critique is the most important. The third part of the article turns to the contemporary literature on “skill-biased technological change” which rewards those that have the skills that complement digital technology and punishes those that do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grieve Chelwa, Darrick Hamilton, and Avi Green explain how existing accounts of capitalism systematically neglect racial identity group stratification. Their approach points to an important comparative dimension and two significant research agendas that could supplement their arguments. First would be to inquire into the role that equal respect plays in pushing back against stratification. Second would be to investigate how other aspects of social norms may have consequences too, perhaps drawing insights from a new body of research on racial stratification that draws upon Marxian and neoclassical economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an analysis of the notion of liberal-Marshallian citizenship in the light of the impact that neoliberalization processes have. We describe an approach to the hypothesis that neoliberalism does not allow the realization of the notion of Liberal-Marshallian citizenship due to the dispossession of social rights, indebtedness and growing precariousness of work, and wealth concentration. For that, it addresses two levels of analysis: a conceptual one, about the notion of citizenship, focused on the liberal idea; and, a second, which identifies the determinations of contemporary dependent capitalism and the limits of the kind of citizenship that can be built within those parameters in a neoliberal context. Methodologically, the article tries to develop a heuristic interpretation of the work of several authors, as primary and secondary sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper challenges the mainstream stance in the study of applied ethics in international development. Applied ethics is positioned at the macro-social level of global ethics while a specific codification is attempted by formulating international development based on its structural synthesis, in a threefold level: First, the structural synthesis -associated with the framework of existing international development policy-can be found in the 'market relations'. Second, the analysis specifies the policies applied at the national level and the role of nation-state policy. Third, the paper criticizes the international development institutions' policies. In each of the levels mentioned above, the analysis reveals the fundamental policy theory issues of neoclassical economics, as the intellectual defender of free market economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper conceives of the market as an institution, and contrasts two theoretical approaches: Institutionalism, with an evolutionary and analytical bias, whose theoretical basis comes from "Old/Original" Institutionalism, and New Institutional Economics, with an analytical, contractual approach, linked to mainstream economics. Both approaches have given relevant contributions, as they consider the importance of institutions for economic performance. The limits of New Institutional Economics are particularly relevant, whose analysis of the operation of markets is centered on the logic of transaction cost economics as a determinant of economic performance. Evolutionary Institutionalism, in turn, sees the market within a broader scope, in which cost economies only partially explains economic performance, but it is not necessarily seen as a determining factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the benefits of economic freedom. Components used in measuring economic freedom; Importance of economic freedom for economic growth; Importance of income equality; Neoclassical explanation of economic growth.

Many preconditions for a rapid transition to industrial capitalism existed in Tuscany in the late medieval/early modern period, including relatively efficient agricultural production; a well-developed, commercial manufacturing sector; the absence of a powerful feudal nobility and feudal obligations; a large, precocious urban economy; and the development of a territorial state. No such transition occurred, however. Previous explanations for this are inadequate, because they discount the strength of the Tuscany economy or downplay the presence of these preconditions. To explain the Tuscan outcome, this article draws on sectoral theories (agriculture vs. manufacturing) from the neoclassical and Marxist literature. Since these theories often give the wrong prediction, because they are based on formal attributes of actors, the author combines them with a Weberian conceptualization of substantively specific economic interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the history of the theory of agricultural self-sufficiency. Evolution of bourgeois capitalist development in third world countries; Discussion on the theory of dependency; Explanation of the neoclassical economic principle of scale.