Corporatism and Planning in Monnet\u2019s Idea of Europe

Standard histories of European integration emphasize the immediate aftermath of World War II as the moment when the seeds of the European Union were first sown. However, the interwar years witnessed a flurry of concern with the reconstruction of the world order, generating arguments that cut across the different social sciences, then plunged in a period of disciplinary soul-searching and feverish activism. Economics was no exception: several of the most prominent interwar economists, such as F. A. Hayek, Jan Tinbergen, Lionel Robbins, Fran\ue7ois Perroux, J. M. Keynes and Robert Triffin, contributed directly to larger public discussions on peace, order and stability. This edited volume combines these different strands of historical narrative into a unified framework, showing how political economy was integral to the interwar literature on international relations and, conversely, how economists were eager to incorporate international politics into their own concerns. The book brings together a group of scholars with varied disciplinary backgrounds, whose combined perspectives allow us to explore three analytical layers. The first part studies how different forms of economic knowledge, from economic programming to international finance, were used in the quest for a stable European order. The second part focuses on the existence of conflicting expectations about the role of social scientific knowledge, either as a source of technical solutions or as an input for enlightened public discussion. The third part illustrates how certain ideas and beliefs found concrete expression in specific institutional settings, which amplified their political leverage. The three parts are enclosed by an introductory essay, laying out the broad topics explored in the volume, and a substantial postscript tying all the historical threads together

National Autonomy, Regional Integration and Global Public Goods: the Debate on the Tobin Tax (1978-2008)

The paper examines the historiography of the proposals for a Tobin Tax, since Tobin himself first published it in 1972 till recent policy proposals

The Limits to Growth. Alfred Marshall and the British Economic Tradition

Concerns related to the capability of economic development and growth to be sustainable in the long run have cyclically surfaced the public debate, at least since the demographic pressure upon resources started to clash with some physical exploitation limits. Nonetheless, along the history of economic thought, most economists have inquired into the question of the limits to growth mainly providing models showing unlimited opportunities thanks to price signals that create incentives for technological progress and input substitution. An important exception is given by some British economists who, during the Nineteenth Century, considered the possible detrimental consequences of economic growth. The questions of population growth, absolute scarcity of natural resources, externalities on the urban and natural environment imposed by a rapid industrial revolution, the worsening of the quality of life and of human capital were all variously debated. But it was with Alfred Marshall that the debate among economists was enriched by reflections that should be considered as a pioneering contribution to many aspects of the modern concepts of limits to growth and sustainable development. Our paper aims at inquiring into the cultural heritage and scientific background which preceded and accompanied his works and underlining continuities and innovations along the Nineteenth Century economic thought