Research in history of economics and related science

Clément Levallois

The instant success of the book by Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology, masks the fact that “sociobiology” as an expression, and as a subject, accepts ancient and changing meanings.

A History of Sociobiology

Sociobiology was a “bombshell” shaking social sciences in the 70’s. Much remains to be said about its reception in economics.

Economics and Sociobiology

How a pure mathematician economist happened to warn its contemporaries against oil depletion, and advocated a return to rural economies.

N. Georgescu-Roegen and Ecological Economics

In the early 1950’s, economist Edith Penrose was active in two social debates: she discussed biological analogies in the columns of the American Economic Review, and she fought McCarthysm on the campus of Johns Hopkins. We try to make sense of these two parallel and intertwined episodes of her intellectual life.

Were Biological Analogies in Economics a Bad Thing?

E. Roy Weintraub in his Stabilizing Dynamics (1992) offered a first view on the parallels between Paul Samuelson’s Foundations of Economic Analysis and Alfred Lotka’s Elements of Physical Biology. We uphold the case and make it even stronger.

Paul Samuelson and Alfred Lotka

How did Nelson and Winter come up with their evolutionary theory of economic change? From Rand Corporation through JFK’s Council of Economic Advisors, we suggest new meanings to Nelson and Winter’s theoretical constructions.

The Genesis of Nelson et Winter’s Evolutionism

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Ongoing projects

In economics and biology alike, behavioral assumptions make a enigma of sociality: how can a self-interested economic man, or an animal with selfish genes, choose to engage in pro-social behavior? We examine how group selection has been considered alternatively as an answer, or as an evasion, to this issue.

Group Selection in Biology and Economics

A long-term project that I have, using J-Stor resources.

J-Stor project

This project started in Sept 2008, and will keep me busy for two years.
Several issues are at stake: How does a subfield come to being? How does it reframe the relations between economics and biology, but also psychology, management science, and medical science?

 

My investigation will take the form of a compared institutional history, an ethnographic study, and an intellectual history of neuroeconomics and its neighboring fields (e.g., neuromarketing).

 

If you work on similar topics, do not hesitate to contact me to exchange our thoughts! (see the “contact” page). See also my blog on social neuroscience

 

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History and social study of neuroeconomics

The following projects are working papers stemming from my PhD dissertation (2003-2008), and need to be developed until publication