The systematic emergence of the test approach to index numbers took place in the early 1920s, a period marked by pluralism in American economics. Promoted by Irving Fisher, the test approach to index numbers aimed to select a universally valid, ideal formula for index numbers by employing a series of mathematical tests. However, from the first presentation of Fisher's approach, at the 1920 Annual Meeting of the American Statistical Association, to the publication of his book The Making of Index Numbers, in 1922, he faced a series of criticisms, not addressed to his ideal formula per se, but rather aimed at the very idea that a universal formula for index numbers could be singled out. The most prominent individuals involved in this debate were Wesley Mitchell, Warren Persons, Correa Walsh (Fisher's only supporter), and Allyn Young. Among them, the foremost representative of Fisher's antagonists was Mitchell. This study aims at reconstructing this antagonism, arguing that the disagreements between Fisher and Mitchell resulted from their different backgrounds and their distinct understandings of economics as a science. More specifically, this article illustrates how Fisher, as a mathematical economist, privileged a universalist conception of science, while Mitchell, as an institutionalist, understood economics as a contextual and historical discipline, and it illustrates how these preconceptions spilled over to their debates on index numbers. To illuminate such positions, this study explores their archival correspondence.
O artigo tem por objetivo analisar as influências internacionais utilizadas porEugênio Gudin na defesa de sua agenda econômica liberal. Gudin manteve contatoconstante com importantes economistas que trabalhavam na Europa e nos EstadosUnidos, transmitindo e adaptando o que encontrava no que considerava a fronteira daciência econômica para o cenário nacional. Analisamos dois temas centrais nos quaisGudin absorvia os desenvolvimentos da ciência econômica estrangeira para defendersua agenda liberal: sua teoria do hiperemprego e a defesa do livre-comércio.
Developmental macroeconomics, the economic theory that grounds new developmentalism, is a heterodox approach whose establishment was deeply influenced by dissonant schools of thought. Among these, post-Keynesianism occupies a special place. This essay aims at identifying the aspects of developmental macroeconomics in which this post-Keynesian influence is more notorious. To serve this purpose, we compare the economic diagnoses, social objectives and policy prescriptions defended by the partisans of these two schools of economic thought. Our conclusion is that despite the significant influence of post-Keynesianism in the formation of the new developmentalist strategy, there are several aspects of this strategy that must be understood as an original contribution of the Brazilian developmental school.
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