The Scarcity Hypothesis in Modern Economics

Bronfenbrenner, Martin

doi:10.1111/j.1536-7150.1962.tb00847.x

Cited by 17 publications

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“…(See also Beckerman 1956.) Yet, as Johnson, Bronfenbrenner (1962, p. 265) and others pointed out, the issue is not the size of the physical stock of goods at some time or place, but rather the amount of the good that would be demanded at a zero price. By this definition, the problem of scarcity had been no more overcome by societal affluence than it was absent during the mass unemployment during the Great Depression.…”

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confidence: 99%

Defining Economics: The Long Road to Acceptance of the Robbins Definition

Backhouse

Medema

2009

Economica

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Robbins' "Essay" gave economics a definition that came to dominate the professional literature. This definition laid a foundation that could be seen as justifying both the narrowing of economic theory to the theory of constrained maximization or rational choice and economists' ventures into other social science fields. Though often presented as self-evidently correct, both the definition itself and the developments that it has been used to support were keenly contested. This paper traces the reception, diffusion and contesting of the Robbins definition, arguing that this process took around three decades and that even then there was still significant dissent. Copyright (c) The London School of Economics and Political Science 2009.

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confidence: 99%

Defining Economics: The Long Road to Acceptance of the Robbins Definition

Backhouse

Medema

2009

Economica

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“…The power struggle between social groups will be a salient mechanism conditioning SAS (Sartre 1991). In addition, different conceptions of SAS may be at the core of any ideology (Bronfenbrenner 1962; Harvey 1974). A state of abundance is the goal of some emancipatory projects, for example, Marxism (Gowdy 1984); sufficiency for others (Daly and Farley 2004); and the inevitability of scarcity for yet others (Hardin 1974).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robbins and Malthus on Scarcity, Abundance, and Sufficiency

Daoud

2010

American J Econ Sociol

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The problem of scarcity is often talked about, but it is rarely clearly defined. In this article, two different views of scarcity are outlined: absolute and relative scarcity. These two are respectively exemplified by Malthus's and Robbins's views of scarcity. However, both of these views tend to naturalize and universalize scarcity, and thus overlook abundance and sufficiency, which are important states in the social provisioning process. It is argued that this is due to ignorance of the sociocultural causal underpinnings of scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency (SAS). The introduction of these mechanisms enables further conceptual differentiation of SAS (e.g., quasi‐, artificial‐, natural‐).

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“…Scarcity is commonly defined between people as a 'lack of something' thanks to a highly perceived demand and it can be subjectively eliminated by perception of 'having consistently full shopping shelves'. From the economic point of view, scarcity is recognized as a higher demand for free goods rather than the ability to supply those goods for free (Bronfenbrenner, 1962). Scarcity can be perceived as absolute, where the inability to find additional unit of resource is impossible due to its physical limits and non-existent substitute; or relative, in which shortage of supply in one or several areas is imbalanced, or even disrupted by external or internal forces (Daoud, 2010;Wagner and Newman, 2013).…”

Section: Economic Origin Of Scarcitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Transitional Theories to Post-Scarcity in Science-Fiction Literature

Mizerák¹

2019

EJOBSAT

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Scarcity, or limited resources, is the fundamental economic problem the humanity faces continuously. Without it, economics would be meaningless. Science-fiction literature however already depicts societies where abundance is becoming persistent feature in the economic structures. Are there any meaningful and relevant ideas which economics can imply from the transmission of economies to post-scarcity in science-fiction literature? This paper touches on ideas of some of the most elaborated economies transforming to post-scarcity in science-fiction genre since 1910s by identifying if the multiple-born source of scarcity (namely labour and primary resources) have been eradicated, naturally questioning the existence of medium of exchange - money. Results of the paper suggest that even though the society looks like it had achieved post-scarcity, it is still experiencing scarcity and uses a medium of exchange to redistribute resource. This implies that these theories rather depict a socialistic utopia than a fully emerged post-scarcity society, even in the most progressive novels scarcity rarely still occurs.

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The Scarcity Hypothesis in Modern Economics

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Defining Economics: The Long Road to Acceptance of the Robbins Definition

Defining Economics: The Long Road to Acceptance of the Robbins Definition

Robbins and Malthus on Scarcity, Abundance, and Sufficiency

Comparison of Transitional Theories to Post-Scarcity in Science-Fiction Literature

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