How Social Forces Impact the Economy

244 Pages·2020·10.437 MB·English

by  Steven Pressman (editor)

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How Social Forces Impact

the Economy
Social forces are important determinants of how people behave, how economies
work at the macroeconomic level, and the effectiveness of economic policies.
However, this dimension is generally overlooked in mainstream economics.
How Social Forces Impact the Economy demonstrates that a broader conception of
social economics provides for a better understanding of how economies work
as a whole.
This book argues that adopting a truly social approach to economics opens
the door to studying how people form preferences, and how they learn by
taking cues from others about how to behave and what to consume. Each
chapter contributor has worked to highlight the breadth of new insights and
possibilities that emerge from a fuller understanding of social economics. Part I

focuses on microeconomics, bringing individual behaviors and individual
entrepreneurs into a more social context. Part II focuses on macroeconomic

topics, such as how money and quasi-m onies (like Bitcoins) are social, how
money developed as a social institution, and how social forces matter for eco-
nomic development. Finally, Part III looks at the consequences of considering

social factors when it comes to policy: environmental policy, industrial policy,
and policies promoting greater equality.
This book is invaluable reading to anyone interested in the relationship
between economics and sociology, how social forces affect policy effectiveness,
human behavior, and the overall economy.
Steven Pressman is Professor of Economics at Colorado State University,
USA, and Emeritus Professor of Economics and Finance at Monmouth
University, USA.
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Routledge Advances in Social Economics

Series Editor: John B. Davis, Marquette University
This series presents new advances and developments in social economics thinking
on a variety of subjects that concern the link between social values and economics.
Need, justice and equity, gender, cooperation, work poverty, the environment,
class, institutions, public policy and methodology are some of the most important
themes. Among the orientations of the authors are social economist, institutionalist,
humanist, solidarist, cooperatist, radical and Marxist, feminist, post-K eynesian,
behaviouralist, and environmentalist. The series offers new contributions from
today’s most foremost thinkers on the social character of the economy.
Published in conjunction with the Association of Social Economics.
Economics as Social Science
Economics Imperialism and the Challenge of Interdisciplinary
Roberto Marchionatti and Mario Cedrini
Health Care Economics
John B. Davis and Robert McMaster
Economics and Other Disciplines
Assessing New Economic Currents
Ricardo Crespo
Welfare Economics
An Interpretive History
Roger McCain
History, Methodology and Identity for a 21st Century Social
Economics
Edited by Wilfred Dolfsma, D. Wade Hands and Robert McMaster
How Social Forces Impact the Economy
Edited by Steven Pressman
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge- Advances- in- Social- Economics/ book- series/ SE0071
ii i
How Social Forces Impact

the Economy
Edited by Steven Pressman
iv
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Steven Pressman; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Steven Pressman to be identified as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Pressman, Steven, editor.
Title: How social forces impact the economy / edited by
Steven Pressman.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2020. |
Series: Routledge advances in social economics |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019059195 (print) | LCCN 2019059196 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Economics. | Social interaction. | Economic policy. | Equality.
Classification: LCC HB171 .H79 2020 (print) |
LCC HB171 (ebook) | DDC 338.9–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059195
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059196
ISBN: 978- 0-3 67- 43900- 2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1-0 03- 00634- 3 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
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To the Economics graduate students at Colorado

State University
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vi i
Contents

List of contributors ix

1 Introduction: putting the social back into economics 1

STEVEN PRESSMAN
PART I
Individual behavior 15

2 Becker’s two models of social interaction 17

ROSS TIPPIT
3 Greed, need, and solidarity: the socialization of
Homo economicus 40

ROGER D. JOHNSON
4 The burden of knowledge and Schumpeter’s innovation 59

AUSTIN LANDINI
PART II
Macroeconomics and money 79

5 Money as a social institution: its historical emergence and
political implications 81

ANN E. DAVIS
6 A closer look at the promise of the blockchain in banking
and biobanking 97

VALÉRIE RACINE AND ANITA DANCS
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viii Contents
7 When the cultural argument goes too far: the need to
limit particularism and welcome convergence on socially
progressive goals 118

ANNA KLIMINA
PART III
Policy issues 135

8 Industrial policy and societal goals: a new look at the
American case (from Hamilton to Obama and Trump) 137

MARCO R. DI TOMMASO, MATTIA TASSINARI, AND
ANDREA FERRANNINI
9 Relational determinants of international environmental
cooperation: a panel analysis 166

MIMI HOUSTON
10 Explaining inequality: facts are no longer enough 204

DELL CHAMPLIN AND JANET KNOEDLER
Index 227
ix
Contributors

Dell Champlin was Professor of Economics at Eastern Illinois University
and currently teaches at Oregon State University. She has published articles
in the Review of Social Economy, Journal of Economic Issues, Review of Political
Economy, and International Journal of Social Economics; and she has served as
President of the Association for Evolutionary Economics and the Association
for Institutional Thought.
Anita Dancs is Associate Professor of Economics at Western New England
University. Her research and teaching interests include the political economy
of war, globalization, and food systems.
Ann E. Davis is Associate Professor of Economics at Marist College in
Poughkeepsie, NY. Her recent books include The Evolution of the Property
Relation: Understanding Paradigms, Debates, and Prospects (Palgrave Macmillan,
2015) and Money as a Social Institution: The Institutional Development of Capitalism
(Routledge, 2017). The End of Individualism and the Economy: Emerging
Paradigms of Connections and Community is published in 2020 by Routledge.
Marco R. Di Tommaso is Professor of Applied Economic Studies at the
University of Ferrara (Italy), Director of c.MET05 – National University
Centre for Applied Economic Studies (Italy), Clare Hall Life-Member at
the University of Cambridge (UK), Honorary Professor at South China
University of Technology and at South China Normal University (China).
Andrea Ferrannini is Coordinator of the Strategic Unit on Local
Development at ARCO (Action Research for CO-d evelopment); a Fellow
of c.MET05 – National University Centre for Applied Economic Studies;
and Coordinator of the Thematic Group on Participatory Methods at the
Human Development and Capability Association. He is currently a PhD
student at the University of Ferrara.
Mimi Houston has an MA degree in Economics from Colorado State
University and is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of
Economics at Colorado State University. Her areas of specialization are pol-
itical economy, environmental economics, development economics, and