Intersubjectivity in Economics: Agents and Structures (Economics As Socialtheory, 18)

321 Pages·2001·1.18 MB·English

by  Edward Fullbrook (Editor)

INTERSUBJECTIVITY IN
ECONOMICS
Belief in the nineteenth-century neoclassical vision of atomistic economic
agency, the foundation of twentienth-century economics, is now fast
disappearing. This collection of lively essays responds to the emerging
consensus that understanding the economic realities of today and of
tomorrow requires theoretical approaches that recognize the intersubjec-
tive nature of economic reality.
It is now self-evident that interdependencies between the tastes, prefer-
ences, demands, goals, ethics, perceptions and decisions of economic
actors are pervasive. Intersubjective economic phenomena can no longer
be sensibly treated as inconsequential exceptions to an atomistic neoclas-
sical rule. Economists today face the challenge of developing conceptual
frameworks and analytical systems for comprehending the economic real-
ities structured by intersubjectivity.
The essays in this volume, many of them outstanding and some likely
to become classics, survey the foundational steps in this project. This
international collection brings together theorists of note from Europe and
America who, from a variety of perspectives, explore the possibilities for
a non-atomistic economic theory. Each essay is both an independent
exploration and a starting point for work by others.
Edward Fullbrook is the author of numerous academic works – books,
chapters in books and journal articles – in economics, philosophy and
social theory.
ECONOMICS AS SOCIAL THEORY
Edited by Tony Lawson
University of Cambridge
Social theory is experiencing something of a revival within economics.
Critical analyses of the particular nature of the subject matter of social
studies and of the types of method, categories and modes of explanation
that can legitimately be endorsed for the scientific study of social objects,
are re-emerging. Economists are again addressing such issues as the rela-
tionship between agency and structure, between economy and the rest of
society, and between the enquirer and the object of enquiry. There is a
renewed interest in elaborating basic categories such as causation, com-
petition, culture, discrimination, evolution, money, need, order, organiza-
tion, power probability, process, rationality, technology, time, truth,
uncertainty, value, etc.
The objective for this series is to facilitate this revival further. In con-
temporary economics the label ‘theory’ has been appropriated by a group
that confines itself to largely asocial, ahistorical, mathematical ‘modeling’.
Economics as Social Theorythus reclaims the ‘theory’ label, offering a plat-
form for alternative rigorous, but broader and more critical conceptions of
theorizing.
Other titles in this series include:
ECONOMICS AND LANGUAGE
Edited by Willie Henderson
RATIONALITY, INSTITUTIONS AND
ECONOMIC METHODOLOGY
Edited by Uskali Mäki, Bo Gustafsson, and Christian Knudsen
NEW DIRECTIONS IN ECONOMIC METHODOLOGY
Edited by Roger Backhouse
WHO PAYS FOR THE KIDS?
Nancy Folbre
RULES AND CHOICE IN ECONOMICS
Viktor Vanberg
BEYOND RHETORIC AND REALISM IN ECONOMICS
Thomas A. Boylan and Paschal F. O’Gorman
FEMINISM, OBJECTIVITY AND ECONOMICS
Julie A. Nelson
ECONOMIC EVOLUTION
Jack A. Vromen
ECONOMICS AND REALITY
Tony Lawson
THE MARKET
John O’Neill
ECONOMICS AND UTOPIA
Geoff Hodgson
CRITICAL REALISM IN ECONOMICS
Edited by Steve Fleetwood
THE NEW ECONOMIC CRITICISM
Edited by Martha Woodmansee and Mark Osteeen
WHAT DO ECONOMISTS KNOW?
Edited by Robert F. Garnett, Jr
POSTMODERNISM, ECONOMICS AND KNOWLEDGE
Edited by Stephen Cullenberg, Jack Amariglio and David F. Ruccio
THE VALUES OF ECONOMICS
An Aristotelian perspective
Irene van Staveren
HOW ECONOMICS FORGOT HISTORY
The problem of historical specificity in social science
Geoffrey M. Hodgson
INTERSUBJECTIVITY IN ECONOMICS
Agents and structures
Edited by Edward Fullbrook

INTERSUBJECTIVITY
IN ECONOMICS
Agents and structures
Edited by
Edward Fullbrook
London and New York
First published 2002
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P4EE
Simultaneously published in the USAand Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY10001
Routledge is an imprint of the
Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.
© 2002 selection and editorial matter, Edward Fullbrook; individual
chapters, their authors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized 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.
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
Intersubjectivity in economics: agents and structures/[edited by]
Edward Fullbrook
p. cm.—(Economics as social theory)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-26697-1 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-415-26698-X (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Economics—Psychological aspects. I. Fullbrook, Edward. II. Series.
ISBN 0-203-11666-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-16331-1 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-26697-1 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-26698-X (pbk)
CONTENTS
List of illustrations ix
List of contributors x
Acknowledgements xiv
Introduction: Why intersubjectivity? 1
EDWARD FULLBROOK
PART I
Intersubjective agents
1 Collective intentionality and individual behavior 11
JOHN B. DAVIS
2 Reciprocal fairness, cooperation and limits to competition 28
ERNST FEHR AND ARMIN FALK
3 All consumption is conspicuous 43
ANNE MAYHEW
4 Flaws in the foundation: Consumer behavior and
general equilibrium theory 56
FRANK ACKERMAN
5 On the need for a more complete ontology of the consumer 71
RALPH W. PFOUTS
6 Conspicuous consumption in economic theory and thought 85
ROGER MASON
7 The economics of criminal participation: Radical
subjectivist and intersubjectivist critiques 105
PETER WYNARCZYK
vii
CONTENTS
8 ‘Everybody is talking about it’: Intersubjectivity and
the television industry 123
SHAUN P. HARGREAVES HEAP
PART II
Intersubjective structures
9 Market, imitation and tradition: Hayek vs Keynes 139
JEAN-PIERRE DUPUY
10 Reconstitutive downward causation: Social structure
and the development of individual agency 159
GEOFFREY M. HODGSON
11 Conventions of co-ordination and the framing of
uncertainty 181
LAURENT THÉVENOT
12 Intersubjectivity in the socio-economic world:
Acritical realist perspective 198
PAUL LEWIS AND JOCHEN RUNDE
13 Social networks and information 216
PAUL ORMEROD
14 Dispositions, social structures and economic practices:
Towards a new economic sociology 231
FRÉDÉRIC LEBARON
15 Adam Smith’s sympathy: Towards a normative economics 241
S. ABU TURAB RIZVI
16 The theory of conventions and a new theory of the firm 254
THIERRY LEVY
17 An intersubjective theory of value 273
EDWARD FULLBROOK
Name Index 300
Subject Index 305
viii
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
2.1 The prisoner’s dilemma game 30
2.2 Relation of desired effort and actual effort to the profit
offered to the worker 32
2.3 Income reduction due to punishment in relation to
the deviation from others’ contributions to the
project 37
2.4 Distribution of contributions in the final period of the
generalized PD with and without punishment
(relative frequencies) 38
7.1 Main linkages connecting the specific domain of the
economics of criminal participation with general
Chicago economics 107
8.1 Programme choice 125
8.2 Demand for an individual programme 125
13.1 Equilibrium distribution of active sellers 223
13.2 Unemployment rate and average number of people
on each person’s social network 228
17.1 Market total exchange-value curve for commodity X 285
17.2 Market total exchange-value curve for commodity Y 286
Tables
2.1 Effort choices with and without reward/
punishment opportunities 33
2.2 Reciprocal fairness limits competition 39
11.1 Figures of judgement in a complex situation 184
16.1 Co-production process for quality 266
ix