W.C.ミッチェルとウィリアム・スタンレー・ジェヴォンズ経済理論の類型(アメリカ制度学派の研究,共同研究)

概要

論文の詳細を見る
Together with Thorstein Bunde Veblen and John Rogers Commons, Wesley Claire Mitchell is one of the founders of institutional economics. Studying under the tradition of Veblen's economics, he was also influenced by John Dewey, William McDougall and John B. Watson. Mitchell persued painstaking empirical studies along quantitative lines and explored the evolutionary change of the modern economy in terms of business cycles. At the same time, through criticism of traditional economics, Mitchell established his own unique economics. Considering economics as a cultural science, he placed an importance on economists' views on human nature, and, especially, on the relationship between psychology and economics. In his book, Types of Economic Theory: From Mercantilism to Institutionalism, Mitchell developed intensive discussion on type of economic theory of William Stanley Jevons who is one of the founders of the marginal utility school. Through his hedonistic view of human nature, Jevons' economic theory seems to have given an influence on the fundamental nature of current orthodox economics. For this reason, I became interested in finding out how Mitchell examined the psychological background of Jevons' economic theory. First of all, Mitchell made his comments on Jevons' life with regard to his research, activities, letters and diaries. Further, he felt that the characteristics of Jevons' economic theory were determined by various environments surrounding him. Mitchell's method of analysis is based on an epistemological standpoint that the thinking of human beings is determined by their surroundings. In any case, Mitchell shed light on Jevons' inclinations, namely, his great love and talent for natural science. Furthermore, Mitchell concluded that this was one of the major factors which led Jevons to establish his mathematical economics. As an assayer of the Royal Mint in Australia, Jevons carried out statistical studies on meteorology. Mitchell developed his conclusion that these studies in Australia formed the basis of Jevons' sun-spot theory of business cycles. Next, Mitchell made comparative studies between Jevons' economic theories and classical economics. Between them he recognized a remarkable difference concerning the treatment of value. Nevertheless, he stressed the importance of the relation between Ricardo's economics and Jevons' economic theory. Because, both of them were, explicitly or implicitly, based on Jeremy Bentham's hedonistic psychology. Mitchell's observation went further on to Jevons' hedonistic calculus and its conception of human nature. Jevons' conception of human nature was as hedonistic as that of Bentham's. However, Jevons' conception of human nature was, unlike that of Bentham's, not connected with the philosophy of social reform. Consequently, neither public interests nor social welfare was needed to be incorporated in Jevons' conception of human nature. In this respect, Jevons made some modification so that his utility theory could be based on Bentham's "felicific calculus". This is the hedonistic calculus which was utilized by Jevons and by those marginalists in economics after him. Finally, Mitchell made detailed examinations of Jevons' idea of marginal increments which were not found in Bentham's theory. This idea played a decisive role in explaining his theory of "value in exchange" as the final degree of utility. At last, Mitchell assessed the type of Jevons' economic theory as the mechanics of utility. However, I point out that Mitchell could not fully criticize Jevons' conception of human nature which was constructed purely from an hedonistic standpoint, simply because Mitchell did not grasp a human as an active being as Veblen did. Mitchell should have examined Jevons' conception of human nature in terms of its social background. Further, Mitchell should have pointed out the limitation of Jevons' mathematical economic theory from the viewpoint that economics is a cultural science. Nevertheless, Mitchell's detailed examination of the psychological background of Jevons' economic theory is an outstanding contribution to institutional economics.
日本大学の論文
1985-03-20

W.C.ミッチェルとウィリアム・スタンレー・ジェヴォンズ経済理論の類型(アメリカ制度学派の研究,共同研究)

スポンサーリンク

概要

著者

関連論文

スポンサーリンク