It is generally accepted that most economic theorists have little, if any, interest in the history of economics. With the increasing refusal of more general journals to consider such work, most history of economics articles are now published in specialist journals, such as History of Political Economy, the Journal of the History of Economic Thought or the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought. While there is an increasing tendency of historians of economics to write for themselves, the economics profession clearly gets on with its business without paying any attention to the field.
This raises the question of whether historians of economics should regain an audience amongst economists and, if so, how they can do it? Is it wishful thinking for historians of economics to hope that their work could have a direct influence on economists? If so, should they simply aim to write things that persuade economists that it is interesting to read about the history of their discipline? Or should historians of economics be exploring other audiences? Some historians of economics have turned to history of science, social studies, intellectual history and history journals. But if this is the path to be followed, what does it imply for the way history of economics is undertaken? Does it imply that the subject needs to be written differently, or that its institutional links with economics might have to be reduced even further?
These are some of the questions that the workshop is intended to explore.
10:30-11:25am
Rodolphe Dos Santos Ferreira (UMR BETA and Université Louis Pasteur)
History of economic analysis as analysis of historic economics
11:35-12:30am
Margaret Schabas (University of British Columbia and London School of Economics)
Coming Together: History of Economics as History of Science
2:15-3:10
Donald Winch (University of Sussex)
Intellectual history and the history of economic thought; A personal account
3:15-4:00
Amanar Akhabbar (GRESE)
Social technology and political economy: the debate on the soviet origins of input-output analysis
4:30-5:15
Teresa Tomas (UMR EconomiX)
The Making of a “Science of War and Peace”: Conflict theories at Michigan, 1952-1962
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