Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:10:49 — 48.1MB)

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• Guest: Till Düppe
• Hosted and produced by Reinhard Schumacher

In this episode, Till Düppe talks with Reinhard about the development of Economics in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), better known as East Germany – a state that existed from 1948 until 1990. We discuss Till’s general approach of historical epistemology of economics before discussing in detail the development of Marxist-Leninist economics in the GDR from its beginning to its abrupt end in 1990. Till also compares this system of knowledge with economics before and after the GDR. Additionally, we discuss some methodological approaches, such as Karl Mannheim’s concept of generations and institutional history.

Till is an associate professor at the Department of Economics Sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Also mentioned in this episode is Episode 12 with Adam Leeds on the Development of Soviet and Russian Economics.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:18:19 — 57.1MB)

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• Guest: Dennis Rasmussen
• Hosted and produced by Reinhard Schumacher

In this episode, Dennis Rasmussen talks with Reinhard about David Hume and Adam Smith. The episode focuses on Dennis’s book The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought. We discuss the Scottish Enlightenment, Hume’s and Smith’s lives, their mutual influence, and friendship in science. Additionally, Dennis talks about Adam Smith and economic inequality, as well as writing for a broader academic audience and for the general public.

Dennis is a professor of Political Science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. His research is mostly in the history of political thought.

Books and articles by Dennis Rasmussen mentioned in this episode:

• The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought
• Adam Smith and the Death of David Hume The Letter to Strahan and Related Texts
• The Problems and Promise of Commercial Society Adam Smith’s Response to Rousseau
• Adam Smith on What Is Wrong with Economic Inequality, American Political Science Review
• The Problem With Inequality, According to Adam Smith, The Atlantic
• Does “Bettering Our Condition” Really Make Us Better Off? Adam Smith on Progress and Happiness, American Political Science Review

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:25 — 37.6MB)

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• Guest: Maria Bach, The American University of Paris
• Hosted and produced by Reinhard Schumacher

In this episode, Reinhard talks with Maria Bach about her PhD thesis Redefining universal development from and at the margins: Indian Economics’ contribution to development discourse, 1870-1905. We discuss her interest in Indian economic thought, her methodological approach of Positive Discourse Analysis, the development of the Indian economy and of Indian economics in the second half of the 19th century. Maria describes how Indian Economics was influenced by the Indian economic experience and the policy they recommended for Indian development. A focus in the discussion is on the distinct concept of development, which Indian economists developed. In Maria’s thesis, she focuses on three Indian economists: Dadabhai Naoroji, Mahadev Govind Ranade, and Romesh Chunder Dutt. They are also the main protagonists in our discussion.

Maria Bach is an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at the American University of Paris. She has recently finished her PhD at King’s College London in International Political Economy. In her thesis, she analyses how Indian Political Economists constructed an idea of development at the turn of the 19th century. Before starting her PhD, Maria was a consultant at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris working on a project entitled New Approaches to Economic Challenges. Maria completed her MSc in Development Economics in 2012 at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and her BA in International Economics and Applied Mathematics at the American University of Paris in 2011. And Maria is a co-host of Ceteris Never Paribus: The History of Economic Thought Podcast.

An article based on some of her Phd research has been published in the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought (EJHET): What laws determine progress? An Indian contribution to the idea of progress based on Mahadev Govind Ranade’s works, 1870–1901

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:16:28 — 46.7MB)

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• Guest: Adam Leeds
• Hosted and produced by Reinhard Schumacher

In this episode, Adam Leeds talks with Reinhard about his thesis “Spectral Liberalism: On the Subject of Political Economy in Moscow”, for which Adam won the 2018 “Joseph Dorfman Best Dissertation Prize” awarded by the History of Economics Society. We talk about the development of Soviet and Russian economics and its relationship with politics starting from the late tsarist era, the Soviet Union under first Lenin and Stalin, the post-Stalin era, Gorbachev’s reforms, ending with the development in the 1990s and early 2000s. The topics we discuss include Adam’s research approach of oral history, methodological issues about conducting interviews in Russia, and the relationship between anthropology and the history of economic thought.

Adam is an anthropologist (with an interest in the history of economics) and an assistant professor at Department of Slavic Languages at Columbia University.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:54 — 37.0MB)

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• Guest: Paul Dudenhefer
• Hosted and produced by Reinhard Schumacher

In this episode, Reinhard talks with Paul Dudenhefer about academic writing, especially about writing English journal articles. The topics we discuss include the framing of an article, writing for an “Anglo-American audience”, how to write clearly and entertainingly, how to avoid the curse of knowledge, how to get most out of feedback, and writing for a general audience.

Paul is a professional writer and editor. He was copy editor of the journal History of Political Economy (HOPE) for more than 15 years, until 2016. Currently, Paul is the managing editor of the journal Politics & Society. Paul has taught writing to graduate students and given workshops on writing. He has also written a booklet titled Writing the Field Paper and Job Market Paper: A Holistic and Practical Guide for PhD Students in Economics. You can find Paul on his website http://www.pauldudenhefer.net (where you can also hire him to edit your paper).

Books and articles mentioned by Paul in this episode:

• Paul Dudenhefer: Writing the Field Paper and Job Market Paper: A Holistic and Practical Guide for PhD Students in Economics
• Joseph M. Williams/Joseph Bizup: Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace
• George Gopen: Expectations: Teaching Writing from the Reader’s Perspective
• John Gardner: The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers
• Deidre McCloskey: Economical Writing
• Steven Pinker: The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Centuryo
• Steven Pinker (2014): Why Academics Stink at Writing, The Chronicle of Higher Education (behind a paywall)
• Samuelson, Paul A. (1965): A Catenary Turnpike Theorem Involving Consumption and the Golden Rule, American Economic Review (behind a paywall)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:59 — 37.9MB)

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• Guest: Irwin Collier, Free University of Berlin
• Hosted and produced by Reinhard Schumacher

In this episode Irwin Collier, professor of Economics at the John-F.-Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin, talks about his project Economics in the Rear-View Mirror, which recently celebrated its third anniversary. On his website, Irwin is collecting and making available teaching resources used in economics programmes at US universities. These resources include syllabi, exams, and lecture notes. His project is covering the period from roughly 1870 – 1970. So far, the website features more than 750 artefacts, including documents from Joseph Schumpeter, Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, Frank Knight, and many more well-known and lesser-known economists. Irwin’s website is a treasure for historians of economics, and a treasure that is still growing. The interview covers the motivation and aim of the project, some technical and archival topics, as well as some lessons on the development of economics from 1870–1970 that can be drawn from the project so far.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:13 — 54.7MB)

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• Guest: Erwin Dekker, Erasmus University Rotterdam
• Hosted and produced by Reinhard Schumacher

In this episode, Erwin Dekker talks about his book The Viennese Students of Civilization: The Meaning and Context of Austrian Economics Reconsidered. We discuss Erwin’s cultural approach to the history of economic thought in general, before Erwin talks about the cultural context and historical developments which he argues are important to understand the development of early Austrian economics from its beginning in the late 19th century until the emigration of Austrian scholars in the 1930s. The interview also covers how Austrian economists adapted to their exiles in the English-speaking world and how modern Austrian economics differs from the approach used by Austrian economists in Austria. Towards the end of the interview, we discuss the challenges of writing a book that covers a large group of people, the endeavour of transforming a PhD thesis into a book published by the Cambridge University Press, and the role of historians of economic thought as the last generalists.

Erwin is a post-doctoral researcher at the Erasmus School of Economics where he is working on the intellectual biography of Nobel laureate and Dutch economist Jan Tinbergen. He is also assistant professor in cultural economics at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication and has been post-doctoral fellow at the Economics Department of George Mason University. His research focuses on the intersection of art and culture with economics. He has published in the fields of cultural economics, economic methodology and intellectual history, and he is currently working on the moral frameworks which sustain markets. And he is a co-host of this podcast.