Search results for ""Author Donald R. Stabile""

The economists who began using statistics to analyze financial markets in the 1950s have been credited with revolutionizing the scholarship of investing and with inaugurating modern financial economics. By examining the work of economists who used statistics to analyze financial markets before 1950, Donald Stabile provides evidence about the forerunners of modern financial economics.In studying these predecessors, this innovative book reveals that, starting around 1900, there were economists in the United States who believed that changes in stock prices could be treated as a random variable to be analyzed with statistical methods, and who used early versions of the efficient markets theory to justify their belief. Although they did not call themselves Bayesians, the author explores how they adhered to a philosophy consistent with Bayesian statistics. An epilogue considers the linkages between the forerunners of modern finance, its innovators and modern successors.An original work in the history of economic thought, Forerunners of Modern Financial Economics will be of great interest to both economists and historians interested in the development of statistical finance and economic thought, as well as to statisticians, financial analysts, and advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying financial economics.

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For the last decade a movement for providing workers with a living wage has been growing in the US. This book describes how great thinkers in the history of economic thought viewed the living wage and highlights how the ideas of the early economists such as Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill support the idea of a living wage and contrast with the ideas of more recent free-market economists who do not. The lessons we can learn from the contrasting ideas of both the early and recent economists will help us to think more clearly about the issues surrounding whether, how and why workers should be paid a living wage.The book reviews the history of economic ideas related to the idea of the living wage. It presents a debate between two ideologies, the moral economy and the market economy, as captured by the need to sustain the workforce, enhance its capability and avoid the externality effects of low wages. It is unique in that it applies these concepts exclusively to labor. The book also breaks new ground by presenting Adam Smith as a moral economist who anticipated many of the arguments set forth by modern day advocates of the living wage. It shows how successive economic thinkers added to Smith's arguments for a living (subsistence) wage or found fault with those arguments. Throughout the book Donald Stabile draws out the lessons that this history of the economic thought about adequate wages has for the modern living wage movement.Economists interested in the history of economic thought and labor issues will find this book a compelling read, as will academics and community groups advocating for a living wage.

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Donald Stabile places current concerns over the commercialization of academia in a historical context by describing the long-standing question of the extent to which market economics can and should be applied to higher education. The debate between Plato and Aristotle on one side and sophists on the other provides a foundation for the modern debate of endowment versus tuition models. The author tackles the intellectual discourse over the mission of higher education and the effect markets and competition might have on it. The discussion encompasses the ideas on higher education of leading economic thinkers such as Adam Smith, Jeremy Benthan, John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshall, Thorstein Veblen and John K. Galbraith and identifies them as supporters of either sophism or virtue. Included, too, are the thoughts of educators and policymakers influenced by free market ideas, such as Benjamin Rush, Francis Wayland and Charles W. Eliot, as well as those opposed to them. In addition, the author explores the development of collegiate business schools in the US and how they were justified on the basis of virtue. The book concludes with a section on for-profit colleges and their relationship to sophism.This fascinating study of the centuries-old intellectual debate over the mission of academia will appeal to all those involved with higher education. Historians of economic thought will find the influence of economic ideas on this debate of great interest.

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Markets, Planning and the Moral Economy examines the rise of the Progressive movement in the United States during the early decades of the 20th century, particularly the trend toward increased government intervention in the market system that culminated in the establishment of President Roosevelt's New Deal programs. The authors consult writings from politicians, business leaders, and economists of the time, using a variety of historical perspectives to illuminate the conflicting viewpoints that arose as the country struggled to recover from the worst economic downturn in its history.This fascinating historical study explores the conflict between what the authors identify as two competing ideologies: the market economy, whose proponents advocated a hands-off approach and a trust in allowing the markets to adjust themselves, and the moral economy, whose supporters favored a system of government planning and stewardship designed to promote economic fairness. Presenting arguments from each side by public figures and intellectuals, this book offers the most thorough and complete analysis to date of the new economic discourse that arose during the Progressive movement and remains a vital component of our economic and political discussions today. Professors and students of economics, political science, public policy, and history will all find much to admire in this fascinating and accessible volume. Scholars from across the world will also find this book helpful in contemplating the long-term effects that the tension between the market economy and the moral economy can have on an individual country s economic system.Contents: 1. Introduction: The Moral Economy versus the Market Economy 2. The Moral Economy in the 19th Century: Bellamy versus Sumner 3. The Business Cycle: A Moral Economy Perspective 4. The Business Cycle: A Market Economy Perspective 5. The Progressive Push for Planning: 1900 to 1920 6. The Progressive Push for Planning: 1920 to 1930 7. The Great Depression 8. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Moral Economy 9. The National Industrial Recovery Act: Moral Economy Perspectives 10. The National Industrial Recovery Act: Market Economy Perspectives 11. The Aftermath of the National Industrial Recovery Act 12. Keynes, Fiscal Policy and Planning 13. The New Deal and Planning Epilogue: The Moral Economy in the 21st Century Bibliography Index

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