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Losers in Trade: Economics and Normative Justifications

  • Should there be free trade? This question finds different, and often contradicting answers in philosophy and economics. Among economists, there is a remarkable consensus that free markets are desirable. It is this curious consensus that motivates this study. This dissertations aims to explain, reconstruct and contest the neoclassical vision in mainstream trade theory. It is argued that economic justifications for free trade policies rely on an array of implicit and explicit normative premises,and that economists take positions on topics that are usually dealt with by political philosophers. Taken together, these premises and positions amount to what will be called the neoclassical vision. It is argued that throughout the history of economics, economic doctrines were inescapably normative. Tracing the intellectual and historical origins of this neoclassical vision, it is shown how a specific view of what justice demands in the economy came to be constitutive of today’s economic arguments. I hence attempt to treat economics today as it has historically been: as a branch of political philosophy, and as inextricably normative. Normative trade theory and the theoretical arguments put forward by international economists will serve as the case study on which basis the neoclassical vision is reconstructed. In turn, the vision will be critically assessed from a liberal egalitarian perspective. Particular attention will be paid to the question of the role of politics in how losers from economic activity are treated. Following this critical analysis, I argue for the need of a normative ‘countervision’that is most convincingly provided by John Rawls’s early work. It will then be outlined how Rawls could respond and overcome the pitfalls of the neoclassical vision – even though Rawls is deeply influenced by conventional economic thought himself. (...)

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Metadaten
Document Type:Doctoral Thesis
Language:English
Author(s):Robert F. Lepenies
Advisor:Henrik Enderlein
Referee:Thomas Pogge, Claus Offe, Stéphanie Novak
Hertie Collections (Serial Number):Dissertations submitted to the Hertie School (01/2013)
Publication year:2013
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
Granting Institution:Hertie School
Thesis date:2015/08/26
Number pages:XV, 273
Release Date:2017/06/28
Notes:
Shelf mark: 2015D001 + 2015D002
Hertie School Research:Publications PhD Researchers
Licence of document (German):Metadaten (öffentlich), Volltext (zugriffsbeschränkt)
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