Smith and Marx Walk into a Bar: A History of Economics Podcast

Jennifer and François Allisson chat with Verena Halsmayer, University Assistant in the Department of History at the University of Vienna. The conversation focuses on Dr. Halsmayer's award-winning book, Managing Growth in Miniature: Solow's Model as an Artifact (Cambridge University Press, 2024), which explores the historical and technical development of Robert Solow's famous economic growth model. Other topics include Halsmayer's work on "Interventionist Social Knowledge" and "alternative economic planning."

Jennifer and François are joined by our first return guest, Catherine Herfeld, Professor of Philosophy and History of Economics at the Institute of Philosophy at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. Catherine first appeared on the show in Episode 29 in February 2020. Topics discussed in this more recent episode include Catherine's work on the history and philosophy of rational choice theory, her forthcoming book Conversations on Rational Choice, and some of her latest work on the topic of model transfer.

François, Jennifer, and Çınla discuss a few recent additions to the literature.
If you are interested in reading the papers discussed in this episode, here they are (unfortunately, some may be behind paywalls):
Freedom, State, and Market: The Real Worlds of Economic Planning
Angus Hebenton and Martin O'Neill
To Change or Not to Change. The Evolution of Forecasting Models at the Bank of England
Aurélien Goutsmedt, Francesco Sergi, Béatrice Cherrier, Juan Acosta, Clément Fontan, and François Claveau
Piero Sraffa and Counterfactuals: A View from Sraffa's Unpublished Papers in the Late 1920s
Heinz D. Kurz, Neri Salvadori, and Rodolfo Signorino

The co-hosts are joined by three Junior Fellows at Duke University's Center for the History of Political Economy, Benjamin Brisson, Eva Jacob, and Raphaël Orange-Leroy, to discuss their interests in the history of economic thought, their experiences in graduate school, and their research projects.

François and Jennifer are joined by Peter Boettke, Distinguished University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University (among other titles), to discuss his unique and influential teacher, Kenneth Boulding, the history of the Socialist Calculation Debate, and the possible significance of artificial intelligence for the future of political economy.