Rediscovering Social Economics

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Humans, Society and Markets

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. The Foundations of Economics

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 3-15

   3. The Political and Moral Dimensions of Economics

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 17-30

   4. The Moral and Social Problem of Scarcity

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 31-40

   5. Social Welfare, Markets and Efficiency

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 41-56

   6. Understanding Human Choice

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 57-67

   7. Challenges to Homo Economicus

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 69-86

   8. Understanding Markets

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 87-101

3. Income Distribution: Labor and Financial Markets

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 103-103

      PDF

   2. The Supply of Labor

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 105-120

   3. The Demand for Labor

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 121-131

   4. Labor Market Equilibrium?

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 133-144

   5. The Mondragón Alternative

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 145-152

   6. Financial Markets and the Growth of Plutonomies

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 153-164

   7. The Evolving Dialogue

      • Roger D. Johnson

      Pages 165-173

4. Back Matter

   Pages 175-191

   PDF

This book argues that economists need to reengage with societal issues, such as justice and fairness in distribution, that inevitably arise when discussing the basic economic problem of unlimited human wants and finite resources. Approaching the problem through a history of economic thought, Johnson reexamines Adam Smith’s contributions to show how they reach beyond neoclassical models that are too simplistic to reflect the growing interdependencies of market economies. He breaks down supposedly value-free neoclassical postulates to expose normative assumptions about economics and justice, demonstrating, for example, that the concept of market equilibrium is problematic because need-based behavior can produce involuntary unemployment even when a competitive labor market achieves equilibrium.

• plutonomy
• opportunity cost
• Pareto Optimality
• marginal utility
• mondragon cooperative
• Carl Menger
• Pareto Optimality
• utilitarianism
• conspicuous consumption
• Thorstein Veblen
• behavioralism
• behaviouralism
• Marginal productivity
• marginal contribution
• unemployment
• Mondragón Cooperative
• plutonomy
• Neoclassical paradigm

• Mechanicsburg, USA

  Roger D. Johnson

Roger D. Johnson is a retired Professor of Economics from Messiah College, USA. He earned the Helen Potter Award from the Association for Social Economics for best article appearing in the Review of Social Economics in 1990.

Policies and ethics