"Inequality, Poverty and the Commitment of the Economists"

Paris

Congreso; 20 th Annual Conference of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought ; 2016

ESHET - University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Problems like poverty, inequality and wealth distribution have been present since political economy was born. Classics, Socialists and Keynesians did not ignore their intellectual responsibilities and these themes were very present in their books. Other theoretical paradigms (like the Neoclassical or Monetarist ones) more often than not seem to forget these topics and the social responsibilities of the economists.In the late nineteenth century, the Marginal Revolution meant a deep change. It was a methodological and epistemological one.The aim of the present paper is to discuss the importance of that change, to reflect upon the social responsibilities of the economists, and to advocate for a stronger commitment of economists with the solution to the economic problems of our society.