Politische Ökonomie, Wirtschaftspolitik und Wirtschaftsethik: was bleibt vom Forschungsprogramm von John Neville Keynes?

Abstract

"Es wird untersucht, wieweit die von John Neville Keynes, dem Vater von John Maynard Keynes, stammende Unterscheidung von Volkswirtschaftstheorie, Wissenschaft von der Wirtschaftspolitik und Wirtschaftsethik heute noch sinnvoll ist und welche Aufgaben diesen Teildisziplinen der Volkswirtschaftslehre angesichts der Neuen Politischen Ökonomie und anderer jüngerer Entwicklungen zukommen sollen." (Autorenreferat)

"In 1890, John Neville Keynes, the father of John Maynard Keynes, published a book entitled 'The scope and method of political economy'. In it, he introduced the distinction between positive economic theory ('political economy', in the terminology of his time), economic ethics, and the 'art' of economic policy as applied economics. The article presents Keynes's arguments and ask whether this distinction does still make sense today. In particular, the article confronts it with methodological questions such as value-free scientific inquiry, with developments in economics such as the rise of public choice and other forms of 'economic imperialism', and with debates in ethics such as meta-ethical questions about the scientific status of ethical prescriptions. The article argues for an extension of the scope of positive economics and a re-formulation of the agenda of normative economics, involving an amalgamation of the scientific disciplines of economic ethics and economic policy." (author's abstract)