The Applied Theory of the Bourgeois Era: A Price-Theoretic Perspective

Peter J. Boettke and Rosolino A. Candela

Journal of Contextual Economics (JCE) – Schmollers Jahrbuch, 2020, vol. 140, issue 3-4, 355-366

Abstract: What can we learn about applied price theory from the Bourgeois Era? In this paper, we contend there are three important lessons that can be extracted from McCloskey’s work on the Great Enrichment. First, transaction costs are not constraints, but objects of choice. Second, property rights are not merely a “bundle of sticks,” in that private property rights make exchange possible, but a culture of liberal ideas makes exchange viable. Third, ideas conducive to liberalism give rise to generalized increasing returns to the scope, rather than scale, of market exchange, which generated the Great Enrichment.

Keywords: Bourgeois Era; Culture; Deirdre McCloskey; Price Theory; Property Rights; Transaction Costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A23 B53 O43 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Journal of Contextual Economics (JCE) – Schmollers Jahrbuch is currently edited by Peter J. Boettke, Nils Goldschmidt, Stefan Kolev, Stephen T. Ziliak and Joachim Zweynert

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