So, What Did Marx “Really” Mean? TheMethodenstreitbetween Baumol and Samuelson on the History of Economic Thought

Anna Noci

A chapter in Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology: Including a Symposium on the Work of William J. Baumol: Heterodox Inspirations and Neoclassical Models, 2022, vol. 40B, pp 133-149 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: This paper reconstructs the clash between William Baumol’s and Paul Samuelson’s different approaches to the history of economic thought, disguised as a debate on the Marxian transformation problem on the pages of theJournal of Economic Literaturein 1974. The published papers were the result of an intense exchange of letters that shows how the debate on the transformation problem is just the surface: the debate originated from the authors’ different approaches to the history of economic thought. Samuelson applied his famous “Whig” history of economics to suggest that Marx had little to nothing to offer to modern theorists, while Baumol was interested in the past authors’ theoretical and moral intentions. Baumol and Samuelson’sMethodenstreitresulted in two different visions of Marx, and there is evidence that they kept their different approaches for their entire career.

Keywords: Baumol; Samuelson; Marx; methodology; economic thought (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:rhetzz:s0743-41542022000040b011

DOI: 10.1108/S0743-41542022000040B011

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