Spanish Economists Research Articles

Political Economy for Hispanic America: José Joaquín de Mora as a Bridge between Continents (1825–43)

In the early nineteenth century, the gradual transformation of Spain's former American territories into new independent republics required redefining their political and economic frameworks. This process demanded economic reforms, policies, and institutional changes based on the ideas of the Enlightenment and liberalism that fueled a transatlantic flow of political and economic ideas from Europe to the new republics. This article examines the crucial contribution of the Spanish economist José Joaquín de Mora to this migration of ideas. His main achievement was an institutional and economic agenda for the Republic of Chile based on classical political economy and adapted to the new republic's economic, political, and social environment. The primary economic growth process, which Mora also considered appropriate for the rest of the newly created American republics, was the result of a long and successive building process, which the research also tackles.

A Great Success Story: Galiani's Dialogues sur le commerce des blés in Spain (1774-1802)

The year 1775 witnessed the publication of the Spanish translation of Ferdi-nando Galiani's Dialogues sur le commerce des blés (1770). Although there is evi-dence that the book was very successful during the Spanish Enlightenment, the purpose of this work is to analyse in detail the impact of Galiani's Dialogues on late eighteenth century Spanish literature, using citation count methodology. The work concludes that Galiani's book was a decisive work in the shaping of econom-ic culture in Spain during the Spanish Enlightenment. Not only it was profusely quoted, but all its main economic theses were well received among the Spanish po-litical economists. Beyond the strategic debate on the grain trade, the book deci-sively contributed to outline central questions of the mainstream of the Spanish Enlightenment, such as those related to economic methodology and growth strate-gy. All this confirms that the Dialogues triumphed in Spain due to their powerful power of influence in the arena of economic policy.

Germán Bernácer’s Analysis of the Great Depression

The self-made Spanish economist Germán Bernácer (1833–1865) drew up a coherent theory of economic fluctuations—the theory of disposable funds—during the 1920s that has recently drawn the attention of historians of economic thought who appreciate its original approach and have weighted his possible influence on the Cambridge economists. This article analyses how Bernácer updated the model to the new formal rhetoric of the 1930s in light of the publication of Keynes’s A Treatise on Money. On the other hand, the article also analyzes how Bernácer, as a member of the Research Department of the Bank of Spain, applied the theory of disposable funds to interpret a wide range of economic, monetary, and financial events in a series of reports that he drafted for advising the board of the bank during the period 1932–36, in the midst of the Great Depression.

La globalización hispana del comercio y el arte en la Edad Moderna

Este artículo muestra algunos aspectos destacados de un fenómeno histórico de dimensiones planetarias: la globalización comercial y artística que, iniciada en la segunda mitad del siglo XVI, tuvo como principal protagonista durante la Edad Moderna a los territorios americanos, asiáticos y europeos de la Monarquía Hispánica. Los intercambios internacionales (básicamente, plata americana a cambio de objetos asiáticos más o menos lujosos) que siguieron al descubrimiento, en 1565, por Urdaneta del “tornaviaje” entre Manila y Acapulco tuvieron profundos efectos sobre las formas de producir y de consumir tanto en el Viejo Mundo y como en el Nuevo. La trascendencia histórica de estas interacciones sin precedentes tal vez ha pasado un tanto inadvertida a los economistas e historiadores económicos españoles. Probablemente, el papel central desempeñado en esta globalización por el Virreinato de la Nueva España tampoco ha sido valorado adecuadamente.

El uso de la prensa como medio de transmisión de ideas económicas: El caso de la influencia entre Ramiro de Maeztu y Luis de Olariaga

Información económica y difusión de ideas a través de artículos de prensa, son dos actividades que los periodistas tienden a confundir en su actividad. Pero son distintas: es la distancia que media entre formar e informar. En este artículo mostramos cómo combina las dos facetas el periodista español Ramiro de Maeztu, especialmente en sus años ingleses como corresponsal de prensa. En su formación tiene un papel decisivo el economista Luis de Olariaga, que le aporta su consejo sobre lecturas y sus contactos en los medios financieros. Maeztu fue algo más que un intelectual al que gustaba escribir artículos de información económica, sino que puede ser considerado un pionero en la difusión de ideas económicas a través de artículos de prensa, que llegaron a un público de clase media muy amplio.

The Economic Discourse of Joseph Garnier in Spain

In the 19th century the liberal author Joseph Garnier (1813-1881) had a clear influence on Spanish economists; however, his discourse has not been much studied in the literature. His Elements were adopted as an economics textbook at Spanish universities and it was one of the most recommended books on political economy. In contrast, other authors such as John Stuart Mill were not so well received. A study of the reasons for this influence in the context of nineteenth-century Spain is therefore needed. This article aims to fill this gap and highlight the work of Garnier who facilitated the diffusion of the free-trade doctrine and the rationalization of the administration in Spain.

Spatial mobility in elite academic institutions in economics: the case of Spain

Using a dataset of 3540 economists working in 2007 in 125 of the best academic centers in 22 countries, this paper presents some evidence on spatial mobility patterns in Spain and other countries conditional on some personal, department, and country characteristics. There are productivity and other reasons for designing a scientific policy with the aims of attracting foreign talent (brain gain), minimizing the elite brain drain, and recovering nationals who have earned a Ph.D. or have spent some time abroad (brain circulation). Our main result is that Spain has more brain gain, more brain circulation and less brain drain than comparable large, continental European countries, i.e., Germany, France, and Italy, where economists have similar opportunities for publishing their research in English or in their own languages. We suggest that these results can be mostly explained by the governance changes introduced in a number of Spanish institutions in 1975–1990 by a sizable contingent of Spanish economists coming back home after attending graduate school abroad. These initiatives were also favored by the availability of resources to finance certain research-related activities, including international Ph.D. programs.

The memory of the Habsburg Monarchy in early eighteenth-century Spain

ABSTRACT This article provides a reappraisal of the political and intellectual uses of the memory of the rump Habsburg Monarchy in eighteenth-century Spain. Drawing on newly discovered archival material, this article recovers the impact of Habsburg Spain on the political imaginary of early eighteenth-century Spanish reformers and political economists, and unearths the legal debates of the 1741 Imperial Diet Election concerning Philip V’s claim to the Austrian Habsburg throne. This reconsideration sheds light on the origins of the early Spanish Enlightenment, and emphasises the centrality of the debates of those political economists, jurists, ministers, who propelled Enlightenment reforms in early eighteenth-century Spain.

33 Economic Bestsellers published before 1750

This article looks at 33 economics books that were published before 1750 and appeared in ten editions or more before 1850. This is a period – before Physiocracy and before the works of Adam Smith – which has been largely neglected in the history of economic thought. The article sheds new light on the early bestselling contributions of German and Italian economists, and on an internationally famous Spanish economist at the time. Also of interest is that three of the bestselling English economists of the period are so forgotten that they do not even have an entry in Wikipedia.

Filosofando sobre el valor del dinero en la España de Felipe II

Fr. Tomás de Mercado, O.P., and Fr. Bartolomé Frías de Albornoz, Spanish economists of the era of Philip II (later half of 16th century) proposed monetary theories, they were the real pioneers in what has become some of the most outstanding modern monetary theories. Mercado suggested some ideas on "welfare economy". Frías put forward the "quantity ecuation", formulated by the "classical economists", two centuries later.

Compete vs. Protect, Idealism vs. Pragmatism

La crise agraire des décennies 1870 et 1880 ont frappé un secteur primaire espagnol incapable de soutenir la concurrence internationale sur les marchés agricoles. La récession, vite devenue générale, a déclenché plusieurs controverses parmi les économistes et d’autres intellectuels espagnols quant à ses causes et effets potentiels, quant aux mesures qu’il fallait adopter afin d’y faire face, mais aussi quant à la validité des principes libéraux radicaux qui avaient jusqu’alors inspiré la politique économique et dominé le panorama de la pensée économique espagnole. La crise est devenue un sujet de discussion majeur, préoccupant fortement l’opinion publique. Des discussions se sont tenues dans une grande diversité d’institutions : journaux, associations économiques et intellectuelles, conférences publiques, Parlement, etc. À travers l’analyse de plusieurs de ces débats, cet article cherche à montrer comment le déclin économique de la fin du xix e siècle n’a pas seulement été un objet de préoccupation pour les économistes contemporains, mais a aussi été un vecteur fondamental de changement des politiques et des idées économiques en Espagne. Il a été un facteur déterminant dans l’apparition d’un nouveau positionnement de la politique économique, ayant contribué à remplacer les politiques de libre-échange en vigueur depuis 1868 par des politiques protectionnistes ; il a aussi permis d’expliquer la décadence du libéralisme doctrinaire et le surgissement d’un libéralisme pragmatique alternatif, qui acceptait une certaine intervention gouvernementale au nom de la protection des intérêts nationaux. Classification jel : A14, B10, F13

IN SEARCH OF A REPLACEMENT FOR ECONOMIC JOURNALS: THE DIFFUSION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN CULTURAL REVIEWS IN THE LIBERAL AGE IN SPAIN, 1868-1914

ABSTRACTThe foundation of specialised economic journals was one of the main traits in the process of institutionalisation of political economy in 19thcentury Western Europe. Spain joined this trend at an early stage and in the 1850s and 1860s some specialised, albeit ephemeral, journals sponsored by the liberal school of economic thought – the Economist School – emerged. However, when these reviews ceased publication, Spanish economists lacked specialised periodicals as an outlet for their contributions. Miscellaneous literary reviews addressing a wider audience represented an alternative for the diffusion of economic papers into educated society, sharing space with many other scientific and literary disciplines. This paper analyses the presence of texts on political economy in four of the most important of these reviews in the period 1868-1914, when Spain lacked economic publications. In spite of not being specialised reviews, these publications played a central role in the process of diffusion and popularisation of political economy as a valuable field of knowledge, acting as a good substitute for specifically economic journals.

Forbonnais and the Discovery of the ‘Science of Commerce’ in Spain (1755–1765)

SummaryThis paper analyses the broad and plural reception in Spain, in the period of 1755–1765, of the work by François Véron de Forbonnais, especially his Elémens du commerce. It focuses on the various ways in which this treatise was translated into Spanish. Several national newspaper articles as well as a published translation and an unpublished manuscript reproduced this important book. A detailed analysis of it's the reception amongst the major Spanish economists of the period leads to the conclusion that the Elémens du commerce fulfilled the consensus reached by the political elites regarding the need to redirect the monarchy towards a ‘New Politics’ based on the application of the principles of the ‘science of commerce’.

El Plan de Estabilización español de 1959: Juan Sardá Dexeus y la economía social de mercado

The Spanish Stabilization Plan of 1959, contained in the Law of July 21, has been widely studied by prominent Spanish economists, although there are few studies that analyze in depth its ideological roots. To explore this question, this article examines the figure of Juan Sardá Dexeus, chief architect of the implementation of the plan, and the influence he received from the Social Market Economy —whose ideas were used to design both the German Economic Plan of 1948 in Europe, as well as that of the French in 1958—, focusing on the role of monetary policy to achieve price stability in the Spanish plan reforms. After comparing both economic reform plans, we conclude by noting the strong similarities between them.

Economic Theory and Policy in Dictatorship and Democracy: Spain 1939-1996

The role played by economists and thus economic theory in implementing the Spanish economic policy during the second half of the 20th century is the main topic analysed in this article. Political framework indeed is crucial for understanding the relationships between Spanish economists and economic policy during the period. The authoritarian regime imposed by victorious General Franco did not leave room to economic rationality as he entrusted economic policy to engineers politically committed with the dictatorship. Later on, once these policies proved to be ruinous, a group of technocrats assumed the responsibility for economic policy on the basis of more rational principles although political goals prevailed on economic ones. The advent of democracy in the mid-1970s, however, meant the contribution of economists to both the transformation of the economic institutions and the implementation of the economic policy that took place during a period of economic turbulences.

Political economy and the mirror of ‘otherness’: moral and foreign political models in the works of the Spanish economist T. Anzano (1768-1795)

Political economy and the mirror of ‘otherness’: moral and foreign political models in the works of the Spanish economist T. Anzano (1768-1795)

Spanish Economists Facing Indicative Planning in the 1960s

- In this paper, the history of the adoption of the French indicative planning in Spain will be examined. Specific attention is given to the ideas of Higinio Paris at the end of the 1940s and to the ideas of Manuel de Torres in the 1950s, as well as to institutions like the Consejo de Economía Nacional or to the development of the first input-output tables and the first national accounts. Second, the support that the new instrument of economic policy in Spain had at the beginning of the 1960s will be analyzed, including the effective rhetoric that helped to implement it. Lastly, the guarded optimism with which Spanish economists from that time greeted the I Development Plan is shown, a plan which suffered for an increasingly disapproving attitude from the middle of the 1960s. Displaying a notable capacity of analysis, Spanish economists were able to anticipate a large part of the critical arguments that are today employed by economic historians in light of the development planning.JEL classification: B 20.Keywords: Economic planning; History of economic thought, Spain; Indicative planning.

La fortuna del Essai sur la nature du commerce en général (1755), de Richard Cantillon, en la España del siglo XVIII

The R. Cantillon's Essai sur la nature du commerce en général (1755) is considered a major work in the context of the economic literature of the European Enlightenment, and, therefore, its analytical and normative aspects have been widely studied. However, the characteristics of its international circulation, with some exceptions, like its diffusion in France and Great Britain, are less known. Taking as a starting point the available research, the article mainly focuses on three case studies to asses the reception of the Essai among the Spanish economists.

Joaquín Díaz de Rábago: un cooperativista español en la Europa de finales del XIX

This article aims to study the principal ideas of the spanish economist Joaquin Diaz de Rabago about cooperativism; his studies and papers about popular credit; and his conections with others europeans writers in these fields. The research gives us new and main information about the beginning of cooperativism movement in Spain (1880-1900). The writers, economists and politicians who were interested in scattering cooperativism ideas were only a very small group, many times even unknowing among themselves. This situation was suffered by Diaz de Rabago, who had taken part in some european symposium, but his papers about cooperativism had not been discussing in Spain.

How Much Should a Person Consume?

Galbraith termed contemporary America as the ‘Affluent Society’ in which the single-minded pursuit of wealth led to the massive exploitation of resources and materials through the years. Contemporary India reflects the Western ethos while aggressively channelizing the natural resources of the countryside to meet the needs of the urban-industrial sector. From this biased resource-use arises the grave inequalities of consumption within the nation. This paper addresses the dynamics of consumption in the backdrop of the global socio-ecological movement with special reference to the Indian context. It captures the asymmetries in the patterns of consumption in an analytical framework. Based on the culture and styles of consumption, the Indian population can be divided into three classes: omnivores, ecosystem people and ecological refugees. Omnivores have the capability to draw upon the natural resources of the whole of India to maintain their lifestyles. Ecosystem people, rely on resources in their vicinity. Ecological refugees are those ecosystem people who have been displaced from their homes and live in slums. It is argued that the process of development in independent India is characterized by a basic asymmetry between the omnivores and the ecosystem people. While omnivores consume too much, ecosystem people may be consuming much too little. Some of the consequences of this process are: Concentration of decision making in the hands of omnivores. Use of state machinery for diverting natural resources for omnivore prosperity, e.g., through subsidies. Indifference of omnivores to environmental degradation caused by them and passing on their costs to society. Protests by the victims of development. Creation of ‘ecological refugees’ as a result of permanent displacement of ecosystem people. Three key ways to enhance the social power of ecological refugees and ecosystem people are: land reforms, literacy, and health care. These reforms would simultaneously force omnivores to internalize the costs of their profligate behaviour. A retreat of the rich from overconsumption is the necessary first step towards improving the lives of an increasing number of people. One solution for the inequality in fuel consumption comes from the Spanish economist, Juan Martinez-Alier, who suggests taxation of oil consumption in rich countries while subsidizing LPG or kerosene in poor countries. Thus, to allow the poor to ascend just one step up the hierarchies of resource consumption, what is required is a very moderate sacrifice by the rich. It echoes Gandhi's thoughts on environmental ethics: “World has enough for everybody's need, but not enough for everybody's greed.”