IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/ijsepp/v38y2011i7p584-594.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wicksell and the Scandinavian and public choice traditions

Author

Listed:
  • Marianne Johnson

Abstract

Purpose - Wicksell's contributions to welfare economics are viewed as largely aligned with Pareto efficiency and James Buchanan's work in public choice. This conflicts with the Scandinavian representation of Wicksell as the forefather of the modern Swedish socialist economy. The purpose of this paper is to examine Wicksell's approach to economics, particularly his understanding of “justice” as a way to understanding the evolution of two such divergent traditions. Design/methodology/approach - Original academic and popular press writings, as well as archival materials, are used to examine Wicksell's economic philosophy and his position on key aspects of welfare economics, including the relative importance of allocation versus distribution in policy decision making. His influence on the American public choice tradition and Swedish welfare economics is examined. Findings - Both the public choice and Swedish welfare traditions based on Wicksell's justice represent overly simplistic interpretations and fail to explain how Wicksell could have such a significant impact on the development of two such divergent approaches to public economics. Originality/value - Wicksell's strong association with Pareto efficiency and the public choice school is unfortunate because de‐emphasizes the importance Wicksell placed on distributional considerations and overly simplifies his use of the term “justice.” Similarly, the Swedish economists failed to appreciate efficiency arguments and chose instead to emphasize Wicksell's distributional concerns. This paper sheds light on where the misapprehension arose and how it can be better understood.

Suggested Citation

  • Marianne Johnson, 2011. "Wicksell and the Scandinavian and public choice traditions," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(7), pages 584-594, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:ijsepp:v:38:y:2011:i:7:p:584-594
    DOI: 10.1108/03068291111139221
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/03068291111139221/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/03068291111139221/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/03068291111139221?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Reisman, 1990. "The Political Economy of James Buchanan," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-10519-9, December.
    2. Buchanan, James M, 1987. "The Constitution of Economic Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 243-250, June.
    3. Johnson, Marianne, 2006. "The Wicksellian Unanimity Rule: The Competing Interpretations of Buchanan and Musgrave," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 57-79, March.
    4. Smith, Vernon L, 1977. "The Principle of Unanimity and Voluntary Consent in Social Choice," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(6), pages 1125-1139, December.
    5. Benny Carlson & Lars Jonung, 2006. "Knut Wicksell, Gustav Cassel, Eli Heckscher, Bertil Ohlin and Gunnar Myrdal on the Role of the Economist in Public Debate," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 3(3), pages 511-550, September.
    6. Steven G. Medema, 2005. "“Marginalizing” Government: From la scienza delle finanze to Wicksell," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 1-25, Spring.
    7. Jonung,Lars (ed.), 1991. "The Stockholm School of Economics Revisited," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521391276.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marianne Johnson, 2005. "Wicksell's Unaminity Rule," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 1049-1071, October.
    2. Alain Marciano, 2019. "Buchanan and public finance: The tennessee years," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 32(1), pages 21-46, March.
    3. Carlson, Benny & Jonung, Lars, 2019. ""Too Bad to Be True". Swedish Economists on Keynes's 'The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1919-1929'," Working Papers 2019:16, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    4. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, 2014. "On the Definition of Public Goods. Assessing Richard A. Musgrave's contribution," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 14004, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    5. Monissen, Hans G., 1999. "Knut Wicksell und die moderne Makroökonomik," W.E.P. - Würzburg Economic Papers 10, University of Würzburg, Department of Economics.
    6. Carlson, Benny & Jonung, Lars, 2013. "Ohlin on the Great Depression," Knut Wicksell Working Paper Series 2013/9, Lund University, Knut Wicksell Centre for Financial Studies.
    7. Gustavo Nunes Mourão & Eduardo Angeli, 2022. "A classification of the methodology of James M. Buchanan from a multidisciplinary perspective," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 413-432, December.
    8. Marianne Johnson, 2018. "Rules versus authorities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 219-228, June.
    9. Heine Klaus & Mause Karsten, 2003. "Politikberatung als informationsökonomisches Problem," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 223(4), pages 479-490, August.
    10. Giorgio Brosio, 2018. "Coercion and equity with centralization of government: how the unification of Italy impacted the southern regions," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 177(3), pages 235-264, December.
    11. Schnellenbach, Jan & Schubert, Christian, 2015. "Behavioral political economy: A survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 395-417.
    12. JOHN McMILLAN, 1979. "The Free‐Rider Problem: A Survey," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 55(2), pages 95-107, June.
    13. Adam Martin & Matias Petersen, 2019. "Poverty Alleviation as an Economic Problem," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 205-221.
    14. Peter J. Boettke & Alexander W. Salter & Daniel J. Smith, 2018. "Money as meta-rule: Buchanan’s constitutional economics as a foundation for monetary stability," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 529-555, September.
    15. Malte Dold & Tim Krieger, 2023. "The ideological use and abuse of Freiburg’s ordoliberalism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 195(3), pages 341-361, June.
    16. Andreas Kyriacou, 2009. "Decision rules, membership and political centralization in the European Union," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 143-158, April.
    17. Roger Congleton & Andreas Kyriacou & Jordi Bacaria, 2003. "A Theory of Menu Federalism: Decentralization by Political Agreement," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 167-190, September.
    18. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2011. "Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9624.
    19. Fabio Fiorillo & Michele G. Giuranno & Agnese Sacchi, 2021. "Asymmetric decentralization: distortions and opportunities," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(2), pages 625-656, July.
    20. Trofimov, Ivan D., 2017. "Political economy of trade protection and liberalization: in search of agency-based and holistic framework of policy change," MPRA Paper 79504, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:ijsepp:v:38:y:2011:i:7:p:584-594. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.