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“Exceptional and Unimportant”? Externalities, Competitive Equilibrium, and the Myth of a Pigovian Tradition

Publication ,  Journal Article
Medema, SG
Published in: History of Political Economy
February 1, 2020

The notion of a Pigovian tradition in externality theory, against which Ronald Coase and others reacted beginning in the 1960s, has a long history. This article, though, suggests that the literature of economics evidences no such tradition, and that the discussion of externalities largely disappeared from the literature following Pigou’s 1920 treatment, only to reemerge, in very different form, in the 1950s. Such concern as there was with externalities was largely technical-as an impediment to the attainment of an efficient equilibrium-rather than with externalities as important real-world phenomena that required addressing via “Pigovian” policy instruments. It was only in the late 1950s and 1960s, with the growing social and political concern about large-scale pollution, that externality analysis came to capture the attention of economists, but even this early work on environmental topics was less straightforwardly Pigovian than one might expect.

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Published In

History of Political Economy

DOI

EISSN

1527-1919

ISSN

0018-2702

Publication Date

February 1, 2020

Volume

52

Issue

1

Start / End Page

135 / 170

Related Subject Headings

  • History of Social Sciences
  • 50 Philosophy and religious studies
  • 44 Human society
  • 38 Economics
  • 22 Philosophy and Religious Studies
  • 16 Studies in Human Society
  • 14 Economics
 

Citation

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Medema, S. G. (2020). “Exceptional and Unimportant”? Externalities, Competitive Equilibrium, and the Myth of a Pigovian Tradition. History of Political Economy, 52(1), 135–170. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-8009583
Medema, S. G. ““Exceptional and Unimportant”? Externalities, Competitive Equilibrium, and the Myth of a Pigovian Tradition.” History of Political Economy 52, no. 1 (February 1, 2020): 135–70. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-8009583.
Medema, S. G. ““Exceptional and Unimportant”? Externalities, Competitive Equilibrium, and the Myth of a Pigovian Tradition.” History of Political Economy, vol. 52, no. 1, Feb. 2020, pp. 135–70. Scopus, doi:10.1215/00182702-8009583.
Journal cover image

Published In

History of Political Economy

DOI

EISSN

1527-1919

ISSN

0018-2702

Publication Date

February 1, 2020

Volume

52

Issue

1

Start / End Page

135 / 170

Related Subject Headings

  • History of Social Sciences
  • 50 Philosophy and religious studies
  • 44 Human society
  • 38 Economics
  • 22 Philosophy and Religious Studies
  • 16 Studies in Human Society
  • 14 Economics