The Invisible Hand Ulrich Van Suntum the INVISIBLE HAND Economic Thought Yesterday and Today
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The Invisible Hand Ulrich van Suntum THE INVISIBLE HAND Economic Thought Yesterday and Today Translated by Caroline Hemingway 123 Professor Dr. Ulrich van Suntum University of Muenster Am Stadtgraben 9 48143 Muenster, Germany [email protected] We kindly thank “Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft”, Köln, for subsidizing this book. We kindly thank Ludwig-Erhard-Stiftung e.V.,Bonn, for subsidizing this book. Library of Congress Control Number: 2004117907 ISBN 3-540-20497-0 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law. Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media springeronline.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005 Printed in Germany The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: Erich Kirchner Production: Helmut Petri Printing: Strauss Offsetdruck SPIN 10970898 Printed on acid-free paper – 42/3153 – 5 4 3 2 1 0 Foreword The economies of the European Union are today highly integrated. Constitutive part of this high degree of integration is the euro which unites most of the Member Stateswithintheeuro-zone.Inordertoensureprosperityandstabilityofthis Union in the spirit of the European Stability and Growth Pact, economic policies in both the Union and its Member States need to be monitored and co-ordinated appropriately. This applies in particular also because of the enlargement process which adds a further dimension to the continuous challenge of having to deal with different economic policy concepts and traditions in our Union. Understanding the economic and socio-political debates in the individual Mem- ber States of the Union and elsewhere requires a solid knowledge not only of the economic but also of the social and historical background of these debates. In economics, more than in the natural sciences, human norms and conflicts play a central role in addition to logical relationships and empirical findings. Therefore, looking only at economic formulae and empirical facts will not be enough. Most economic textbooks, especially from the Anglo-Saxon area, tend to con- centrate more on the technically correct and often model-based presentation of their subject-matter than on its socio-political background. However, in view of the significance of economic reality for every citizen in Europe, it is also important to reach those who have not obtained a university degree in economics. I am, therefore, very pleased that Ulrich van Suntum has managed to write a textbook that provides on one hand a theoretically correct in-depth presentation of its subject matter and is, at the same time, easily understandable also for the non-economist. Undoubtedly, it will provide a valuable contribution to economic debate in Europe on all levels. I consider this textbook a welcome new contribution to the long tradition of stability-oriented German economics in socio-political perspective. Prof. Dr. Romano Prodi President of the European Commission Brussels, Belgium What this book is about Every day we read newspaper reports about economic problems such as high un- employment or rising government debt. On television we follow discussions and parliamentary debates about matters like appropriate wage increase rates or the correct level and distribution of taxes. Yet, even though these issues concern us all, our knowledge of even the most basic economic principles behind these issues is relatively superficial. This can be said even of the parliamentarians themselves, only few of whom have actually studied economics. Already in the 19th century the German economist, Johann Heinrich von Thunen¨ bemoaned the fact that a coun- try’s economic fortunes were often decided by people who had not the slightest idea of the problems involved. Today if anything, this situation has become even worse than it was in Thunen’s¨ times. One thing we should bear in mind though is that in the past, economics and law were still taught by the same faculties. The first chair for ‘‘Political Economy’’ was set up as late as 1805 at the East India College in Haileybury in England and was occupied by Robert Malthus who had originally been ordained a minister of the Church of England and became one of the leading figures of classical national economics. Later, however, the law faculty and the economics faculty drifted ever further apart. The same applied to other related areas such as the political sciences and administrative studies. This development was probably inevitable as these subjects became increasingly specialized. However, economics, which is occasionally called the Queen of Social Sciences, lost more and more contact to its people as a result. Nowadays even learned economists are often no longer able to understand the highly mathematical discourses published in the various specialist journals and many of the important findings that used to be part of the common knowledge of a national economist have sunk into oblivion. This book therefore aims at presenting the most important economic contexts in a way that is understandable even to the non-expert. At the same time it also aims at helping students of economics re-gain an overview of their subject that they may well have lost while dealing with so many individual economic issues. Instead of mathematical formulas the reader will find only simple illustrations on the following pages as well as numerous examples of history that are there to show that any theory can only be properly understood against the backdrop of its historical origins. Many of the theorems described sound rather obvious, but the book also VIII What this book is about raises apparently paradoxical issues that may not appeal to common sense at first. Conversely the reader will also learn of ideas that seem just as plausible as they are wrong. At the end of the day, the art of economics consists in being able to distinguish between the one and the other. Does anything like ‘‘economic laws’’ actually exist? This question was the subject of bitter controversy as early as the 19th century. The proponents of what was called the Historical school, first and foremost their spiritual leader Gustav von Schmoller, rejected such an idea outright, claiming that economics was an empirical science, which, in contrast to the natural sciences, was not governed by universally valid laws. The opposite view in this so-called Methodenstreit was propagated by the neo- classical school of economics, lead in those days by the Viennese economist, Carl Menger. Menger and his followers believed that the market was indeed governed by certain laws, which would always withstand any political attempts at direction. This controversy culminated in 1883/84 in what were at times highly acrimonious polemics between the opponents. In the end, however, it was the neo-classicists who won the day. In 1914 -- the year of this death -- the Austrian economist, Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk¨ published his famous essay ‘‘Macht oder okonomisches¨ Gesetz?’’ in which he convincingly argued that no matter how powerful the state was, it would never be able to bypass certain economic laws. Economic history, notably the demise of the socialist economies at the end of the 20th century, has provenapowerfulconfirmationofthistheory. The British neo-classical economist, Alfred Marshall once said it was impossible totellthetruthforonlyhalfapenny.Thisbookhasthereforeturnedoutalittlemore extensive as well. That does not mean of course, that it contains the entire truth. At the end of each section the reader will therefore find references for further reading that are particularly suited for more in-depth study. Moreover, the individual chapters have been written in such a way that they can be read independently from one another. I asked not only my colleagues and collaborators to review them but friends and acquaintances as well who have no economic background. I am much obliged to them for their advice and many critical comments. Needless to say, all remaining errors and faults are solely my responsibility. I am especially indebted to the Ludwig-Erhard Foundation and the Initiative Soziale Marktwirtschaft for having provided such generous support to the English translation of ‘‘The invisible hand’’. Not least I would like to express my gratitude to Caroline Hemingway for her careful translation of my book. Munster,¨ November 2003 Ulrich van Suntum Contents Chapter 1 People and Markets (Microeconomics) .........................................1 TheInvisibleHandoftheMarket ................................................. 3 FromMercantilismtoMarketEconomy...................................... 3 MonopoliesandtheCournotPoint ........................................... 6 ReferencesforFurtherReading:............................................... 8 CompetitioninTheoryandinPractice..........................................