ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: DISTRIBUTIVE DYNAMICS AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: AN INTERPRETATION OF THORSTEIN VEBLEN’S THOUGHT
Author: Pacella Andrea (Dr)
The aim of this paper is to show the origin of conflict in a Veblenian perspective, arguing that it originates from “unreasoning” – non rational – grounds. The change in habits of thought originates from thought based on sentiment instead of rationality, produced ‘genetically’ by distributive systems of income judged intolerable by the “underlying population”. Note that this is not a direct line followed by the author in the explanation of institutional change in economics. He is known to have followed other pathways mainly based on the role of technology and technicians. The interpretation proposed here is mainly motivated by the idea that the direct line followed by Veblen appears to be ‘political’ rather than ‘scientific’ while the ‘scientific’ Veblenian view of institutional change in economics calls for a more complex interpretation of his thought, in view of the fact that his interest in an ethics of income distribution was pivotal in his entire body of thought.
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