Discrimination has been a continuous concern in economics, originally focusing on wage inequalities and segregation. Gary Becker’s (1971b) work on discrimination is commonly viewed as an expression of “economics imperialism.” In this work Becker makes racial discrimination fit in a trade model, applying price theory to an object previously perceived as “owned” by other social sciences – providing an example of transgression in terms of “property rights” (Becker 1971b, 10). After a contrasted reception of The Economics of Discrimination (Swedberg 1990, 27–28; Fleury 2012), analysis of racial discrimination was quickly integrated within labor economics textbooks and academic curricula. Taken as an imperialist conquest, the integration of the economics of discrimination today seems complete: the whole Beckerian project – the “economic approach to human behavior” – considerably changed the study of economics over the past 50 years. This chapter aims at recasting the traditional understanding of economics imperialism by proposing another historical narrative of the economics of discrimination.

Cleo Chassonnery Zaigouche (2018). Crossing Boundaries, Displacing Previous Knowledge and Claiming Superiority: Is the Economics of Discrimination a Conquest of Economics Imperialism?. London : Routledge.

Crossing Boundaries, Displacing Previous Knowledge and Claiming Superiority: Is the Economics of Discrimination a Conquest of Economics Imperialism?

Cleo Chassonnery Zaigouche
2018

Abstract

Discrimination has been a continuous concern in economics, originally focusing on wage inequalities and segregation. Gary Becker’s (1971b) work on discrimination is commonly viewed as an expression of “economics imperialism.” In this work Becker makes racial discrimination fit in a trade model, applying price theory to an object previously perceived as “owned” by other social sciences – providing an example of transgression in terms of “property rights” (Becker 1971b, 10). After a contrasted reception of The Economics of Discrimination (Swedberg 1990, 27–28; Fleury 2012), analysis of racial discrimination was quickly integrated within labor economics textbooks and academic curricula. Taken as an imperialist conquest, the integration of the economics of discrimination today seems complete: the whole Beckerian project – the “economic approach to human behavior” – considerably changed the study of economics over the past 50 years. This chapter aims at recasting the traditional understanding of economics imperialism by proposing another historical narrative of the economics of discrimination.
2018
Scientific Imperialism: Exploring the Boundaries of Interdisciplinarity
161
184
Cleo Chassonnery Zaigouche (2018). Crossing Boundaries, Displacing Previous Knowledge and Claiming Superiority: Is the Economics of Discrimination a Conquest of Economics Imperialism?. London : Routledge.
Cleo Chassonnery Zaigouche
File in questo prodotto:
Eventuali allegati, non sono esposti

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/905888
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact