Thomas Michael Mueller
Biographic Data
| ID | 967035 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas Michael Mueller |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Mueller |
| SIGNATURE | MUELLER T M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Université Paris 8 |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8537-3302 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
From housewife’s expertise to the women’s movement: Empowerment through scientific management during the progressive era
Scientific Management is usually studied for what it brought to factories, production and the organization of work: yet, it did much more. Our contribution focuses on how Taylor’s ideas were adapted to domestic occupation by overlapping with another forgotten movement promoting household efficiency and primarily led by women: Home Economics and its sanitary science. Drawing on the methodology of intellectual history, we examine the pioneering wri…
Les Pratiques de modélisation macroéconomique en France entre 1950 et 1975 by Loipa Muñiz DuarteEconomy and Interest: A New Presentation of the Fundamental Problems Related to the Economic Role of the…
A Journey into Harold Hotelling’s Economics
Harold Hotelling (1895–1973) was a major contributor to twentieth-century American economics. The overall thrust of his research, and his view of the role of mathematics in the discipline, have so far received little attention. Based on an unprecedented examination of his work and professional archives, this article provides a thorough analysis of Hotelling’s background and contribution to economics. A self-taught economist in the 1920s, Hotellin…
Local Entanglements in the History of Mathematical Economics
This essay introduces a special issue of History of Political Economy titled "Local Entanglements in the History of Mathematical Economics." The articles in the special issue share a particular historiographical approach, characterized by the name of "local entanglements." The introduction defines the approach and explains why it can contribute in an original way to the history of economics
Hotelling and Wilson on Statistical Inference: Local Attitudes and Universal Dreams
During the early 1920s, a scattered group of American scholars, among whom were Harold Hotelling and E. B. Wilson, started a joint effort to develop statistical instruments in economics. They became interested in disparate topics such as the statistical determination of demand curves, business cycles, yield forecasting, population growth, and many others. Hotelling and Wilson shared much: both were trained in mathematics, both were convinced of t…
Between Fairness and Efficiency: Testing Wilson’s Theory of Public Administration
During his first presidential term, faced with antitrust law reform, Woodrow Wilson had to deal with the reconstitution of conflicting values. These were, on the one hand, the importance of efficiency, guaranteed by the role of experts capable of effectively managing public administration; and, on the other hand, the importance of public and democratic participation, and therefore respect for traditional democratic values. Wilson faced a theoreti…
The emerging discipline of public economics in postwar France
After the Second World War, optimal pricing in the public sector became an important topic internationally. The welfare enhancing properties of marginal pricing were a key concern, yet, the technical computation of marginal costs also proved difficult. It was unclear how to compute marginal costs, mainly in view of the discontinuities of the cost function. In the context of post-war reconstruction and of practically implementing a marginal pricin…
How the Drafting of the Clayton Antitrust Act Helped Spread the Managerial Approach to Efficiency
Managerial sciences are generally considered to be the art of efficiently running business. Their influence, though, extends far beyond the corporate sphere, and they play an important part in public administration and in particular in its dialog with society at large. Here, from the viewpoint of historical institutionalism, we document one of the earliest successful examples of the wider application of management science: the 1914 antitrust rule…
Toward a "Prodigious Revival of French Economics"? Allais, Debreu, and the Dead Loss Controversy (1943-51)
This article aims to trace the hitherto little-known controversy involving Maurice Allais, François Divisia, Harold Hotelling, and Gérard Debreu in the immediate postwar years. The controversy turned on "dead loss," a measure of the maximum value of available surplus serving as a gauge of economic efficiency and social welfare. The protagonists argued about how it should be expressed mathematically, the hypothesis underpinning it, and its general…
Between fairness and efficiency: Testing Wilson’s theory of public administration
During his first presidential term, faced with antitrust law reform, Woodrow Wilson had to deal with the reconstitution of conflicting values. On the one hand, the importance of efficiency, guaranteed by the role of experts capable of effectively managing public administration, on the other hand, the importance of public and democratic participation, and therefore respect for traditional democratic values. Wilson will face a theoretical impasse i…
Francis Bismans et Maria do Rosario Grossinho, Mathématiques et économie – une approche historique
L’histoire de la mathématisation de l’économie a été discutée en profondeur et a fait depuis au moins 25 ans l’objet d’un intérêt historique remarquable (Ingrao and Israel, 1999; Weintraub, 2002; Weintraub and Düppe, 2014; Morgan, 2012; Boumans, 2004). Le livre de Bismans et Grossinho souhaite s’inscrire dans ce mouvement puisqu’au dire des auteurs il « a pour objet de retracer les liens entre les mathématiques et l’analyse économique tout en ado…
Rescuing Henry George
Harold Hotelling's work, from natural resources economics to optimal taxation, and from spatial to welfare economics, was deeply influenced by his Georgist affiliation and by a Georgist game that we now call Monopoly, which at the time was known as the Landlord's Game. We explore this influence, its history, and the role it played in Hotelling's work and ideas. We show that political beliefs deeply shaped Hotelling's approach to economics and tha…
Against the orthodox: Walras and Laveleye’s reluctant alliance
What is the purpose of economic science? Is it about discovering general laws of economic behaviour? Is it about policy-making? And how do those objectives tie in with political views and normative preferences? In 1882–1883 a debate about the existence of economic laws arose between the French Liberal School and Émile de Laveleye, who had just published his Éléments d’économie politique. The debate concerned the form and meaning of economic scien…
The Temperature of the Brain
In 1881, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth attempted to provide a solid psychological basis for utility measurement. I will show that Edgeworth's main struggle was to provide a possible measurement scale for a feeling-pleasure-using some kind of physical magnitude that would have allowed both intra and interpersonal comparisons, thus justifying the use of mathematical techniques to answer welfare issues. Edgeworth found inspiration in a similar quest, the…
Time discounting in Harold Hotelling's approach to natural resource economics: The unsolved ethical question
The Boussinesq Debate: Reversibility, Instability, and Free Will
ArgumentIn 1877, a young mathematician named Joseph Boussinesq presented amémoireto theAcadémiedes sciences which demonstrated that some differential equations may have more than one solution. Boussinesq linked this fact to indeterminism and to a possible solution to the free will versus determinism debate. Boussinesq's main interest was to reconcile his philosophical and religious views with science by showing that matter and motion do not suffi…
Aspekte des Spiels bei Kafka
The Temperature of the Brain
In 1881, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth attempted to provide a solid psychological basis for utility measurement. I will show that Edgeworth's main struggle was to provide a possible measurement scale for a feeling-pleasure-using some kind of physical magnitude that would have allowed both intra and interpersonal comparisons, thus justifying the use of mathematical techniques to answer welfare issues. Edgeworth found inspiration in a similar quest, the…
Toward a "Prodigious Revival of French Economics"? Allais, Debreu, and the Dead Loss Controversy (1943-51)
This article aims to trace the hitherto little-known controversy involving Maurice Allais, François Divisia, Harold Hotelling, and Gérard Debreu in the immediate postwar years. The controversy turned on "dead loss," a measure of the maximum value of available surplus serving as a gauge of economic efficiency and social welfare. The protagonists argued about how it should be expressed mathematically, the hypothesis underpinning it, and its general…
The Boussinesq Debate: Reversibility, Instability, and Free Will
ArgumentIn 1877, a young mathematician named Joseph Boussinesq presented amémoireto theAcadémiedes sciences which demonstrated that some differential equations may have more than one solution. Boussinesq linked this fact to indeterminism and to a possible solution to the free will versus determinism debate. Boussinesq's main interest was to reconcile his philosophical and religious views with science by showing that matter and motion do not suffi…
Local Entanglements in the History of Mathematical Economics
This essay introduces a special issue of History of Political Economy titled "Local Entanglements in the History of Mathematical Economics." The articles in the special issue share a particular historiographical approach, characterized by the name of "local entanglements." The introduction defines the approach and explains why it can contribute in an original way to the history of economics
Hotelling and Wilson on Statistical Inference: Local Attitudes and Universal Dreams
During the early 1920s, a scattered group of American scholars, among whom were Harold Hotelling and E. B. Wilson, started a joint effort to develop statistical instruments in economics. They became interested in disparate topics such as the statistical determination of demand curves, business cycles, yield forecasting, population growth, and many others. Hotelling and Wilson shared much: both were trained in mathematics, both were convinced of t…
Rescuing Henry George
Harold Hotelling's work, from natural resources economics to optimal taxation, and from spatial to welfare economics, was deeply influenced by his Georgist affiliation and by a Georgist game that we now call Monopoly, which at the time was known as the Landlord's Game. We explore this influence, its history, and the role it played in Hotelling's work and ideas. We show that political beliefs deeply shaped Hotelling's approach to economics and tha…
Aspekte des Spiels bei Kafka
The Boussinesq Debate: Reversibility, Instability, and Free Will
ArgumentIn 1877, a young mathematician named Joseph Boussinesq presented amémoireto theAcadémiedes sciences which demonstrated that some differential equations may have more than one solution. Boussinesq linked this fact to indeterminism and to a possible solution to the free will versus determinism debate. Boussinesq's main interest was to reconcile his philosophical and religious views with science by showing that matter and motion do not suffi…
Time discounting in Harold Hotelling's approach to natural resource economics: The unsolved ethical question
Against the orthodox: Walras and Laveleye’s reluctant alliance
What is the purpose of economic science? Is it about discovering general laws of economic behaviour? Is it about policy-making? And how do those objectives tie in with political views and normative preferences? In 1882–1883 a debate about the existence of economic laws arose between the French Liberal School and Émile de Laveleye, who had just published his Éléments d’économie politique. The debate concerned the form and meaning of economic scien…
The Temperature of the Brain
In 1881, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth attempted to provide a solid psychological basis for utility measurement. I will show that Edgeworth's main struggle was to provide a possible measurement scale for a feeling-pleasure-using some kind of physical magnitude that would have allowed both intra and interpersonal comparisons, thus justifying the use of mathematical techniques to answer welfare issues. Edgeworth found inspiration in a similar quest, the…
Rescuing Henry George
Harold Hotelling's work, from natural resources economics to optimal taxation, and from spatial to welfare economics, was deeply influenced by his Georgist affiliation and by a Georgist game that we now call Monopoly, which at the time was known as the Landlord's Game. We explore this influence, its history, and the role it played in Hotelling's work and ideas. We show that political beliefs deeply shaped Hotelling's approach to economics and tha…
Between fairness and efficiency: Testing Wilson’s theory of public administration
During his first presidential term, faced with antitrust law reform, Woodrow Wilson had to deal with the reconstitution of conflicting values. On the one hand, the importance of efficiency, guaranteed by the role of experts capable of effectively managing public administration, on the other hand, the importance of public and democratic participation, and therefore respect for traditional democratic values. Wilson will face a theoretical impasse i…
Francis Bismans et Maria do Rosario Grossinho, Mathématiques et économie – une approche historique
L’histoire de la mathématisation de l’économie a été discutée en profondeur et a fait depuis au moins 25 ans l’objet d’un intérêt historique remarquable (Ingrao and Israel, 1999; Weintraub, 2002; Weintraub and Düppe, 2014; Morgan, 2012; Boumans, 2004). Le livre de Bismans et Grossinho souhaite s’inscrire dans ce mouvement puisqu’au dire des auteurs il « a pour objet de retracer les liens entre les mathématiques et l’analyse économique tout en ado…
Between Fairness and Efficiency: Testing Wilson’s Theory of Public Administration
During his first presidential term, faced with antitrust law reform, Woodrow Wilson had to deal with the reconstitution of conflicting values. These were, on the one hand, the importance of efficiency, guaranteed by the role of experts capable of effectively managing public administration; and, on the other hand, the importance of public and democratic participation, and therefore respect for traditional democratic values. Wilson faced a theoreti…
The emerging discipline of public economics in postwar France
After the Second World War, optimal pricing in the public sector became an important topic internationally. The welfare enhancing properties of marginal pricing were a key concern, yet, the technical computation of marginal costs also proved difficult. It was unclear how to compute marginal costs, mainly in view of the discontinuities of the cost function. In the context of post-war reconstruction and of practically implementing a marginal pricin…
How the Drafting of the Clayton Antitrust Act Helped Spread the Managerial Approach to Efficiency
Managerial sciences are generally considered to be the art of efficiently running business. Their influence, though, extends far beyond the corporate sphere, and they play an important part in public administration and in particular in its dialog with society at large. Here, from the viewpoint of historical institutionalism, we document one of the earliest successful examples of the wider application of management science: the 1914 antitrust rule…
Toward a "Prodigious Revival of French Economics"? Allais, Debreu, and the Dead Loss Controversy (1943-51)
This article aims to trace the hitherto little-known controversy involving Maurice Allais, François Divisia, Harold Hotelling, and Gérard Debreu in the immediate postwar years. The controversy turned on "dead loss," a measure of the maximum value of available surplus serving as a gauge of economic efficiency and social welfare. The protagonists argued about how it should be expressed mathematically, the hypothesis underpinning it, and its general…
A Journey into Harold Hotelling’s Economics
Harold Hotelling (1895–1973) was a major contributor to twentieth-century American economics. The overall thrust of his research, and his view of the role of mathematics in the discipline, have so far received little attention. Based on an unprecedented examination of his work and professional archives, this article provides a thorough analysis of Hotelling’s background and contribution to economics. A self-taught economist in the 1920s, Hotellin…
Local Entanglements in the History of Mathematical Economics
This essay introduces a special issue of History of Political Economy titled "Local Entanglements in the History of Mathematical Economics." The articles in the special issue share a particular historiographical approach, characterized by the name of "local entanglements." The introduction defines the approach and explains why it can contribute in an original way to the history of economics
Hotelling and Wilson on Statistical Inference: Local Attitudes and Universal Dreams
During the early 1920s, a scattered group of American scholars, among whom were Harold Hotelling and E. B. Wilson, started a joint effort to develop statistical instruments in economics. They became interested in disparate topics such as the statistical determination of demand curves, business cycles, yield forecasting, population growth, and many others. Hotelling and Wilson shared much: both were trained in mathematics, both were convinced of t…
Les Pratiques de modélisation macroéconomique en France entre 1950 et 1975 by Loipa Muñiz DuarteEconomy and Interest: A New Presentation of the Fundamental Problems Related to the Economic Role of the…
From housewife’s expertise to the women’s movement: Empowerment through scientific management during the progressive era
Scientific Management is usually studied for what it brought to factories, production and the organization of work: yet, it did much more. Our contribution focuses on how Taylor’s ideas were adapted to domestic occupation by overlapping with another forgotten movement promoting household efficiency and primarily led by women: Home Economics and its sanitary science. Drawing on the methodology of intellectual history, we examine the pioneering wri…
Economics (14 works) · Economic Theory and Institutions (11 works) · Political science (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Economic Theory and Policy (6 works) · Neoclassical economics (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Positive economics (6 works)