Hayek against Malthus
Julian Simon’s Neoliberal Critique of Environmentalism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13085541 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Troy Vettese (European University Institute, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 283-311 |
| Publication date | 2023-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Historical Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2326-4462 • E-ISSN: 2326-4470 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/726753 |
| OpenAlex | W4389231269 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 44 |
The transition to neoliberal hegemony during the last quarter of the twentieth century is generally portrayed as a contest between Hayekians and Keynesians. This portrayal overlooks the brief but potent effervescence of the neo-Malthusian movement. Biologists Garrett Hardin, Paul Ehrlich, and Donella Meadows led a social movement that pursued environmentalist governance wherein scarce resources and population growth were managed by command-and-control instruments, Pigouvian taxation, and coercion. The neoclassical mainstream of economics conceded to the neo-Malthusian upstarts that if a “backstop” energy source was not discovered, then there were indeed “limits to growth,” but neoliberals eventually devised alternative environmental frameworks, such as Elinor Ostrom’s “commons” and John Dales’s “cap-and-trade.” The first significant clash between neoliberals and neo-Malthusians came in the form of a bet between Julian Simon and Paul Ehrlich over commodity prices during the 1980s. This article reconstructs the broader context of their confrontation, as well as the theoretical influences on Simon’s cornucopian framework of “resourceship.”
Economics · Environmentalism · Neoclassical economics · Neoliberalism (international relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Economic Theory and Institutions · Economic Theory and Policy · Law · Political Economy and Marxism
The Great Persuasion
The Ultimate Resource
The Ultimate Resource 2
Some Fallacies in the Interpretation of Social Cost
Commentary
The Malthusian Moment
The Skeptical Environmentalist
Globalists
Carrying capacity reconsidered
Fisheries’ collapse and the making of a global event, 1950s–1970s
Born in the corridors of the OECD’
Hayek contra Pangloss on Evolutionary Systems
The Ecological Colonization of Space
From The Limits to Growth to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Pathways
Completing Decolonization
On the Economic Theory of Socialism
The Fishery
Economics and Knowledge
Rivalry and Central Planning
World Dynamics
Price Formation in a Socialist Community
Economic Theory and the Problems of a Socialist Economy
Brief History of Neoliberalism
Planetary Boundaries
Julian Simon and the Population Growth Debate
John Stuart Mill on the Stationary State
The Future Will Not Be Calculated
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |