Karl William Kapp (October 27, 1910 – April 4, 1976) was a German-American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

and Professor of Economics at the City University of New York and later the University of Basel. Kapp's main contribution was the development of a theory of social costs that captures urgent socio-ecological problems and proposes preventative policies based on the precautionary principle. His theory is in the tradition of various heterodox economic paradigms, such as ecological economics, Marxian economics,

social economics Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their local ...

, and institutional economics. As such, Kapp's theory of social costs was directed against neoclassical economics and the rise of

neoliberalism Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...

. He was an opponent of the compartmentalization of knowledge and championed, instead, the integration and humanization of the social sciences.

Biography

Kapp was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

in 1910 as son of August Wilhelm Kapp, who was a teacher of physics. In secondary school at the ''Hufengymnasium'' one of his teachers was the poet Ernst WiechertBiographical Information K. William Kapp
retrieved 15 April 2008. End 1920s he started studying

law and economics Law and economics, or economic analysis of law, is the application of microeconomic theory to the analysis of law, which emerged primarily from scholars of the Chicago school of economics. Economic concepts are used to explain the effects of law ...

at the universities in Berlin and

. He continued his studies in London and at the

Graduate Institute of International Studies Graduate may refer to: Education * The subject of a graduation, i.e. someone awarded an academic degree ** Alumnus, a former student who has either attended or graduated from an institution * High school graduate, someone who has completed high ...

in Geneva, where in 1936 he received a

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in economics with his dissertation „Planwirtschaft und Aussenhandel“. In Geneva Kapp had met the people of the

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...

, who emigrated to the US and settled as ''Institute for Social Research'' at the Columbia University, New York City. In 1937 they granted Kapp a scholarship. From 1938 to 1945 he was an instructor in Economics at the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in New York. From 1945 to 1950 he was Assistant Professor of Economics at the

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

in Middleton, Connecticut. From 1950 to 1965 he was Professor of economics at the

University of the City of New York New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. He was among the first members of the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE). In 1965 he returned to Switzerland and was Professor of economics at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

until 1976. In that time he was also a Visiting Professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris. In 1976 Kapp suffered a fatal heart attack during a conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Work

Kapp's research interests ranged from economics, sociology, policy making and environmental science to the theory of knowledge, the history of economic thought, and many related topics.Karl William Kapp 1910–1976, Obituary
in ''Journal of Economic Issues'' (1976), nr 09.

Planning debate

In his 1936 dissertation ''Planwirtschaft und Aussenhandel'' contributed to the debate around the

economic calculation problem The economic calculation problem (sometimes abbreviated ECP) is a criticism of using economic planning as a substitute for market-based allocation of the factors of production. It was first proposed by Ludwig von Mises in his 1920 article "Eco ...

, a criticism of central economic planning. This problem was first proposed by

Ludwig von Mises Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (; 29 September 1881 – 10 October 1973) was an Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and Sociology, sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberali ...

in 1920, expounded by Friedrich Hayek and further debated in the 1920s and 1930s. Kapp argued that a planned economy is "not doomed to autarky because there are ways to deal with the valuation problem so that trade and exchange with market economies can be organized".

Publications

* 1936, ''Planwirtschaft und Außenhandel'', Genève : Georg & Cie. * 1950, ''The Social Costs of Private Enterprise'', Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Univ. Press * 1963, ''The Social Costs of Business Enterprise'' * 1961, ''Towards a Science of Man in Society – A Positive Approach towards the Integration of Social Knowledge'' * 1958, ''Volkswirtschaftliche Kosten der Privatwirtschaft''. Tübingen : Mohr (Siebeck). * 1975, ''Neue Wege für Bangladesh''. Hamburg : Inst. f. Asienkunde * 1976, ''Staatliche Förderung "umweltfreundlicher" Technologien''. Göttingen : Schwartz. * 2011, ''The Foundations of Institutional Economics – by K. William Kapp, edited by Sebastian Berger and Rolf Steppacher''. Routledge.

References

External links

K. William Kapp Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kapp, Karl William 1910 births 1976 deaths Writers from Königsberg University of Königsberg alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni German economists Sustainability advocates Wesleyan University faculty Ecological economists 20th-century American economists German emigrants to the United States