Stephen Marglin
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Stephen Alan Marglin is an American economist. He is the Walter S. Barker Professor of Economics at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, a fellow of the
Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools to their field. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians or statisticians. ...
, and a founding member of the World Economics Association.


Background

Marglin grew up in a "moderately left-wing" Jewish family and attended Hollywood High School in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
before moving to Harvard for his university studies in 1955. He earned membership into
Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
, and graduated '' summa cum laude'' (1959). He was subsequently honored with a Harvard Junior Fellowship (1960–63), and was later a
Guggenheim fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the a ...
.


Career

Marglin started out as a
neoclassical economist Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics in which the production, consumption and valuation (pricing) of goods and services are observed as driven by the supply and demand model. According to this line of thought, the value of a good ...
, and was regarded, even while still an undergraduate, as the star of Harvard's economics department. Arthur Maass, the Frank G. Thomson Professor of Government, Emeritus, at Harvard, once remembered how Marglin, "when he was just a senior, wrote two of the best chapters in a book published by a team of graduate students and professors." His exceptional early contributions to neoclassical theory led to his becoming a tenured professor at Harvard in 1968, one of the youngest in the history of the university. Since the late 1960s, Marglin, following the lead of people such as Samuel Bowles,
Herbert Gintis Herbert Gintis (February 11, 1940 – January 5, 2023) was an American economist, behavioral scientist, and educator known for his theoretical contributions to sociobiology, especially altruism, cooperation, epistemic game theory, gene-culture co ...
, and Arthur MacEwan, rejected orthodox economics and began expressing dissenting views in his academic work. According to his former teacher,
James Duesenberry James Stemble Duesenberry (July 18, 1918 – October 5, 2009) was an American economist. He made a significant contribution to the Keynesian analysis of income and employment with his 1949 doctoral thesis ''Income, Saving and the Theory of Consu ...
, Marglin's career subsequently "suffered" because of his department and the university authorities in general taking a negative view of this change. Economist
Brad DeLong James Bradford "Brad" DeLong (born June 24, 1960) is an economic historian who is a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley. DeLong served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the Clin ...
noted in a similar vein that the wider community of "
Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...
economists" took a rather dim view of Marglin's post-tenure "deviancy", something that has "not been pretty" to observe. Marglin has published in areas including the foundations of
cost–benefit analysis Cost–benefit analysis (CBA), sometimes also called benefit–cost analysis, is a systematic approach to estimating the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives. It is used to determine options which provide the best approach to achieving benefits ...
, the workings of the labor-surplus economy, the organization of
production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...
, the relationship between the growth of
income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. Fo ...
and its
distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations * Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...
, and the process of macroeconomic adjustment. He wrote the widely discussed 1971-1974 paper "What do bosses do?", first published in France by his friend André Gorz, followed by a series of others, in which he argued that Elsewhere, Marglin argued: "The obstacles to liberating the workplace lie not only in the dominance of classes in whose interest it is to perpetuate the authoritarian workplace, but also in the dominance of the knowledge system that legitimizes the authority of the boss. In this perspective, to liberate the workplace it is hardly sufficient to overthrow capitalism. The commissar turned out to be an even more formidable obstacle to workers' control than the capitalist." His highly cited and influential work "What do bosses do?" came as part of Marglin's disagreement with fellow Harvard professor
David Landes David Saul Landes (April 29, 1924 – August 17, 2013) was a professor of economics and of history at Harvard University. He is the author of ''Bankers and Pashas'', '' Revolution in Time'', '' The Unbound Prometheus'', '' The Wealth and Poverty ...
over aspects of the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
; years later, Landes wrote "What do bosses really do?" in reply.. Marglin is critical of those who explicitly set out to deny the
normative Normative generally means relating to an evaluative standard. Normativity is the phenomenon in human societies of designating some actions or outcomes as good, desirable, or permissible, and others as bad, undesirable, or impermissible. A norm in ...
aspect of economics—something that he believes "really started with the British economist
Lionel Robbins Lionel Charles Robbins, Baron Robbins, (22 November 1898 – 15 May 1984) was a British economist, and prominent member of the economics department at the London School of Economics (LSE). He is known for his leadership at LSE, his proposed def ...
"—arguing that opposing ideology is "a methodological error": Marglin's 21st-century research has included analysis of the foundational assumptions of economics, concentrating on whether they represent universal human values or merely "reflect western culture and history." ''The Dismal Science'' (2008) looks at, amongst other things, the manner in which community is steadily gutted as human relations are replaced with market transactions. Marglin's latest book, ''Raising Keynes: A Twenty-First-Century General Theory,'' is scheduled for publication by Harvard University Press in June, 2021. ''Raising Keynes'' rescues the central insight of John Maynard Keynes's great work, ''The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money,'' that capitalism left to its own devices has no mechanism for guaranteeing full employment, and that consequently the government must provide a visible hand to work in tandem with the invisible hand of the market. "Rescues" because the mainstream view today is just what it was in the 1930s when Keynes wrote the ''General Theory'': namely, that the problem is imperfections that impede the working of markets, warts on the body of capitalism rather than the body itself. Over the years the radical, heterodox Keynes was transformed by the mainstream into a super-sophisticated theorist of warts, specifically, a theorist of how capitalism can get stuck if wages are insufficiently flexible. The wart theory allowed economists to accept some of Keynes's policy insights, in particular the limitations of monetary policy and the necessity for countercyclical fiscal policy in extremis, while rejecting the idea that there is any more serious flaw than the warts themselves. And, supremely important, restricting the role of government to alleviating the warts is a strictly short-term, limited, endeavor. ''Raising Keynes'' shows how and why the orthodox reading of Keynes is wrong and substantiates Keynes's insight that, even if you strip capitalism of its warts, you still have a system which has no mechanism for reliably producing enough jobs. We need the government, not on an occasional, intermittent basis, but all the time, in the long run as well as in emergencies. In line with his view of economics teaching as "extremely narrow and restrictive," for some years Marglin offered an alternative to
Greg Mankiw Nicholas Gregory Mankiw (; born February 3, 1958) is an American macroeconomist who is currently the Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Mankiw is best known in academia for his work on New Keynesian economics. Mankiw ...
's course in introductory economics.


Partial publications list


Books

* * * (Co-editor with Frédérique Apffel-Marglin). * (Co-editor with Apffel-Marglin). * (Co-editor with
Juliet Schor Juliet B. Schor (born 1955) is an economist and Sociology Professor at Boston College. She has studied trends in working time, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, women's issues and economic inequality, and concerns about clima ...
). * *


Articles, papers, and chapters

* * * (With Peter M. Spiegler). * * * * * * * (With Amit Bhaduri). * * * * * * "Origines et fonction de la parcellisation des tâches. À quoi servent les patrons?", in André Gorz (ed.), ''Critique de la division du travail'', Paris, Seuil, 1973, p. 41-89. * * *


Political and other views

A liberal in his earlier years, since the mid-1960s Marglin has been a Leftist, and has even been labelled a Marxist, though he describes himself as Marxist "only in the sense of not being anti-Marx." He identifies as a cultural Jew and a
secular humanist Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality ...
, and maintains his practice of Judaism for the sense of community it provides. Marglin was arrested in 1972 while demonstrating against the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
. He supported the
Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...
, and contributed to a teach-in at
Occupy Harvard Occupy Harvard was a student demonstration at Harvard University identifying itself with the global Occupy Movement. It sought to create a forum for discussing economic inequality at Harvard, in the United States, and throughout the world. It cr ...
. His Occupy lecture is available o
YouTube


Personal life

Marglin is married to Christine Marglin (née Benvenuto). She is the author of ''Shiksa: The Gentile Woman in the Jewish World'' and ''Sex Changes: A Memoir of Marriage, Gender, and Moving On.'' Marglin's previous two marriages, to Carol Kurson (died 2020) and Frederique Apffel-Marglin, ended in divorce. From youngest to oldest, his children (including stepchildren) are Nasia Benvenuto-Ladin, 2021 high-school grad; Yael Benvenuto-Ladin, rising college senior; Gabriel Benvenuto-Ladin, working in theater production; Jessica Marglin, associate professor of Jewish Studies and religion, law, and history; Elizabeth Marglin, freelance writer; David Marglin, attorney; and Marc Weisskopf, professor of environmental epidemiology and physiology.


Notes


Bibliography

* Bruno Tinel (2004), ''"À quoi servent les patrons?". Marglin et les radicaux américains'', Lyon, ENS Editions. * * * *


External links


Interview of Marglin
by Cato's
Will Wilkinson Will Wilkinson (born 1973) is an American writer. He was born in Independence, Missouri, and grew up in Marshalltown, Iowa. He graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1995, received an M.A. in philosophy from Northern Illinois Univers ...
on
Bloggingheads.tv Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast on ...
.
Video of Marglin giving a talk called "The Future of Capitalism"
at
the New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
, 14 February 2008. The occasion was the third annua
Robert Heilbroner Memorial Lecture
which was based around Marglin's ''The Dismal Science''. *
Marglin discussing "Raising Keynes" at the University of Utah, 2015

Panel discussion
of Thomas Piketty's ''
Capital in the Twenty-First Century ''Capital in the Twenty-First Century'' (french: Le Capital au XXIe siècle) is a book written by French economist Thomas Piketty. It focuses on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States since the 18th century. It was initially ...
'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Marglin, Stephen Year of birth missing (living people) American anti–Vietnam War activists Economists from California American socialists Fellows of the Econometric Society Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Jewish American social scientists Jewish socialists Living people People from Los Angeles 20th-century American economists 21st-century American economists