Editors of the Special Issue

Spencer Banzhaf (North Carolina State University)

Christian Bessy (IDHES, École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay)

Erwin Dekker (Mercatus Center, George Mason University)

Julien Gradoz (CLERSÉ, Université de Lille)

Jean-Sébastien Lenfant (PRISM, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Stéphan Marette (INRAE, AgroParisTech)

Call for papers

Ever since the marginalist revolution, economics has developed as the study of equilibria in various market structures and informational contexts. According to this view, price and quantity of goods and services (assumed to be measurable) are the only two variables to be accounted for in the study of market coordination. Within this framework, it is presupposed that the nature of the goods and services being exchanged is either known from the outset or expected to vary only within predetermined, measurable boundaries (such as firms’ location, for instance). Over the last century, the most influential schools of thought have each applied this view on their own terms, and theoretical as well as methodological debates have been bounded by this common tenet that the goods to be traded are determined previously to market coordination. Challenging this established tenet has been—and still is—one of the most complex and demanding tasks for economists to address. It is also one of the most necessary.

One such way out of this tenet revolves around the introduction of quality as a third variable to be accounted for in market coordination, leading to the more sophisticated statement that buyers and sellers of qualitatively differentiated goods are both maximizing and objective. However, any attempt to introduce quality in economic theory—whether as an additional variable or in place of quantity—raises analytical difficulties and fundamental questions: Is quality measurable and how? Is there a given objective gamut of such qualities and what makes it objective? What does quality actually mean? Is this definition amenable to some kind of market coordination analysis or does it call for alternative institutions to be established? What are the consequences of introducing quality for welfare evaluations? Are there shared principles to account for quality in economic policy? What have we learned from empirical studies on quality and market structures? How does behavioral economics change our views about quality and market coordination? Are standards and quality labels likely to improve market information on quality and market outcomes? What is the role of institutions and market intermediaries in the construction of quality?

This set of questions highlights the significant challenge that the concept of “quality” poses to the study of market coordination. It also opens up a range of avenues for exploration for historians of economics and scholars specializing in economic methodology, as well as for theoreticians and practitioners involved in issues about quality in various fields of economics.

Consider the following salient themes.

1. Exploring the historical treatment of “quality”. Research on the topic of quality in the history of economic thought is still limited, and this call for paper is an occasion to broaden our knowledge of how quality was addressed by economists. The period before the 1930s appears to be especially understudied. Based on published works, it seems that quality has been addressed before the 1930s at the margins of economics, in relation to specific policy issues (such as grain trade, standards, adulteration, durability) and attempts to build statistical knowledge on land or the classifications of socioeconomic variables. This is obviously the case for authors interested in agricultural improvements as a source of economic progress (The Physiocrats, von Thünen, Linnæus). Quality standards are also an important issue in Cameralism and in works of the younger German historical school. It is desirable to explore these early works. Additionally, the editors welcome contributions on the treatment of quality within the marginal revolution, the Progressive Era and on how it became a specific issue for economists in the 1920s-1930s.

2. The decentralized and multifaceted treatment of quality. Recognizing that the role of “quality” in market coordination cannot be disregarded, it has been addressed in diverse ways across various fields of economics, driven by necessity. Rather than a unified approach that introduces quality in an abstract manner into the theory of economic equilibrium, quality has been approached in a decentralized, if not fragmented, fashion. This decentralization permits distinct interpretations of the notion of “quality” and encourages the examination of quality as a multifaceted concept in economics. Each field tends to engage with quality according to agreed-upon values concerning the valuation of goods and concerns about the consequences of neglecting quality. Consequently, issues surrounding quality differ significantly in fields such as health and environmental economics, labor economics, contract theory for public utilities, the economics of education, transportation economics, cultural economics, measures of growth and productivity, price index measures and national accounting. Moreover, whether there are specific treatments of the notion of “quality” in the main schools of thought in economics is an important issue: neoclassical, neo-institutional, conventionalist, Marxist, Austrian…

3. Methodological considerations in analyzing quality. Introducing quality in economics prompts reflection on the choice set of economic agents, their preferences, firms’ technology, and market boundaries. Moreover, when quality has been introduced to solve specific puzzles (for instance, the Bertrand paradox, Diamond paradox, Leontief paradox…), its introduction can raise new puzzles, notably because quality is not necessarily measurable (unlike price and quantity). When can quality be treated as comparable to quantity (a tire that last twice as long is like two tires)? Is quality objective or subjective? When can it be combined across goods to produce final characteristics? When can it be inferred from prices? When do attempts to include quality actually reduce the predictive content of economic models (Archibald 1961)? And should we then consider these attempts as a vain search for realism, irrelevant from the point of view of economic methodology (Stigler 1949; Friedman 1952)?

4. The normative implications of quality. Quality is sometimes used as synonymous with “characteristics” or as synonymous with what is considered “desirable.” Therefore, the mobilization of this notion entails both positive and normative aspects. Moreover, quality evaluation is connected with the establishment of standards and quality labels and plays a fundamental role in market coordination as well as in welfare evaluations and policy making. The quality of a utility or of a health system has direct implications for the conception of contracts and is related to overall welfare judgments implying externalities. A comprehensive exploration of the normative aspects shaping the construction of quality measures and their significance for market coordination is sorely lacking in the literature.

In summary, quality has been an evolving and multifaceted concept in various fields of economic thought. To date, few works have explored the role given to the concept of quality in economics (examples would include Klein 2000; Banzhaf 2001; Stapleford 2011; Wadman 2015; Lupton 2015). Therefore, this special issue of Œconomia aims to explore the historical trajectory of how economists have conceptualized and incorporated the concept of “quality” into their theories, methods, and policy recommendations.

This special issue aims to provide a set of research papers with a large coverage, borrowing from various methodological perspectives. Contributions to this special issue can focus on any period and location (contributions beyond the United States case are most welcomed). Contributions can explore any dimension of economics (theorizing, modeling, estimating…) and any fields of economics. A variety of approaches is most welcome (monographies, analytical history, theoretical modeling, socio-economic approaches, quantitative studies). In that sense, the special issue aims to build a systematic, context-specific, and broad account of the role that has been given to the concept of quality in economics and, further, to draw perspectives for future research. Editors of the special issue welcome contributions from historians of economics, applied economists, experts wishing to reflect on their own practices and on the rules adopted in their professional community, or else, reminiscences from economists willing to share a retrospective and reflexive insight into the evolution of the role given to the concept of quality in economics.

Examples of potential topics for contributions include, but are not restricted to:

• The history of the development, dissemination and uses of a particular concept or model associated with quality (vertical differentiation, hedonic pricing, conventions of quality, Lancasterian characteristics approach, productivity, Likert scales, finiteness property, optimal product differentiation, quality ladders, durable products, quality uncertainty, adverse selection, land rent…).

• The analysis of the methodological issues associated with the introduction of the concept of quality in economics (defining the concept of “quality,” describing the relations between quality and the other economic variables, defining the properties of the “quality variable,” the role of subjective evaluation of quality by consumers, constructing quality measures…).

• The history of institutions, research groups, or other collective actors who have played a specific role in fostering the study of quality in economics. Examples would include, among others, the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE), the RAND Journal of Economics, The Ottawa Group (International Working Group on Price Indices), the specialists of monopolistic competition theory, the NBER… One could notably consider the role given to quality in the committees responsible for economic planning in different places around the world and at different times.

• The assessment of the role of a specific contribution in the study of quality in economics (Hotelling 1929; Chamberlin 1933; Scitovsky 1944; Dorfman and Steiner 1954; Lancaster 1966; Akerlof 1970; Fisher and Shell 1972; Rosen 1974; Gabszewicz and Thisse 1979; Shaked and Sutton 1982; Berry, Levinsohn, and Pakes 1995) or the assessment of the role of an individual economist (Edward Chamberlin, Joan Robinson, George Archibald, George Stigler, Kelvin Lancaster, Nancy Stokey, Sherwin Rosen, Jacques-François Thisse, François Eymard-Duvernay, Jean Jaskold Gabszewicz, Margaret Slade, Avinash Dixit, Joseph Stiglitz, Martine Quinzii, Jean Tirole, Susan Athey…).

• The role of quality in reshaping specific economic issues or concepts, like market power (Sutton 1986), competition (Abbott 1953), the first law of demand (Stiglitz 1987), quantity (Leffler 1982), merit goods (Musgrave 1959), communication and matching on the market (Spence 1973), credence goods (Darby and Karni, 1973)…

• The role given to quality in economic textbooks, e.g., The Theory of Price (Stigler 1946); The Theory of Industrial Organization (Tirole 1988); A Course in Microeconomic Theory (Kreps 1990). Or the treatment of quality in the teaching of economics (Adams 2020; 2023).

• The relations between economics and other disciplines on the issue of quality: Sociology (Karpik 2010; Beckert and Musselin 2013; Bessy and Chauvin 2013; Callon 2021), marketing (Moorthy 1988; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry 1988; Golder, Mitra, and Moorman 2012), psychology (Tversky 1972; Green and Srinivasan 1990), operations management (Shewhart 1933; Crosby 1979; Deming 1982)…

Procedure and timeline

Researchers who would like to be considered for participation in this special issue of Œconomia should submit, via email attachment, the title of their paper, an extended (1,000-1,500 words) abstract, and the affiliations of all authors. This information should be sent to oeconomia@openedition.org by March 30, 2024, at the latest.

Authors whose contributions are selected by the editors will be notified by April 15. Full paper submission on Œconomia’s submission platform is expected by October 15.

In January 2025, a workshop will be organized at the university Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris, where authors will be invited to present and discuss their papers.

The process of peer review, revision and acceptance of papers is expected to end by May 2025 and publication to take place in June 2025.

For further information, please contact the editors of the special issue or send a message to oeconomia@openedition.org.