Workshop on “European economic thought on inheritance in the 20th Century”
University of Strasbourg – BETA
Thursday 5th June 2025
The workshop “European economic thought on inheritance in the 20th century” will be held on Thursday 5 June at the University of Strasbourg.
It is organised by the BETA (University of Strasbourg) and the University of Caen-Normandie.
This project is funded by the MAKErS interdisciplinary thematic institute of the University of Strasbourg, CNRS and INSERM.
It is organised in partnership with the ANR PHILHERIT programme led by Mélanie Plouviez (Côte d’Azur University)
The idea of this workshop is to serve as a prelude to a conference in 2026 on the theme of inheritance in the history of twentieth-century economic thought.
The question of inheritance has been the subject of renewed interest in public debate for some years now, as during the last presidential election campaign in France, but also among economists and social science researchers, particularly since the work of Piketty, who highlighted the ‘return of inheritance’ (Piketty 2013), and that of Beckert, who highlighted the political risks of the concentration of wealth in a democratic society (Beckert 2008).
In their wake, there is an abundance of work today: on the link between inheritance and inequality, the work of Adermon et al (2018) in the case of Sweden, or that of Boserup et al (2016) in the case of Denmark, show that inheritance explains the correlation observed between generation and wealth levels. In France, we can cite the work of Frémeaux (2018) or the recent report by the French Conseil d’Analyse Economique (Dherbécourt et al. 2021). The OECD has also taken up the issue (OECD 2021). Moreover, these debates have recently given rise to normative proposals (Blanchard and Tirole 2021; Masson 2023) whose originality in terms of the history of ideas remains to be assessed.
However, in the history of economic thought, this question has long been ignored. And it has to be said that, despite the impetus given in recent years by the works of Erreygers and his co-authors (Erreygers and Vandevelde 1997; Erreygers and Di Bartolomeo 2007; Erreygers and Cunliffe 2013), there is no real enthusiasm for this subject. Only a few articles have since been published in the major international journals on the history of economic thought (Steiner 2008; Silvant 2015). Moreover, these works on the history of economic thought are all confined to the study of the 18th, 19th and very early 20th centuries.
The aim of this one-day workshop is therefore to make up for the glaring lack of studies in the history of economic thought on inheritance in the 20th century by focusing on the European case. What positions did European economists (and social scientists in general) take on inheritance in the 20th century? Did they debate among themselves and with their non-European colleagues? Did they make some proposals for reforming the taxation of inheritance, and if so, what kind of reforms? What influence have they had on European public policy on the issue of inheritance? Do liberal economists reproduce the paradox of their 19th century predecessors, namely the simultaneous defence of individual success and family inheritance? Or, with the advent of the notion of meritocracy in the 20th century (Young 1958; Gotman 2006), have inheritance and merit become antithetical in their thinking? How did so-called ‘neoliberal’ thinkers and economists view inheritance? The aim of this workshop is to provide some answers to these questions and to examine the evolution of law and public policies, as well as the influence, if any, of economists’ writings on these developments.
This conference is resolutely multidisciplinary. Proposals from economists, historians, sociologists, political scientists, lawyers and philosophers are welcome.
SUBMISSIONS
Interested researchers should send an abstract (400 to 600 words) of their proposed paper in French or English, with 3 to 5 keywords, by 28 February 2025 to the following e-mail addresses: philippe.gillig@unistra.fr, benoit.walraevens@unicaen.fr
REGISTRATION FEES: None
Each speaker must try to finance his or her travel and any accommodation with the help of his or her research centre or university. We will cover meals and coffee breaks on site. If funds remain available, we will try to reimburse part of the travel costs.
VENUE
The conference will take place at the Pôle Européen de Gestion et d’Economie (PEGE) of the University of Strasbourg, 61 avenue de la Forêt-Noire, Strasbourg, France.
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Philippe GILLIG, University of Strasbourg
Benoît WALRAEVENS, University of Caen-Normandie
SPECIAL ISSUE
A selection of papers presented at the conference may be published in a special issue of an academic journal.
DEADLINES AND SUBMISSIONS
November 2024: Launch of the call for papers
28 February 2025: End of the call for papers
End of March 2025: Answers to authors
End of April 2025: Final programme
Thursday 5 June 2025 : Workshop at BETA in Strasbourg
