Adolph Lowe

Adolph Lowe born Adolf Löwe (4 March 1893 – 3 June 1995) was a German sociologist and economist.

Life and work

Adolph Lowe was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Stuttgart, Germany. His father, Alexander Löwe, was a merchant, and his mother, Ottilie Mayer Löwe, was a homemaker. [http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/ger022.htm]

He was for a long time the "eminence grise" of the New School for Social Research. He studied first in Munich, and then in the University of Berlin with Franz Oppenheimer. Here he studied both sociology and economics. As a veteran of World War I, he helped plan the postwar demobilization of the German army, and served in the Socialization Committee which sought to nationalize the German economy. In 1922, Lowe joined the Ministry of Economics of the Weimar Republic.

In 1926, Lowe joined the Kiel "Institut für Weltwirtschaft", a center dedicated to business cycle research whose other members included Fritz Burchardt, Gerhard Colm, Jacob Marschak and Hans Neisser. His famous 1926 "WWA" article was a cogent critique of the existing division between business cycle literature and equilibrium economic theory, and called for the development of an endogenous theory of economic fluctuations.

Drawing on a Central European tradition that stemmed from Marx's scheme of extended reproduction, Lowe found a new manner of conceiving motion in business cycle theory. Lowe's concern with changing multisectoral structure over the cycle, as outlined in his 1926 essay, preceded and inspired a similar notion in the young Friedrich Hayek's business cycle theory. Lowe's own subsequent work, in particular the analysis of the "traverse" from one growth equilibrium to another (1952, 1954, 1976), has its roots in this paper.

Lowe gravitated to the University of Frankfurt in 1931 where he came into fruitful contact with Horkheimer, Adorno and other members of the "Frankfurt School" - an influence that never left him. As a Jewish social democrat, ex-member of the German Socialization Committee and an architecht of the Weimar Republic, Adolph Lowe's position in Nazi-controlled Germany was quite untenable and he was one of the first to be removed. He left in 1933 to take up a position at the University of Manchester. Lowe left England in 1940, being perceived as an "enemy alien" - in spite of his naturalization and past history. His "Price of Liberty" (1936) outlines some of his impressions of Great Britain.

During his stay at Frankfurt and Manchester, Lowe moved away from business cycle research he had pursued at Kiel and towards social philosophy and economic methodology. His famous 1935 "Economics and Sociology", was exactly what its subtitle indicates: a "plea for cooperation in the social sciences". As he outlined there and in a few follow-up articles (1936, 1942), conventional economic equilibrium theory rested ultimately not only on a rather debatable conception of mechanistic rationality but also conditional on the assumption of the constancy and uniformity of individual behavior. This assumption, in Lowe's view, was not only unrealistic, but also unnecessarily restrictive and removed most of what was interesting (and necessary) for the analysis of economic motion. Lowe's doubts about the assumption of the "universality" of specific economic behavior echoed the position of the German Historical School of previous generations. His hopes for fruitful interaction between economics and sociology in this regard also dovetailed with his interest in the role and structure of universities (1937, 1940).

At the "New School"

Lowe arrived at the New School for Social Research as the director of the "Institute of World Affairs" - that institution's attempt to resurrect the old Kiel Institute. His indefatigable efforts in this regard led him to temporarily suspend his work on economic methodology and social structure.

His 1951 article attacking the "mechanistic approach" to economics signalled his return to this field. His pre-war questions began to take a more definite form around this time - namely, in two issues which dominated the rest of his career, the "economic traverse" and "instrumental analysis". Underlying both of these concepts was the recognition of changing and heterogeneous behavioral patterns - the crux of Lowe's pre-war musings. If this is granted, then the approach of orthodox economic theory was practically irrelevant as the object of study was continuously changing. As noted, the analysis of the "traverse", already implicitly contained in his Kiel work, but only really formulated in the 1950s (e.g. 1952, 1954, 1955), addressed the issue of movements from a particular growth path to another and the detailing of the implied adjustment paths and the modifications in behavioral and economic structures which both engender and are implied by them. Thus, the dynamics behind the traverse, he envisioned to be related to socio-economic evolution which should not, indeed could not, be considered an exclusively economic phenomenon. He continued developing his ideas on the relationship between evolution and growth, in particular, outlining the role of changing behavior and multiple behavior patterns on the resulting economic process.

Lowe's "instrumental analysis" proposed to sidestep the problem of tractability implied by changing structure by considering a type of economics which combined both prescribed behavioral patterns and economic analysis when dealing with economic policy. In Lowe's view, behavior was endogenous - both to economic structure and economic policy. As any economic analysis or prescription is conditional on a particular type of behavior, then Lowe concluded, economic policy must ultimately tackle the twin tasks of "setting" the behavioral configurations and using the "appropriate" theory implied by that behavior.

Lowe's work on the traverse and instrumental analysis is best laid out in his two great works, "On Economic Knowledge" (1965) and "The Path of Economic Growth" (1976), and his article "Toward a Science of Economics" (1969) - which were received with bewilderment by much of the economics profession. Not quite used to this kind of post-eighteenth century thinking, economists were caught between accusing him of being an "anti-theorist", an "authoritarian" or simply a troublemaker. Of course, he was none of these (except perhaps the last). Firstly, as noted, he gave a central role to economic theory in his system - indeed, if anything, he perhaps allowed for too many economic theories. Furthermore, Lowe went to great pains to note that his "instrumentalism" is far from a prescription for socialist policy. Indeed, Lowe stressed quite the contrary: that freedom is ultimately only possible in a constrained scenario - indeed, it can only be "defined" within constraints. Lowe's notions of "constrained freedom" and "spontaneous conformity" were standard concepts long familiar to sociologists and philosophers - and can even be found in earlier writers, such as Goethe.

Lowe's contributions in a modern perspective

In fact, in a modern light, Lowe's position is almost self-evident. If one recognizes the mutability of economic behavior, then policy must ultimately take behavioral considerations into account. In recognizing that economic policy can set the parameters within which individual behavior operates, Lowe thus sets out a proposition similar in tone to the later "Lucas critique" of econometric policy analysis. Where Lowe goes one step ahead of Lucas, then, is in suggesting that these parameters should themselves be considered as policy instruments - which does not sound as too radical a proposition by modern standards when one considers, say, the "reputation" debate on monetary policy and inflation and indeed, the Public Choice school. Thus, in modern light, the charges of "incipient authoritarianism" that were heaped upon Lowe during the 1960s and 1970s seem obviously untenable. However, to Cold War contemporaries, Lowe's propositions were uncomfortable - even though Lowe suggested examples that ought to be familiar to them (e.g. how is laissez-faire sustainable without anti-trust legislation?).

Almost alone among economists, the American Institutionalists recognized that Lowe's analysis resonated with their own work - and appropriately granted him the Veblen-Commons Award. In his subsequent lecture (1980), he reiterated his position on instrumental analysis - and chastising economists of all stripes for overemphasizing either theory or empiricism. Like Veblen almost a century before, Lowe reiterated that the need was for a new economics which could incorporate the insights of both and, at the same time, stretch far beyond them.

Although it was never the primary focus of Lowe's research activity, in the course of his work on economic methodolgy he has also made valuable contributions to economic history and the history of economic thought. One of his most prominent students in the latter field was Robert Heilbroner.

Lowe "retired"(sic) in 1963, remaining at the New School as a lecturer, until he returned to Germany in 1983. There he died in [Wolfenbüttel] at the age of 102. Until the end of his life, he still clung optimistically to his great and as yet unfulfilled hope: the fruitful interdisciplinary communication between economics and sociology.

Major publications of Adolph Lowe

*"Arbeitslosigkeit und Kriminalität", 1914.
*"Zur Methode der Kriegswirtschaftsgesetzgebung", 1915, "Die Hilfe"
*"Die freie Konkurrenz", 1915, "Die Hilfe"
*"Wirtschaftliche Demobilisierung", 1916.
*"Mitteleuropäische Demobilisierung", 1917, "Wirtschaftszeitung der Zentralmächte".
*"Die ausführende Gewalt in der Ernährungspolitik", 1917, "Europäische Staats- und Wirtschaftszeitung"
*"Die Massenpreisung im System der Volksernährung", 1917, "Europäische Staats- und Wirtschaftszeitung"
*"Die Fragen der Übergangswirtschaft", 1918, "Die Woche"
*"Die Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte in der Demobilmachung", 1919, "Europäische Staats- und Wirtschaftszeitung"
*"Die Neue Demokratie", 1919, "Der Spiegel"
*"Die Soziologie des modernen Judentums", 1920, "Der Spiegel"
*"Zur gegenwartige Stand der Konjukturforschung in Deutschland", 1925,in Bonn and Palyi, editors, "Die Wirtschaftswissenshaft nach dem Kriege", 1925.
*"Chronik der Weltwirtschaft", 1925, "WWA"
*"Wie ist Konjunkturtheorie uberhaupt möglich?", 1926, "WWA" (transl. 1997, "How is Business Cycle Theory Possible at All?", "Structural Change and Economic Dynamics")
*"Weitere Bemerkungen zur Konjunkturforschung", 1926, "Wirtschaftdienst"
*"Zur Möglichkeit der Konjukturtheorie: Antwort auf Frank Oppenheimer", 1927, "WWA"
*"Über den Einfluss monetärer Faktoren auf der Konjukturzyklus", 1928, in Diel, editor, "Beiträge zur Wirstschaftstheorie"
*"Kredit und Konjuktur", 1929, in Boese, editor, "Wandlungen des Kapitalismus Auslandsanleihen"
*"Reparationspolitik", 1930, "Neue Blätter für den Sozialismus"
*"Lohnabbau als Mittel der Krisenbekämpfung?", 1930, "Neue Blätter für den Sozialismus"
*"Der Sinn der Weltwirschaftskrise", 1931, "Neue Blätter für den Sozialismus"
*"Das gegenwartige Bildungsproblem der deutschen Universität", 1931, "Die Erziehung"
*"Über den Sinn und die Grenzen verstehender Nationalökonomie", 1932, "WWA"
*"Der Stand und die nächste Zukunft der Konjukturforschung in Deutschland", 1933, "Festschrift fur Arthur Spiethoff"
*"Some Theoretical Considerations of the Meaning of Trend", 1935, "Proceedings Manchester Statistical Society"
*"Economics and Sociology: A plea for cooperation in the social sciences", 1935.
*"Economic Analysis and Social Structure", 1936, "Manchester School".
*"The Social Productivity of Technical Improvements", 1937, "Manchester School"
*"The Task of Democratic Education: pre-Hitler Germany and England", 1937, "Social Research"
*"The Price of Liberty: A German on contemporary Britain", 1937.
*"The Turn of the Boom", 1938, "Manchester Statistical Society"
*"The Universities in Transformation", 1940.
*"A Reconsideration of the Law of Supply and Demand", 1942, "Social Research".
*"The Trend in World Economics", 1944, "American J of Econ and Sociology"
*"On the Mechanistic Approach in Economics", 1951, "Social Research".
*"A Structural Model of Production", 1952, "Social Research"
*"National Economic Planning", 1952, in Hanley, editor, "Survey of Contemporary Economics"
*"The Classical Theory of Economic Growth", 1954, "Social Research".
*"Structural Analysis of Real Capital Formation", 1955, in Abramovitz, editor, "Capital Formation and Economic Growth".
*"The Practical Uses of Theory: Comment", 1959, "Social Research".
*"Wirtschaftstheorie - der nächtste Schritt", 1959, "Hamburger Jahrbuch fur Wirtschafts und Gesellschaftspolitik"
*"On Economic Knowledge: Toward a science of political economics", 1965.
*"The Normative Roots of Economic Value",1967, in Hook, "Human Values and Economic Policy".
*"Toward a Science of Political Economics", 1969, in Heilbroner, editor, "Economic Means and Social Ends"
*"Economic Means and Social Ends: A Rejoinder", 1969, in Heilbroner, editor, "Economic Means and Social Ends"
*"Toward a Science of Political Economics", 1970, in "Phenomenology and Social Reality".
*"Adam Smith's System of Economic Growth", 1975, in Skinner and Wilson, editors, "Essays on Adam Smith"
*"The Path of Economic Growth", 1976.
*"Prometheus Unbound: A new world in the making", 1978, in Spicker, editor, "Organism, Medicine and Metaphysics"
*"What is Evolutionary Economics? Remarks upon receipt of the Veblen-Commons Award", 1980, "Journal of Economic Issues".
*"Is Economic Value Still a Problem?", 1981, "Social Research"
*"Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty? A self-critique", 1982, "Social Research".
*"Has Freedom a Future?", 1988.

Secondary sources

* Will Lissner: [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_n1_v55/ai_18074647 "In memoriam: Adolph Lowe, 1893-1995 - economist"] , American Journal of Economics and Sociology, January 1996.
* Claus-Dieter Krohn: "Der Philosophische Ökonom. Zur intellektuellen Biographie Adolph Lowes." 240 Seiten, Mai 1996 ISBN 3-89518-081-5
* Volker Caspari, Bertram Schefold: "Franz Oppenheimer und Adolph Lowe. Zwei Wirtschaftswissenschaftler der Frankfurter Universität." 312 Seiten, 1996 ISBN 3-89518-088-2
* Claus-Dieter Krohn: "Vertreibung und Akkulturation deutscher Wirtschaftswissenschaftler nach 1933 am Beispiel A.L.s und der 'University in Exile' an der New School for Social Research in New York" in: "Der Exodus aus Nazideutschland und die Folgen. Jüdische Wissenschaftler im Exil" Hg. Marianne Hassler, Attempto, Tübingen 1997 ISBN 3893082654

External links

* [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/lowe.htm Biography at HET]