​

From the Socialist Calculation Debate to Ecological Economics: an Intellectual Genealogy  through Karl William Kapp

Jean-François Colomban

PhD in Philosophy / History of Economic Thought

LIER-FYT (EHESS) et CRHI (Université Côte d’Azur)

INDEP Conference 07-2025

Introduction

Lore L. Kapp & K. W. Kapp, circa 1955

Two starting problems:

​

1. Is there a strong intrinsic affinity between socialist thinking & ecological thinking, as well as between ecological ideals and socialist ideals ?

​

• Is the intellectual foundation of Ecological Economics through his most popular book (The Social Costs), as it is usually believed ?

Objectives

1. Examine the potential inner / structural links between socialist reflexivity & ecological reflexivity, and socialist ideals & ecological ideals

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

(2) Show the complex intellectual path which lead Kapp to found (with others) Ecological Economics, as well as the concept of ecological planning (vs linear path centered on The Social Costs)

Socialist Reflexivity

​

​

Socialist Ideals

Ecological Reflexivity

​

​

Ecological Ideals

?

Central Hypotheses

1. Kapp did resort to a specific strand of the early socialist calculation debate (starting from O. Neurath) in order to found the field of Ecological Economics and to establish a concept of ecological planning

​

​

(2) Kapp undertook two relatively distinct theoretical paths: one purely critical towards capitalist economies (The Social Costs), and one more constructive, hazardous and complex towards a positive (vs purely critical) theory of the functioning of all types of economies, and, a fortiori, of planned socialist economies

Kapp’s intellectual path(s)

Planwirtschaft und Aussenhandel (1936)

The Social Costs of Private Enterprise (1950)

First (cautious) texts on planning

Economic Planning and Economic Regulation (1939)

Economic Planning and Freedom (1950)

Review of K.P. Hensel (1955)

Development Economics

on (mostly) India (1959-63)

1^st Synthesis

-The Social Costs of Business Enterprise (1963)

-Social Costs and Social Benefits (1962)

New ecological (existential and global) stakes of 1970s

Theoretical texts on indicators

-Les indicateurs d’environnement (1973)

-Environmental disruption (1973)

​

Environmental policies and development planning in contemporary China (1974)

Ecological Economics

Ecological Planning

• Planwirtschaft und Aussenhandel (1936) as a (socialist) contribution to the socialist calculation debate

​

• Objective ? Show that a planned economy is not doomed to autarchy: it can take advantage of its integration within the capitalist international division of labor without putting at risk its own functioning

​

• Two paths to answer Mises’ objection: (1) a critique of capitalist economy in the name of its low respect of the “economic principle” ; (2) an investigation on how complex planned economies work

​

• What choice ? Mostly the critical path in the PhD

PhD Thesis of 1936

Kapp’s intellectual path(s)

Planwirtschaft und Aussenhandel (1936)

The Social Costs of Private Enterprise (1950)

First (cautious) texts on planning

Economic Planning and Economic Regulation (1939)

Economic Planning and Freedom (1950)

Review of K.P. Hensel (1955)

Development Economics

on (mostly) India (1959-63)

1^st Synthesis

-The Social Costs of Business Enterprise (1963)

-Social Costs and Social Benefits (1962)

New ecological (existential and global) stakes of 1970s

Theoretical texts on indicators

-Les indicateurs d’environnement (1973)

-Environmental disruption (1973)

​

Environmental policies and development planning in contemporary China (1974)

Ecological Economics

Ecological Planning

The Social Costs (1950)

• Objective ? Show that private enterprise generate “social costs”, i.e. “all direct and indirect losses suffered by third persons or the general public as a result of private economic activities.” (Kapp, 1950, 13)

​

• These costs are “not reflected” in “entrepreneurial outlays”, and thus not integrated as constraints

​

• Example of “social costs”: damage to public health, work accidents, increasing erosion and deforestation, increasing air and water pollution, depletion of energetic and “animal resources”

​

• Not Kapp’s most radical critique ; complex history with the liberal & neoclassical concept of externality

​

​

Kapp’s intellectual path(s)

Planwirtschaft und Aussenhandel (1936)

The Social Costs of Private Entreprise (1950)

First (cautious) texts on planning

Economic Planning and Economic Regulation (1939)

Economic Planning and Freedom (1950)

Review of K.P. Hensel (1955)

Development Economics

on (mostly) India (1959-63)

1^st Synthesis

-The Social Costs of Business Enteprise (1963)

-Social Costs and Social Benefits (1962)

New ecological (existential and global) stakes of 1970s

Theoretical texts on indicators

-Les indicateurs d’environnement (1973)

-Environmental disruption (1973)

​

Environmental policies and development planning in contemporary China (1974)

Ecological Economics

Ecological Planning

First (cautious) texts on planning

• Economic Planning and Economic Regulation (1939) to distinguish socialist planning from fascist or interventionist policies

​

• Economic Planning and Freedom (1950): “Alternative methods of bringing about such coordination have as yet been scarcely explored. The most promising approach open to national economic planning is that provided by input-output analysis.” (p205)

​

• Review of 1955: “Hensel's study is a first major advance in the theoretical exploration of the planning mechanism of a centrally administered economy since the controversy initiated by 0. Neurath, von Mises and Max Weber got sidetracked in various attempts to calculate the prices of productive factors by means of Walras' and Cassel's systems of equations and 0. Lange's later elaboration of a theoretical model of "competitive socialism.” (p682)

​

​

Kapp’s intellectual path(s)

Planwirtschaft und Aussenhandel (1936)

The Social Costs of Private Entreprise (1950)

First (cautious) texts on planning

Economic Planning and Economic Regulation (1939)

Economic Planning and Freedom (1950)

Review of K.P. Hensel (1955)

Development Economics

on (mostly) India (1959-63)

1^st Synthesis

-The Social Costs of Business Enteprise (1963)

-Social Costs and Social Benefits (1962)

New ecological (existential and global) stakes of 1970s

Theoretical texts on indicators

-Les indicateurs d’environnement (1973)

-Environmental disruption (1973)

​

Environmental policies and development planning in contemporary China (1974)

Ecological Economics

Ecological Planning

Development Economics

The Kapps meet Nehru, circa 1958

​

The Kapps in Kashmir, circa 1958

Kapp’s intellectual path(s)

Planwirtschaft und Aussenhandel (1936)

The Social Costs of Private Entreprise (1950)

First (cautious) texts on planning

Economic Planning and Economic Regulation (1939)

Economic Planning and Freedom (1950)

Review of K.P. Hensel (1955)

Development Economics

on (mostly) India (1959-63)

1^st Synthesis

-The Social Costs of Business Enteprise (1963)

-Social Costs and Social Benefits (1962)

New ecological (existential and global) stakes of 1970s

Theoretical texts on indicators

-Les indicateurs d’environnement (1973)

-Environmental disruption (1973)

​

Environmental policies and development planning in contemporary China (1974)

Ecological Economics

Ecological Planning

Environmental policies and development planning in contemporary China (1974)

• “ The present essay raises the issue of Socialism and the Environment. As such it should be of interest to all those who have long held the view that the degradation of the human environment is above all a socio-institutional and hence a political problem and is in fact promoted by the principles which guide the decision-making process in a market economy. […] In other words, the Chinese example illustrates at the same time the relationship between economic development, development planning and environmental policies.” (p9)

​

• “Few Marxists writers have taken up these hints [Marx on use value] while many have simply followed the general trend toward a subjective theory of vale and price. The great exceptions were Otto Neurath and Max Weber, today Charles Bettelheim and Paul Sweezy in their discussion of the theoretical and practical problems of economic calculation in the period of transition to a socialist economy” (p38)

​

​

Kapp’s intellectual path(s)

Planwirtschaft und Aussenhandel (1936)

The Social Costs of Private Entreprise (1950)

First (cautious) texts on planning

Economic Planning and Economic Regulation (1939)

Economic Planning and Freedom (1950)

Review of K.P. Hensel (1955)

Development Economics

on (mostly) India (1959-63)

1^st Synthesis

-The Social Costs of Business Enteprise (1963)

-Social Costs and Social Benefits (1962)

New ecological (existential and global) stakes of 1970s

Theoretical texts on indicators

-Les indicateurs d’environnement (1973)

-Environmental disruption (1973)

​

Environmental policies and development planning in contemporary China (1974)

Ecological Economics

Ecological Planning

Conclusion

K. W. Kapp, circa 1975

• Kapp’s history shows strong intrinsic affinity between socialist reflexivity and ecological reflexivity, as the former is very suitable for the latter, as Kapp experienced

​

• Why such a strong affinity ? That’s another question

​

• Kapp could not have contributed to the founding of Ecological Economics the way he did without this socialist reflexivity drawn from the socialist calculation debate

​

• Thank you for listening !

​

​

​