TUHAN-BARANOVSKY’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15407/economyukr.2025.05.072Keywords:
Austrian microeconomics; Business cycle theory; cooperatives; history of Ukrainian thought; Marxian macroeconomics.Abstract
Mykhaylo Tuhan-Baranovsky (1864-1919), a prominent Ukrainian economist and social scientist, deserves an assessment for his contributions to the History of Economic Thought. We provide a selection of Tuhan-Baranovsky’s main works. The starting point is his contribution to microeconomics, addressing Austrian marginal utility theory. Next, we focus on his contribution to macroeconomics, namely his theory of industrial crises, which includes a theory of markets and a theory of production built upon the Marxian schemes of reproduction and accumulation. His endogenous, real business cycle theory proved influential upon some major economists during the first quarter of the twentieth century until the Great Depression, from Lescure and Aftalion to Robertson and Bounatian, and from Spiethoff to Hayek and Keynes. Last, we examine Tuhan-Baranovsky’s shift from Marxism towards non-Marxian socialism, namely ‘cooperativism’, and his theory of cooperatives inspired by Proudhon that stands opposite to Chayanov’s theory. Conclusion sketches two research avenues. One could address the congruence of the labour costs theory and utility theory in Tuhan-Baranovsky’s microeconomics and furthermore its consistence with psycho physics theory (Weber-Fechner’s law). The other one could link Tuhan-Baranovsky’s theory of markets and his theory of production and building-up a comprehensive model including micro-foundations to his macroeconomic business cycle theory.
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