IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ejw/journl/v22y2025i1p91-107.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Synthetic Marx to Synthetic Kafka: A Rejoinder to Magness and Makovi

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph Francis

Abstract

In 2023, Phillip W. Magness and Michael Makovi published their article “The Mainstreaming of Marx” in the Journal of Political Economy. I criticized that article in the previous issue of Econ Journal Watch, and Magness and Makovi replied, sticking to their guns. In both of Magness and Makovi’s pieces, the novel aspect of their argument is that Karl Marx was not well-known before the Russian Revolution. Nonetheless, as I reiterate in this rejoinder, their use of the synthetic control method (SCM) is inappropriate to this research question and, if anything, contradicts this claim. Furthermore, I present a simpler analysis of the Google Ngram Viewer data that is in line with Isaiah Berlin’s more conventional view of Marx already being well-known before 1917. I also show that Magness and Makovi have made basic errors when looking at the JSTOR data. My argument remains that non-quantitative methods are generally better suited to the study of intellectual history.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph Francis, 2025. "From Synthetic Marx to Synthetic Kafka: A Rejoinder to Magness and Makovi," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 22(1), pages 1-91–107, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:22:y:2025:i:1:p:91-107
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econjwatch.org/File+download/1338/FrancisMar2025.pdf?mimetype=pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://econjwatch.org/1381
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Karl Marx; Russian Revolution; synthetic control method; quantitative methods; intellectual history;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B14 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist
    • B24 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist; Scraffian
    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • B51 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Socialist; Marxian; Sraffian
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:22:y:2025:i:1:p:91-107. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jason Briggeman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/edgmuus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.