K._William_Kapp
Karl William Kapp
American economist
Karl William Kapp (October 27, 1910 – April 4, 1976) was a German-American economist and professor of economics at the City University of New York and later the University of Basel. Kapp's main contribution was the development of a theory of social costs that captures urgent socio-ecological problems and proposes preventative policies based on the precautionary principle. His theory is in the tradition of various heterodox economic paradigms,[1] such as ecological economics,[2]: 417f Marxian economics, social economics, and institutional economics. As such, Kapp's theory of social costs was an ongoing debate with neoclassical economics and the rise of neoliberalism.[3] He was an opponent of the compartmentalization of knowledge and championed, instead, the integration and humanization of the social sciences.[4]