Conclusion
This article demonstrates that the dominant narrative about the discourse on social costs is incomplete. The findings show that the discourse includes Clark's and Kapp's institutional theory of cost shifting and social costs. The latter reflects a distinct and clearly distinguishable institutional argument on social costs, which further develops earlier ideas by Veblen and Max. Thus, the institutional theory of social costs is a clearly distinguishable alternative to neoclassical and neoliberal arguments.
The Kapp-Clark correspondence shows that Clark was influential in the development of Kapp's institutional theory of social costs and social returns. Throughout their works, both economists harnessed the enormous power of their argument on cost shifting as a rationale for increasing social controls of the economy and the development of a genuine social economics. Yet the archival materials also illustrate that both economists differed on the definition of social costs, and that Clark encouraged Kapp to balance his critique and to consider improving certain weaknesses of is argument. Their correspondence provides further important documentation that Kapp developed the institutional theory on social costs to counter "intransigent Ineo-liberalism," and that leading neoliberal economists sought strategies to undermine and eclipse the institutional argument. Thus, the discourse on social costs cannot be fully understood without appreciating the role of the institutional argument on social costs. This account differs markedly from other recent accounts, ending the hermeneutic "stop play" strategy that fails to acknowledge institutional theories. Thereby, this article contributes to the important advancement of understanding social costs via the "ethics of play" (Villauer 2010; Samuels 1990; Arrington 1990)