This collection brings together leading economists from around the world to explore key issues in economic analysis and the history of economic thought. This book deals with important themes in economics in terms of an approach that has its roots in the works of the classical economists from Adam Smith to David Ricardo. The chapters have been inspired by the work of Neri Salvadori, who has made key contributions in various areas including the theory of production, the theory of value and distribution, the theory of economic growth, as well as the theory of renewable and deplorable natural resources. The main themes in this book include production, value and distribution; endogenous economic growth; renewable and exhaustible natural resources; capital and profits; oligopolistic competition; effective demand and capacity utilization; financial regulation; and themes in the history of economic analysis. Several of the contributions are closely related to the works of Neri Salvadori. This is demonstrated with respect to important contemporary topics including the sources of economic growth, the role of exhaustible resources in economic development, the reduction and disposal of waste, the redistribution of income and wealth, and the regulation of an inherently unstable financial sector. All contributions are brand new, original and concise, written by leading exponents in their field of expertise. Together this volume represents an invaluable contribution to economic analysis and the history of economic thought. This book is suitable for those who study economic theory and its history, political economy as well as philosophy.

Known for its clarity, comprehensiveness, and balance, the latest edition of A History of Economic Theory and Method continues that tradition of excellence. Ekelund and Hébert’s survey provides historical and international contexts for how economic models have served social needs throughout the centuries—beginning with the ancient Greeks through the present time. The authors not only trace ideas that have persisted but skillfully demonstrate that past, discredited ideas also have a way of spawning critical thinking and encouraging new directions in economic analysis. Coverage that distinguishes the Sixth Edition from its predecessors includes a detailed analysis of economic solutions by John Stuart Mill and Edwin Chadwick to problems raised by the Industrial Revolution; the role of psychology and “experiments” in understanding demand and consumer behavior; discussions of modern economic theory as it interrelates with other social sciences; and a close look at the historical development of the critical role of entrepreneurship, both in its productive and unproductive variants. The authors’ creative approach gives readers a feel for the thought processes of the great minds in economics and underscores key ideas impacting contemporary thought and practice. Well-crafted discussions are further enriched by absorbing examples and figures. Thorough suggested reading lists give options for more in-depth explorations by interested readers.

This book, first published in 1997, is a history of economic thought from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes.

The concept of space has always been a fundamental element in various branches of knowledge. The concept often appears in the evolution of knowledge, either as a basis of theory or as a factor in research. It is associated, more or less directly, with all the history of scientific thought. At the level of simple common sense, the importance of the concept of space is only equaled by its lack of precision. It was part of legend before becoming part of history. To indicate the founding of Rome, Romulus started by drawing the boundaries, locating its landmarks in a discontinuous space after having cut the limits of a continuous space. However, neither geographical explorations nor mathematico-logical speculations have ever completely removed the mystery from the concept of space. For all its simple common sense, its mystique remains intact. The privileged position occupied by the concept of space in the history of science and the vagueness of its meaning in the current use of the term, far from constituting a paradox, are mutually explanatory. Every concept of space is necessarily the result of an abstraction, whether the process by which it is reached is through mathematics, psychology, biology, or any other discipline. At the level of common knowledge, the space-time concept is the base upon which are arranged individual experiences. It is thus easy to understand how the concept of space can be understood only through an orderly arrangement of these experiences and their integration into a logical scheme.

This book, set out over three volumes, provides a comprehensive history of economic thought in the 20th century with special attention to the cultural and historical background in the development of theories, to the leading or the peripheral research communities and their interactions or controversies, and finally to an assessment and critical appreciation of economic theories throughout these times. It takes as its subject matter the canon of publications by major thinkers who self-consciously conceived of themselves as 'economists' in the modern academic sense of the term. It is a history of how, when and where the discipline of Economics took root in major universities and scientific communities of economists, and evaluates the emergence of different 'schools' of thoughts. Volume I addresses economic theory in the golden age of capitalism. It considers the contributions of Marshall, Pareto, Wicksteed, Schmoller, Bohm-Bawerk, Schumpeter, Wicksell, Fisher, Veblen and other major thinkers, as well as the universities of Cambridge, Lausanne, Vienna, Berlin, and some others in US, before concluding with a look at the impact that the great war had on the discipline. This work provides a significant and original contribution to the history of economic thought and gives insight to the thinking of some of the major international figures in economics as shown in major works published across the last 130 years. It will appeal to students, scholars and the more informed reader wishing to further their understanding of the history of the discipline.

This and the companion volume are about the ascent, vicissitudes and lacunae in the science and art modern economics and about Kenneth Arrow, his architectonic contributions to and impact on the theoretical and applied economics and moral and political philosophy of our age. They provide a comprehensive composite analysis of Arrow's approach and contributions to and his impact on modern economics and philosophy seen from various forms. In addition to original essays that not only analyse Arrow's contributions and impact, but provide insights into what is being done at the frontiers of the subject, these volumes contain interview chapters that afford extraordinary glimpses into the creativity and personality of the major contributors to the economics of our age (including our protagonist) and are an important historical document.

This book presents a substantial collection of essays from a wide range of well respected scholars addressing several aspects of Piero Sraffa’s economics in light of continuing controversies over the interpretation that should be placed on his work. It moves beyond extant scholarship with an added emphasis on the philosophical dimension of Sraffa’s seminal work, Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. Contributors probe new ways of thinking about the political economy of Sraffa and in doing so, alongside the comments to each contribution by other scholars, provide a cutting edge debate and discussion on non-mainstream economic theory. This book will be of interest to academics and advanced graduate students in economics, with additional interest from scholars in philosophy and the methodology of science.

This book is about the conceptual foundations of an intermediate way between liberalism and socialism. From a standpoint of economic theory, this middle way is conceived of as a synthesis of classical (Ricardian) and Keynesian political economy. While the former deals with proportions between individuals or collectives and society in tackling the problems of distribution and value on the basis of the surplus principle, the latter is concerned with the scale of economic activity as explained by the principle of effective demand. Political economy pictures the economic aspects of the functioning of the institutional system within which the behaviour of individuals is embedded. The economy considered is, primarily, neither a market nor a planned economy, but, rather, a monetary production economy. To establish an alternative to liberalism and socialism requires setting up a system of the social sciences. In this work suggestions are made for linking political economy with other social sciences, i.e. sociology, law and politics in the traditional sense, thus establishing the unity of the social sciences. In a Keynesian vein, the social sciences are conceived of as moral sciences, a view which gives rise to a specific philosophy of history. To complete the picture, issues of method associated with the theory of knowledge in the social sciences and the problem of linking theory with historical reality are also covered.

"The author puts this book in the best possible context by referring to the ""magisterial and paradoxical Dr. Schumpeter"". A figure in a rare class with John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich von Hayek, and Alfred Marshall, the work of Joseph Schumpeter is equalled only in monumental significance by his personal trials and tribulations. The work is divided into two volumes - the first covering his career in Europe and the second his life and achievements in America.Walt Rostow, in his Foreword, sums up Robert Loring Allen's achievement in biography and intellectual history thus: ""In dealing with Schumpeter's life, Allen exhibits a rare consciousness of the extraordinary complexity and only limited penetrability of the human personality Schumpeter's closely interwoven personal and professional life unfolds, Allen develops without dogmatism a pattern of linkages for the reader to contemplate. In a splendid final passage, he provides a memorable summation.""What makes this enormous effort so successful is the linkage of the personal and the professional, the biographical with the intellectual. Indeed, it is Schumpeter's single-minded determination to explain within a single, formal theory, the dynamics of capitalism that bridges the gap in space, time, and personality. To his books The Theory of Economic Development, and Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, both published by Transaction, is now added the specific contexts in which these and his other works were written.The author of this biography, like the subject himself, is a masterful student of the craft of economics, and its place within the larger social science contexts that Schumpeter worked. In this work, we are introduced into the main current of European and American social science alike. The title of the book, Opening Doors, derives from Schumpeter's life long aim to appeal to inquiring minds to move through such doors in an effort to create the social science of the"