Search

This volume, originally published in 1958, contains a selection of the most important and interesting articles by Knut Wicksell, which had hitherto only been published in Swedish. They cover Wicksell's views on Economics and monetary theory, his theory of production and distribution, some review articles on the works of Pareto, Böhm-Bawerk, Carl Menger and Bowley and some papers on foreign trade problems, written after the First World War. Erik Lindahl's introductory essay gives a picture of Wicksell the social reformer, who radical opinions often brought him into conflict with the authorities and the general public.

This volume collects published papers and essays from widely scattered and inaccessible sources, some of which appeared for the first time when this book was originally published. In the first part of the book the subjects range from the theory of wages and recent trends in economic theory to economists'criticism of capitalism and socialism, investment-policy in under-developed countries, and economic growth under the Soviet Five Year Plans. The second part includes papers on Lenin and Marx, a study of the economic ideas of Bernard Shaw, and an essay on historical materialism.

On his death in the autumn of 2006, Milton Friedman was lauded as “the grandmaster of free-market economic theory in the postwar era” by the New York Times and “the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century” by the Economist. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976, Friedman was both a highly respected economist and a prominent public intellectual, the leader of a revolution in economic and political thought that argued robustly in favor of virtues of free markets and laissez-faire policies. Milton Friedman on Economics: Selected Papers collects a variety of Friedman's papers on topics in economics that were originally published in the Journal of Political Economy. Opening with Friedman's 1977 Nobel Lecture, the volume spans nearly the whole of his career, incorporating papers from as early as 1948 and as late as 1990. An excellent introduction to Friedman's economic thought, Milton Friedman will be essential for anyone tracing the course of twentieth-century economics and politics.

Economics is a science that can contribute substantial powerful and fresh insights! This book collects essays by leading academics that evaluate the scholarly importance of contemporary economic ideas and concepts, thus providing valuable knowledge about the present state of economics and its progress. This compilation of short essays helps readers interested in economics to identify 21st century economic ideas that should be read and remembered. The authors state their personal opinion on what matters most in contemporary economics and reveal its fascinating and creative sides.

In this book, originally published in 1937, Jacob Viner traces, in a series of studies of contemporary source-material, the evolution of the modern orthodox theory of international trade from its beginnings in the revolt against English mercantilism in the 17th and 18th centuries, through the English currency and tariff controversies of the 19th century, to the late 20th century. The author offers a detailed examination of controversies in the technical literature centering on important propositions of the classical and neo-classical economists relating to the theory of the mechanism of international trade and the theory of gain from trade.

The volume at hand gives an exposition of the tradition of the Historical School of Economics and of the Geisteswissenschaften or human sciences, the latter in their development within the Historical School as well as in Neo-Kantianism and the sociology of knowledge. It continues the discussion started in the year 1994 on the Older Historical School of Economics and the 19th century German contribution to an ethical theory of economics with the Newer Historical School of the 20th century. Economists, social scientists, and philosophers examine the contribution of this tradition and its impact for present theory. The schools of thought and their approaches to economics as well as to the cultural and social sciences are examined here not as much for their historical interest as for their poten­ tial systematic contribution to the contemporary debates on economic ethics, economics, sociology, and philosophy. The volume at hand contains the proceedings of the Fourth Annual SEEP-Conference on Economic Ethics and Philosophy in 1996,'Economics and Ethics in the Historical School. Part B: Max Weber, Heinrich Rickert, Max Scheler, Werner Sombart, Arthur Spiethoff, John Commons, Alfred Marshall, and Others', held at Marienrode Monastery near Hannover, Germa­ ny, on March 27-30th, 1996, together with several additional invited papers.

This edited collection presents an economic history of Catalonia and its economic crises, from Roman times to the political difficulties of the present day. It considers how the strong identity of the Catalan people has been reinforced in critical episodes such as the commercial revolution of the Late Medieval Age, the 1640 rebellion, the Succession War of 1705-1714, the industrial revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the strong repression during early Francoism. The book also explores how historical parallels from Catalonia's past might shed light on the long-term consequences of the Great Recession of 2007-9 and recovery in the EU, showing how the typical Mediterranean approach of adjusting to crises by depreciating currencies and expanding public deficits has been less straightforward during the most recent financial crisis. A particularly deep slump has contributed to fostering the claim for independence of Catalonia in recent times, echoing larger dissatisfaction with EU monetary policy. With a comprehensive overview of major events in Catalonian economic history and their broader implications to European political economy and development, this book will be of interest to students and academics in economic history, social history, and monetary economics.

This book examines the development of social support systems in the Modern age in the rural areas of the city-states of Northern Italy. This investigation achieves two main purposes: first, it allows researchers to understand the role occupied concretely by welfare and micro-credit activities in the political and socio-economic panorama of rural Northern Italy; secondly, it verifies to what extent the formation of a more or less structured support system influenced the establishment of local identity and the rooting of individuals. The book brings together perspectives from different fields of research ranging from economic and political history to the study of the history of ecclesiastical institutions, as well as integrating recent research on the anthropological value of welfare actions and the use of multiple historical sources. It considers how the retreat of the welfare activity of the State, associated with a depopulation of the rural areas of the peninsula and a steady increase of poverty into social fringes that were previously not affected by economic problems, pushes us to investigate more carefully the dynamics that in the Ancien Régime gave shape to the support activities against indigence and poverty. This book will be of interest to academics and students working in economic history and social history.

The purpose of this book is three-fold. The first purpose is to posit that the fundamental substance of the universe is energy, and that energy is required (consumed) for any material transformation, or information transmission. The labor theory of value, articulated by the physiocrats and elaborated by Adam Smith, David Ricardo, J.B. Say and Karl Marx was a rough first approximation of the value creation process, in the 17th and 18th centuries, but is now obsolete. Labor is now (mostly) performed by machines, not by humans (or animals). The second aim of the book is to argue that the economy is a living (open) system -- an “island of order” –that exists far from both thermodynamic and economic equilibrium. Order is achieved by dissipating a flux of exergy. Economists frequently emphasize the equilibrium assumption, introduced originally by Leon Walras in 1854. But in reality, biological systems and human social systems are dissipative cycles, far from both thermodynamic equilibrium, and economic equilibrium, yet stable and capable of evolution, driven by the solar exergy flux. The third aim of the book is to re-emphasize, that – being open – the economic system cannot be regarded as a collection of individual competitive utility-maximizing transactions. There are, increasingly, important possibilities for cooperation instead of competition. Moreover third party effects, both “bads” (externalities) and the “public good” (happiness) – need to be incorporated into the socio-economic decision making process.

Dieser informative und unterhaltsame Parforceritt durch die Steuergeschichte zeigt, wie sehr Steuern und Zwangsabgaben seit jeher Geschichte mitschrieben: Oft waren Steuerproteste Keimzellen von Aufständen, Revolutionen und Staatsgründungen. Im 16. Jahrhundert erschütterten die Bauernkriege Europa, im 18. Jahrhundert führten freiheitsliebende Steuerrebellen mit der Bostoner Tea Party zur Unabhängigkeit der USA. Nicht zuletzt entsprang die Französische Revolution 1789 in weiten Teilen dem Hass gegen das Steuergebaren des Ancien Regime. Parallel hat sich das historisch gewachsene deutsche Steuerrecht bis heute zu einem'Dämon'entwickelt, den niemand mehr im Griff zu haben scheint. Es ist undurchschaubar, verwirrend, widersprüchlich und wird insbesondere vom sogenannten kleinen Mann als ungerecht, geradezu als Raubrittertum empfunden. Kein Wunder, denn bis zur Mitte eines jeden Jahres arbeitet der deutsche Arbeitnehmer allein für den Fiskus. Und greift daher oft zur Selbsthilfe: Steuerumgehung, Steuerflucht und Schattenwirtschaft, Steuerhinterziehung und Subventionsbetrug sind hierzulande geradezu zum Volkssport geworden. Als historisch motiviertes Plädoyer nimmt auch die 3., durchgesehene Auflage Anliegen und Schlachtruf der gebeutelten Steuerzahler wieder auf: Bürger, schlagt der vielköpfigen Hydra die Köpfe ab und engagiert euch für ein Steuerrecht, das „einfach, niedrig und gerecht“ ist!

Die Frage nach der Überlebensfähigkeit von Unternehmen in schwierigen Zeiten ist spätestens seit der Finanzkrise in den Jahren nach 2007 hochaktuell, doch trat dieses Problem auch in der Geschichte auf, wenn Zeiten bedeutender wirtschaftlicher, politischer und gesellschaftlicher Umbrüche neuartige Herausforderungen an Unternehmen stellten. Dies war während des Kommerzialisierungsprozesses im langen 16. Jahrhundert der Fall, als im Rahmen der Europäischen Expansion die quantitative Ausdehnung des Handels nach Wert, Produkten und Volumen einherging mit neuen logistischen und finanziellen Herausforderungen. Den daraus resultierenden Gefahren und Risiken, die die Vulnerabilität von Familienhandelsgesellschaften verstärken konnten, begegneten die Kaufmanns-Bankiers in vielen Fällen mit einem bewussten Resilienz-Management, d.h. mit strategischen organisatorischen und unternehmerischen Maßnahmen, die die Adaptationsfähigkeit ihrer Familienhandelsgesellschaften an sich verändernde Rahmenbedingungen verbesserten und dadurch deren Krisenfestigkeit erhöhten. Das Buch analysiert die dahinterstehenden Prozesse und Faktoren anhand ausgewählter Fallbeispiele aus der oberdeutschen Hochfinanz des 16. Jahrhunderts in ihrer Bedeutung für unternehmerischen Erfolg. Zugleich wird aber auch unternehmerisches Scheitern in den Blick genommen und als eine Folge von nicht oder nur mangelhaft erfolgtem Resilienz-Management interpretiert. Darüber hinaus werden wesentliche Grundlagen des innovativen Forschungsparadigmas ‚Resilienz‘ im Zusammenhang mit Vulnerabilität und Disruption aus historischer und ökonomischer Perspektive erörtert.

Es gibt unglaublich viele und unglaublich schwerwiegende Ungerechtigkeiten. Acht Millionen Menschen verhungern jedes Jahr. Milliarden Menschen können ihre Möglichkeiten und Fähigkeiten nicht ausleben. Gleichzeitig werden Einzelne mit zum Teil unsozialem Verhalten märchenhaft reich. Viele Menschen spüren, dass etwas in der globalen Wirtschaft und ihren Gesellschaften schief läuft, aber es fällt ihnen schwer, ihr Unbehagen zu artikulieren. Kann man überhaupt sagen und entscheiden, was „gerecht“ ist? In diesem Buch geht Christian Thielscher dieser Frage nach und entwickelt ein Verständnis von „Gerechtigkeit“, das mehr ist als eine bloße Annahme, sondern das sich auf neue naturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse stützt. Dadurch gelingt der Nachweis, dass „Gerechtigkeit“ nicht nur evolutionsbiologisch sehr alt ist und in unserem Gehirn „fest verdrahtet“ ist, sondern, dass man auch inhaltliche Kategorien bestimmen kann, die bei der Beurteilung darüber helfen, was „gerecht“ist.Zunächst wird der Frage nachgegangen, was unter „Wirtschaft“ zu verstehen ist, welche Rolle Wirtschaftswissenschaften dabei spielen und welchen Einfluss dies auf das Gerechtigkeitsverständnis hat. Dabei wird sich zeigen, dass Teile der herrschenden Wirtschaftstheorie unvollständig sind, und dass sie möglicherweise dazu beitragen, ungerechte Verteilungen zuzulassen. Schließlich wird untersucht, was was unter „Gerechtigkeit“ zu verstehen ist. Der Autor entwirft ein Modell, das die Kernelemente der Gerechtigkeit präzise beschreibt und zeigt, dass es in früheren Theorien bereits angelegt war und dass es sich auch mit naturwissenschaftlichen Befunden untermauern lässt. Abschließend werden mithilfe des vorgestellten Gerechtigkeitsmodells typische (und bisher ungelöste) Gerechtigkeitsfragen exemplarisch analysiert und erklärt. Auf Fragen zur politischen Umsetzung von Gerechtigkeit und zur Effizienz von Umsetzungsprozessen wird punktuell eingegangen.

The Changing Face of Economics gives the reader a sense of the modern economics profession and how it is changing. The volume does so with a set of nine interviews with cutting edge economists, followed by interviews with two Nobel Prize winners, Paul Samuelson and Kenneth Arrow, reflecting on the changes that are occurring. What results is a clear picture of today's economics--and it is no longer standard neoclassical economics. The interviews and commentary together demonstrate that economics is currently undergoing a fundamental shift in method and is moving away from traditional neoclassical economics into a dynamic set of new methods and approaches. These new approaches include work in behavioral economics, experimental economics, evolutionary game theory and ecological approaches, complexity and nonlinear dynamics, methodological analysis, and agent-based modeling. David E. Colander is Professor of Economics, Middlebury College. J. Barkley Rosser, Jr., is Professor of Economics and Kirby L. Kramer Jr. Professor of Business Administration, James Madison University. Richard P. F. Holt is Professor of Churchill Honors and Economics, Southern Oregon University.

This open access book uses an interdisciplinary approach that not only focuses on social organization but also analyzes how societies and ecological settings were interwoven. How did early modern indigenous Sami inhabitants in interior northwest Fennoscandia build institutions for governance of natural resources? The book answers this question by exploring how they made decisions regarding natural resource management, mainly with regard to wild game, fish, and grazing land and illuminate how Sami users, in a changing economy, altered the long-term rules for use of land and water in a self-governance context. The early modern period was a transforming phase of property rights due to fundamental changes in Sami economy: from an economy based on fishing and hunting to an economy where reindeer pastoralism became the main occupation for many Sami. The book gives a new portrayal of how proficiently and systematically indigenous inhabitants organized and governed natural assets and how capable they were in building highly functioning institutions for governance.

Dieses Buch erzählt die Geschichte der Eurokrise aus der Perspektive des damaligen Vize-Präsidenten der Europäischen Kommission. Olli Rehn war als EU-Kommissar für Wirtschaft und Währung einer der wichtigsten Entscheidungsträger zur Zeit der Währungskrise und gibt einen offenen und ungeschönten Einblick in Ereignisse und Entscheidungen in Brüssel, Frankfurt und den EU-Mitgliedsländern sowie in entscheidende Meetings. Seine Analyse reicht vom Start und den ersten Reaktionen auf die Krise 2009-2012 über die Wirkung der Maßnahmen 2013-2014 und schließt mit den zukünftigen Lehren aus der Krise und dem Reformprogramm der Eurozone in 2020. Dieses unterhaltsam und spannend geschriebene Buch richtet sich an Politikerinnen und Politiker, Mitarbeitende und Kommentatoren der Eurozone sowie Studierende, aber auch an alle, die verstehen möchten, wie der Euro tatsächlich gerettet wurde.

How should we address today's big problems, and what we can take from icons of economics past? How would John Maynard Keynes have resolved today's debt problem, or how would Adam Smith have assessed the European carbon emission trading market? This book applies the ideas of ten renowned economists (Marx, Minsky, Keynes, Knight, Bergmann, Veblen, Sen, Myrdal, Smith, Robinson) to real world economic problems, directly or indirectly related to the causes and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis. Each chapter presents an economist, and structures the ‘problem', the ‘insight'(the economist's idea), the ‘economist'(short bio), and two ‘practices'offering real-world alternatives. This book presents a lively and original approach that will be of interest to economists and non-economists alike, discussing key elements of an economics for a postcapitalist economy and connecting policy insights to real-world problems of today.

Das Ziel des Bandes besteht darin, einen Überblick über die Grundfragen, Kernthemen und Handlungsfelder der praktischen Wirtschaftsphilosophie zu geben. Zu diesem Zweck befasst sich Teil I einführend mit dem Verhältnis von Ökonomie und Ethik, der Verbindung zwischen Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft und Politik sowie dem Zusammenhang von Globalisierung, Transnationalisierung und Interkulturalität. Teil II setzt sich mit den Kernthemen der praktischen Wirtschaftsphilosophie auseinander. Es werden Begriffe und Themen vorgestellt, die sowohl für die ökonomische Wissenschaft als auch für die Realökonomie relevant sind. Hierzu zählen systematische und normative Begriffe wie Präferenzen, Rationalität oder Regeln, Grundlagenthemen wie Freiheit, Verantwortung oder Gerechtigkeit und operative Themenfelder wie Handel, Markt, Kooperation oder Digitalisierung. Teil III beschäftigt sich abschließend aus wirtschaftsphilosophischer Perspektive mit zentralen Praxisfeldern der Ökonomie. Dazu gehören das Verhältnis von Unternehmens- und Konsumentenverantwortung, die Rolle von Stakeholder-Beziehungen, Shared Value-Ansätze, die Verbindung von Governance und Institutionen sowie alternative Wirtschaftsformen und die Wirtschaftspolitik.Das Handbuch Wirtschaftsphilosophie verbindet in interdisziplinärer Perspektive philosophische Grundlagenreflexion mit theoretischer und praktischer Erschließung des ökonomischen Handelns. Methodisch werden dabei wissenschaftstheoretische, normative, kulturbezogene und historische Aspekte miteinander verbunden.

This volume brings together select texts representative of the full range of intellectual output of one of the greatest and most eclectic economists of our time, Albert O. Hirschman. Covering a time span of over forty years, they recall his most prominent books and include many additional themes taken from essays of wide-ranging origin and content. The title How Economics Should Be Complicated has the dual sense of an endpoint and a central and recurrent theme in the author's experience, which unfolds in his critical—but constructive—relationship with economic theory, his openness to other social sciences and his democratic and'possibilist'political inspiration. This stands as the basis of an important lesson in intellectual rebirth.

Social forces are important determinants of how people behave, how economies work at the macroeconomic level, and the effectiveness of economic policies. However, this dimension is generally overlooked in mainstream economics. How Social Forces Impact the Economy demonstrates that a broader conception of social economics provides for a better understanding of how economies work as a whole. This book argues that adopting a truly social approach to economics opens the door to studying how people form preferences, and how they learn by taking cues from others about how to behave and what to consume. Each chapter contributor works to highlight the breadth of new insights and possibilities that emerge from a fuller understanding of social economics. Part I focuses on microeconomics, bringing individual behaviors and individual entrepreneurs into a more social context. Part II focuses on macroeconomic topics, such as how money and quasi-monies (like Bitcoins) are social, how money developed as a social institution, and how social forces matter for economic development. Finally, Part III looks at the consequences of considering social factors when it comes to policy: environmental policy, industrial policy, and policies promoting greater equality. This book is invaluable reading to anyone interested in the relationship between economics and sociology, how social forces affect policy effectiveness, human behavior, and the overall economy.

Economists have long grappled with the problem of how economic theories relate to empirical evidence: how can abstract mathematized theories be used to produce empirical claims? How are such theories applied to economic phenomena? What does it mean to “test” economic theories? This book introduces, explains, and develops a structural philosophy of economics which addresses these questions and provides a unifying philosophical/logical basis for a general methodology of economics.The book begins by introducing a rigorous view of the logical foundations and structure of scientific theories based upon the work of Alfred Tarski, Patrick Suppes, Karl Marx, and others. Using and combining their methods, the book then goes on to reconstruct important economic theories – including utility theory, game theory, Marxian economics, Sraffian economic theory, and econometrics – proving all the main theorems and discussing the key claims and the empirical applicability of each theory. Through these discussions, this book presents, in a systematic fashion, a general philosophy of economics grounded in the structural view.Offering rigorous formulations of important economic theories, A Structuralist Theory of Economics will be invaluable to all readers interested in the logic, philosophy, and methodology of economics. It will also appeal particularly to those interested in economic theory.

Adam Smith's contribution to economics is well recognised, but scholars have recently been exploring anew the multidisciplinary nature of his works. The Adam Smith Review is a rigorously refereed annual review that provides a unique forum for interdisciplinary debate on all aspects of Adam Smith's works, his place in history, and the significance of his writings to the modern world. It is aimed at facilitating debate between scholars working across the humanities and social sciences, thus emulating the reach of the Enlightenment world which Smith helped to shape.This eleventh volume brings together leading scholars from across several disciplines, and offers a particular focus on Smith and Rousseau. There is also an emphasis throughout the volume on the relationship between Smith's work and that of other key thinkers such as Malthus, Newton, Freud and Sen.

Since the Global Financial Crisis, economics has been under greater public scrutiny, revealing a crisis in the discipline. This represented a potential turning point on how economics should be thought and taught. Heterodox economics has played a prominent role in these discussions revolving around new economics thinking and pluralism in economics. Yet, its identity, aspirations, and pedagogy remain underexplored, contested, and somewhat opaque.This volume brings together sixteen interviews with leading economists to understand what heterodox economics is. How and why does an economist become heterodox? In which way do heterodox economists see themselves as ‘different'from mainstream economics? The interviews shed light on what problems heterodox economists perceive in the mainstream; elucidate the different contexts under which they operate in higher education; and provide insights on their ontology and methodology. The reader will also find answers to the following questions about the nature and state of heterodox economics: Do heterodox economists have particular intellectual journeys, motives and aspirations? Is this reflected in their teaching practices and strategies to achieve social change? What is the relation between heterodox economics and the humanities and arts?Appealing to a diverse audience, including philosophers, sociologists and historians of economic thought, the book will be of great interest to anyone keen to find out more about the internal discussions in the economics discipline.

This book is set against the assumption that humans'unique feature is their infinite creativity, their ability to reflect on their deeds and to control their actions. These skills give rise to genuine uncertainty in society and hence in the economy. Here, the author sets out that uncertainty must take centre stage in all analyses of human decision making and therefore in economics. Uncertainty and Economics carefully defines a taxonomy of uncertainty and argues that it is only uncertainty in its most radical form which matters to economics. It shows that uncertainty is a powerful concept that not only helps to resolve long-standing economic puzzles but also unveils serious contradictions within current, popular economic approaches. It argues that neoclassical, real business cycle, or new-Keynesian economics must be understood as only one way to circumvent the analytical challenges posed by uncertainty. Instead, embracing uncertainty offers a new analytical paradigm which, in this book, is applied to standard economic topics such as institutions, money, the Lucas critique, fiscal policy and asset pricing. Through applying a concise uncertainty paradigm, the book sheds new light on human decision making at large. Offering policy conclusions and recommendations for further theoretical and applied research, it will be of great interest to postgraduate students, academics and policy makers.

Der moderne Mythos der Revolution lautet, dass das Volk sich gegen seine Herrscher erhebt und sie durch bessere ersetzt, wenn das Maß an Unterdrückung zu groß wird. Diese auf Karl Marx zurückgehende Idee ist aber zu einfach und zugleich zu schön, um wahr zu sein. Vielmehr hängt es von vielfältigen und oft zufällig gegebenen Bedingungen ab, ob sich größere Teile der Bevölkerung zu Massenprotesten zusammenfinden und ob das in der Folge eine Revolution auslöst. Noch einmal unsicher ist, ob sich anschließend ein besseres Regime etabliert. Die Bedingungen für eine Revolution fügen sich daher nicht zwangsläufig zusammen, wenn der Grad an Unterdrückung steigt.Das Buch führt die Leser auf Basis der modernsten gesellschaftswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse durch die Welt von Massenprotesten, Aufständen, Revolten und Revolutionen und bleibt dabei stets leicht nachvollziehbar und unterhaltsam. Stück für Stück werden Mosaiksteine zu einem Bild zusammengefügt, welches den Mythos der Revolutionentzaubert, aber zugleich tiefe Einsichten in die Logik politischer Macht bietet. Eingebettet wird die Reise durch die Welt der Revolutionen in ausführlich geschilderte historische Beispiele, vor allem aus dem 20. Jahrhundert.

This book examines how contemporary financial economy evolved as the predominant economic system, and why unabated accumulation of financial capital takes place in such systems. It reviews the mechanics of accumulation of wealth by tracing the historical roots of financial capital. Traversing the evolutions of capitalist systems since the 1850s till recent times, Financial Economy provides a lucid and logical explanation of the phenomenon. It uses a new methodology based on economic circuit of stocks and flows following the early ideas of the French economists of the 18th century and the contemporary Circuit school. It provides an alternative framework for studying economic systems design, keeping aside the orthodox neoclassical analysis of equilibrium market exchange. Further, it highlights the global financial circuit, the state of the current digitalised economy with electronic money transfers, consumer's decision-making and expected future earnings, and questions the relevance of some fundamental concepts of economics as well as economic policies. Using a notion of sequential economy, it also shows how present economic activities are treading upon the future. This book will interest students and researchers of advanced macroeconomics, political economy, heterodox economics, economic history, and evolutionary economics. The historical account of the evolutions of capital, interest, and corporate structures will also be of interest to general readers.

Originally published in 1989. Professor Robinson begins by examining natural resource classification and the nature of return in mining, giving particular emphasis to different sources of long-run price changes in mining and their relevance for user cost and the economic treatment for exhaustible resources. He then traces the development of the economic theory of exhaustible resources from the last quarter of the eighteenth century to the first quarter of the twentieth, documenting the differing views of various authors about the future availability of mineral resources and the extent of user cost involved in their exploitation. He identifies a link between the perceived availability of exhaustible resources and the nature of the economic theory used to explain their exploitation. This book should be of interest to students and researchers of Economic Theory and Policy.

William Petty (1623-1687), long recognised as a founding father of English political economy, was actively involved in the military-colonial administration of Ireland following its invasion by Oliver Cromwell, and to the end of his days continued to devise schemes for securing England's continued domination of that country. It was in that context that he elaborated his economic ideas, which consequently reflect the world of military-bureaucratic officialdom, neo-feudalism and colonialism he served. This book shows that much of the theory and methodology in use within the economics discipline of today has its roots in the writings of Petty and his contemporaries, rather than in the supposedly universalistic and enlightened ideals of Adam Smith a century later. Many of the fundamental ideas of today's development economics, for example, are shown to have been deployed by Petty explicitly for the purpose of furthering England's colonialist objectives, while his pioneering writings on fiscal issues and national accounting theory were equally explicitly directed towards the raising of funds for England's predatory colonial and commercial wars. This book argues that exploring the historical roots of economic ideas and methods in this way is an essential aspect of assessing their appropriateness and analytical power today, and that this is more relevant than ever. It will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in the history of economic thought, early modern economic history, development economics and economic geography.

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) was a leading figure in the British classical school of economics, best-known for extending the insights of Adam Smith at a time of revolutionary improvements in agriculture and industry. This book explores the way in which he accounted for the tendency to overpopulation, the exhaustion of arable land and the deficiency of effective demand.Malthus relied on historical and empirical evidence in the spirit of Bacon and Hume, but also backed up his data with a priori hypotheses that link him to his contemporary, David Ricardo. Malthus was strongly in favour of free trade, the minimal State, the gold standard and the abolition of poverty relief. Always a pragmatist, however, he was just as much in favour of public education, contra-cyclical public works and a safety net of tariffs and bounties to encourage national self-sufficiency with regard to food. He was both an economist and a clergyman and saw the two roles as interconnected. Malthus believed that a benevolent Deity had created vice and misery in order to shake human beings out of their natural indolence that would otherwise have condemned them to still greater distress. This title provides a clear and comprehensive examination of Malthus's economic and social thought. It will be of interest to students and scholars alike.

‘This is essential reading for anybody interested in global history.'—Professor Ugo Panizza, The Graduate Institute of Geneva, SwitzerlandThis illuminating book offers a compact survey and new interpretation of trends and policies in the US economy from the end of the nineteenth century to the initial period of the Trump administration. Valli maps three stages in this period of US economic history: first, the economic and demographic consequences of the frontier; second, the Fordist model of growth; and third, the attempt to build an economic empire through economic and financial globalization, military and political power and rapid technological progress.Examining pivotal moments from the Wall Street Crash and the World Wars to the recent Great Recession, Obamacare and Trump's electoral promises and first controversial decisions, this book is essential reading for all those interested in American economic power and its future.

Adam Smith's contribution to economics is well recognised, but scholars have recently been exploring anew the multidisciplinary nature of his works. The Adam Smith Review is a rigorously refereed annual review that provides a unique forum for interdisciplinary debate on all aspects of Adam Smith's works, his place in history, and the significance of his writings to the modern world. It is aimed at facilitating debate between scholars working across the humanities and social sciences, thus emulating the reach of the Enlightenment world which Smith helped to shape.This tenth volume brings together leading scholars from across several disciplines, and offers a particular focus on Smith's continuing impact on the history of economics. There is also an emphasis throughout the volume on the relationship between Smith's work and that of other key thinkers.

The book explains the basic ideas of economics along with their historical context. It includes the events and traditions of the era of mentors—Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Walras, Keynes—with the economics they developed and controversies around them.

The importance of this book, translated for the first time in 1983, lies not so much in List's advocacy of the fiscal policy of protection as in the relatively new doctrines that he put forward. He discussed stages of economic growth, ‘productive powers'and the industrialisation of developing regions. List's most fundamental teachings are fully developed in this book.

James M. Buchanan and Liberal Political Economy: A Rational Reconstruction examines the contemporary meaning and significance of James M. Buchanan's body of work. The book uses Buchanan's past contributions to explore the present and future relevance of his scholarly contributions and insights. It seeks mainly to explain what insight for their work contemporary scholars might acquire by becoming familiar with some of Buchanan's formulations. Buchanan was one of the most creative and prolific scholars of political economy during the post-war period. Not only was his body of work so immense that it could not be contained within 20 volumes of Collected Works, but also Buchanan's scholarship made such strong contact with law, ethics, and political science that he could easily have served as a poster-child for the programs in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics which have been gaining momentum in recent years. Buchanan spoke for a style of economics that made wide and firm contact with the full range of the humane studies. This book emphasizes those features of Buchanan's thought that seem relevant for contemporary scholarship within the broadly liberal tradition of political economy.

Luigi Einaudi (1874-1961) was a leading liberal economist, economic historian and political figure. This book provides the English-speaking world with a first critical edition of Einaudi's – hitherto unpublished – rewriting of one of his most unique and thoughtful essays.The relevance of this essay is crucial from several perspectives: history and methodology of economic thought, role of economics and its relation to other disciplines and to social values, role of economists in the public sphere, while also encompassing the discourse on man and the economist as a'whole man'. The critical edition of On Abstract and Historical Hypotheses and on Value Judgments in Economic Sciences includes a comprehensive introduction and afterword. An extensive reappraisal of this newly discovered essay will help to cast light on Einaudi's uniqueness and originality within and beyond the Italian tradition in public finance, thereby also illuminating his attempt to provide an epistemological account of his long lasting enquiry into the causes of good and bad polities.This book is of great interest to those who study economic theory and philosophy, as well as history of economic thought, public economics and legal and political philosophy.

For too long radical political economy has suffered for lack of a coherent alternative to formal Marxian economic theory. People have had to choose between (1) continuing to use a formal model based on the labor theory of value as Marx developed in Capital to justify and retain one's opposition to capitalism, or (2) abandoning the formal Marxian framework as outdated, and risk losing a critical evaluation of capitalism. Radical Political Economy: Sraffa Versus Marx provides readers with a third choice.A point-by-point comparison of Sraffian and Marxian treatments of prices, profits, technological change, economic crises, environmental sustainability, and the moral case against capitalism, are presented in six core chapters. They explain how the Sraffian treatment surpasses the formal Marxian treatment in every case. Both Marxian and Sraffian theories are presented in a highly accessible way, while large professional literatures are thoroughly referenced throughout.Marx was not the first, but remains the greatest, critic of capitalism, and richly deserves his place in history. However it is time to use intellectual tools unavailable to Marx in the nineteenth century to improve upon his formal analysis. This book is of great importance to those who study Sraffa and Marx, as well as academics and students who are interested in political economy, the history of economic thought, and economic and philosophical theory.

It is well-known that the Swedish experiment in practical economic control was inspired by a simultaneous development of economic thought in Sweden. Despite Swedish economics being known globally, until this book was originally published in 1939 there was little except second-hand descriptions of what the Swedes were really saying. This volume remedied that and explained hitherto hidden contemporary Swedish monetary theory.

Though Cannan, in his early years as an economist, was a critic of classical economics and an ally of interventionists, he moved sharply to the side of classical liberalism in the early 20th century. In this book, originally published in 1929 Edwin Cannan discussed in comparative terms the general problems of economics and in particular the theories of production, value and distribution and the attempts that had been made to solve them. Examining key principles of economics in historical terms, the author draws his own conclusions only after a full discussion of various viewpoints.

First published in 1921, this book is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of economics to beginners, with only the more intricate and controversial subjects — such as economic rent — being omitted for the sake of clarity. The subject is dealt with as concretely as possible with extensive descriptions and examples provided to further elucidate the subject while avoiding unnecessary technicalities. The arrangement of the material is based on the author's experience of teaching economics and postpones the more difficult elements to the end of the book in order to provide a more thorough grounding in the essentials before introducing them to the reader.

Adam Smith's contribution to economics is well-recognised, but in recent years scholars have been exploring anew the multidisciplinary nature of his works. The Adam Smith Review is a rigorously refereed annual review that provides a unique forum for interdisciplinary debate on all aspects of Adam Smith's works, his place in history, and the significance of his writings to the modern world. It is aimed at facilitating debate between scholars working across the humanities and social sciences, thus emulating the reach of the Enlightenment world which Smith helped to shape.This ninth volume brings together leading scholars from across several disciplines to consider topics as diverse as Smith's work in the context of scholars such as Immanuel Kant, Yan Fu and David Hume, Smith as the father of modern economics, and Smith's views on education and trade. This volume also has a particular focus on Asia, and includes a section that presents articles from leading scholars from the region.

This highly original work offers an intellectual history of four central theories underlying the market economic system, focusing on their conception, evolution, and applications. Four Central Theories of the Market Economy traces the root of the theories, their conception and articulation, as well as their evolutions to the present time. It focuses on the four theories that are generally recognized as fundamental to the discipline of economics: the invisible hand, comparative advantage, the law of markets, and the quantity theory of money. These theories have profoundly influenced the world. Chapters explore their rich intellectual history from classical Greece to today, drawing on the original works of the great economic minds of the classical era and other thinkers who prepared the path for them, as well as those who refined their works or challenged them. This volume will leave the reader with a deep understanding of these pillars of the market economic system in the context of their historical development. This book will be of great interest to all scholars and students of economics who are interested in the intellectual history of their discipline as well as scholars and students of intellectual history who are interested in economics.

This volume traces the evolution of the field of law and economics from its European roots to its neoclassical “Chicagoan” period to its current identity as a more fluid, transatlantic discipline. Paying special attention to the work of German economist Juergen Backhaus, who was instrumental in the reintroduction of the European perspective to the field, this book analyzes this gradual shift in the law and economics debate and provides a state-of-the-art of the literature currently being produced by the field's most active scholars. Beginning with a discussion of the history of the field and Backhaus'role in its development, the volume provides a survey of issues central to the current debate such as legal processes in both Europe and the U.S., constitutional political economy, regulatory law, and the ongoing evolution of the European Union. The importance of this volume is two-fold, as it firmly grounds the discipline in history while establishing a future research agenda. This book will be of use to researchers studying law and economics as well as those interested in institutional analysis.

This revised edition of the original 1923 text first appeared in 1929, a decade after the end of WWI. The war left Great Britain burdened with debt and faced with the dire issues of unemployment and unstable domestic and foreign markets. In this title, A.W. Kirkaldy gives a brief but thoroughly detailed account and analysis of the history of economics, particularly concentrating upon the economic development of England. His work concludes with an examination of how the economic principles of England's past can be applied and adapted in the post-war world. The Romance of Trade is a valuable resource for students interested in economics and economic history.

This title, first published in 1920, is an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of economics, including explanations of production, distribution, and capital. Kirkaldy further highlights the economic problems of trade, commerce, exchanges, and finances. This title will be a valuable resource to students of Business and Economics, and is equally suitable for general readers interested in learning the basics of economics.

Economics After the Crisis is an introductory economics textbook, covering key topics in micro and macro economics. However, this book differs from other introductory economics textbooks in the perspective it takes, and it incorporates issues that are presently underserved by existing textbooks on the market. This book offers an introduction to economics that takes into account criticisms of the orthodox approach, and which acknowledges the role that this largely Western approach has played in the current global financial and economic crisis. A key feature of the book is its global approach: it offers examples from countries all over the world, including from developing and emerging economies. The chapters discuss all major economic topics, including individuals and households; the behaviour of consumers; the behaviour of firms; markets; the role of the state; public goods and commons; labour markets; capital markets; the macroeconomic flow; economic growth; international trade; nature and environmental externalities; poverty and wellbeing. Throughout, the book presents theoretical perspectives in which social structures, relatedness, uncertainty, and social norms provide key economic explanations, contrasting these with the idealized worldview of neoclassical economics. Economics After the Crisis is designed for a one-semester introductory course in economics, primarily at undergraduate but also at postgraduate level, and is suitable for students from a range of disciplines. It will be of particular relevance to those students with an interest in developing economies.https://www.coursera.org/learn/economicsfromapluralistperspective

This book aims to discern and distinguish the essential features of basic economic theories and compare them with new theories that have arisen in recent years. The book focuses on seminal economic ideas and theories developed mainly in the 1930s to 1950s because their emergence eventually led to new branches of economics. The book describes an alternative analytical framework spreading through the interdisciplinary fields of socioeconophysics and sociodynamics. The focus is on a set of branching or critical points that separate what has gone before from what has followed. W. Brian Arthur used the term “redomaining” when he referred to technological innovation. In the present volume the author aims to re domain economic theories suited for a new social order. Major technological innovations accompany not only changes in the economy and the market but changes in their meaning as well. In particular, the evolution of trading technology has changed the meaning of the “invisible hand.” At the end of the last century, the advent of socioeconophysics became a decisive factor in the emergence of a new economic science. This emergence has coincided with changes in the implications of the economy and the market, which consequently require a redomaining of economic science. In this new enterprise, the joint efforts of many scientists outside traditional economics have brought brilliant achievements such as power law distribution and network analysis, among others. However, the more diverse the backgrounds of economic scientists, the less integrated the common views among them may be, resulting in a sometimes perplexing potpourri of economic terminology. This book helps to mitigate those differences, shedding light on current alternative economic theories and how they have evolved.

In addition to his groundbreaking contributions to pure economic theory, F. A. Hayek also closely examined the ways in which the knowledge of many individual market participants could culminate in an overall order of economic activity. His attempts to come to terms with the “knowledge problem” thread through his career and comprise the writings collected in the fifteenth volume of the University of Chicago Press's Collected Works of F. A. Hayek series. The Market and Other Orders brings together more than twenty works spanning almost forty years that consider this question. Consisting of speeches, essays, and lectures, including Hayek's 1974 Nobel lecture, “The Pretense of Knowledge,” the works in this volume draw on a broad range of perspectives, including the philosophy of science, the physiology of the brain, legal theory, and political philosophy. Taking readers from Hayek's early development of the idea of spontaneous order in economics through his integration of this insight into political theory and other disciplines, the book culminates with Hayek's integration of his work on these topics into an overarching social theory that accounts for spontaneous order in the variety of complex systems that Hayek studied throughout his career. Edited by renowned Hayek scholar Bruce Caldwell, who also contributes a masterly introduction that provides biographical and historical context, The Market and Other Orders forms the definitive compilation of Hayek's work on spontaneous order.

In addition to his groundbreaking contributions to pure economic theory, F. A. Hayek also closely examined the ways in which the knowledge of many individual market participants could culminate in an overall order of economic activity. His attempts to come to terms with the'knowledge problem'thread through his career and comprise the writings collected in the fifteenth volume of Routledge's Collected Works of F. A. Hayek series. The Market and Other Orders brings together more than twenty works spanning almost forty years that consider this question. Consisting of speeches, essays, and lectures, including Hayek's 1974 Nobel lecture,'The Pretense of Knowledge,'the works in this volume draw on a broad range of perspectives, including the philosophy of science, the physiology of the brain, legal theory, and political philosophy. Taking readers from Hayek's early development of the idea of spontaneous order in economics through his integration of this insight into political theory and other disciplines, the book culminates with Hayek's integration of his work on these topics into an overarching social theory that accounts for spontaneous order in the variety of complex systems that Hayek studied throughout his career. Edited by renowned Hayek scholar Bruce Caldwell, who also contributes a masterly introduction that provides biographical and historical context, The Market and Other Orders forms the definitive compilation of Hayek's work on spontaneous order.

This book aims to explain to the readers the basic idea of the general equilibrium theory, which forms the core of the current mainstream economics called neoclassical school. To understand this theory is absolutely necessary, either to study further or to criticize the contemporary economic theories. The author not only explains traditional theories, but also makes clear the many problems which are still unsolved.As a text book or reference book for those students who are studying microeconomics for the first time, the author recommends the use of Chapter 1, Chapter 2 (except section 9), Chapter 3 (from section 1 to section 3, section 6, section 11), Chapter 4 (from section 1 to section 4), Chapter 5 (from section 1 to section 5, section 8), Chapter 6 (except sections 6 and 7), Chapter 7 (from section 1 to section 5), Chapter 8 (from section 1 to section 6) and Chapter 9 (sections 1, 4 and 7). For more advanced readers, the author recommends the remaining sections and the literature recommended in the last part of each chapter. Problems given at the end of each chapter allow readers to confirm understanding of the content of the chapter and suggest to the readers more advanced studies. Incidentally, the author tried to avoid the use of the advanced mathematics. Only elementary knowledge of differential calculus and linear algebra are required to read this book.

This book presents the first full-length explanation in English of Heinsohn and Steiger's groundbreaking theory of money and interest, which emphasizes the role played by private property rights.Ownership economics gives an alternative explanation of money and interest, proposing that operations enabled by property lead to interest and money, rather than exchange of goods. Like any other approach, it has to answer economic theory's core question: what is the loss that has to be compensated by interest?Ownership economics accepts neither a temporary loss of goods, as in neoclassical economics, nor Keynes's temporary loss of already existing, exogenous money as the cause of interest. Rather, money is created as a non-physical title to property in a credit contract secured by a debtor's collateral and the creditor's net worth.This book is an edited English translation of a highly successful German text, and offers the first book-length treatment of a theory which has received much interest since its first appearance in articles in the late 1970s.