Paperback
A Brief History of Economic Thought
From the Mercantilists to the Post-Keynesians
9781035322022 Edward Elgar Publishing
It is now widely acknowledged that history is useful, even essential, because it helps us predict the future. The history of ideas in economics, as in other fields of inquiry, plays an important role in enlightening current researchers as they endeavour to understand contemporary events and anticipate the future of human societies. This book brings together a fine collection of chapters that span contributions from forgotten classics to the most recent new thinking about critical issues such as growth, wealth, its creation and its distribution among members of society. It is A Brief History of Economic Thought, but it will certainly go a long way in helping undergraduate students and other researchers who are curious about the evolution of economic ideas over the last five centuries.
More Information
Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
More Information
It is now widely acknowledged that history is useful, even essential, because it helps us predict the future. The history of ideas in economics, as in other fields of inquiry, plays an important role in enlightening current researchers as they endeavour to understand contemporary events and anticipate the future of human societies. This book brings together a fine collection of chapters that span contributions from forgotten classics to the most recent new thinking about critical issues such as growth, wealth, its creation and its distribution among members of society. It is A Brief History of Economic Thought, but it will certainly go a long way in helping undergraduate students and other researchers who are curious about the evolution of economic ideas over the last five centuries.
Chapters offer discussions on the main tenets of post-Keynesian economics, and focus on issues of growth, wealth and income distribution. The debate on the role of government versus the market is brought to the fore within the context of economic thought from the Physiocrats to the post-Keynesians.
The editors have created an essential read for scholars and students interested in the history of economic thought and post-Keynesian economics.
Chapters offer discussions on the main tenets of post-Keynesian economics, and focus on issues of growth, wealth and income distribution. The debate on the role of government versus the market is brought to the fore within the context of economic thought from the Physiocrats to the post-Keynesians.
The editors have created an essential read for scholars and students interested in the history of economic thought and post-Keynesian economics.
Critical Acclaim
‘At a time when mainstream economists have practically abandoned the teaching of the history of economic thought in numerous economics undergraduate university programs internationally, professors Hassan Bougrine and Louis-Philippe Rochon should be commended for trying to reverse this tendency. They have brought together a truly first-class international group of distinguished non-mainstream economists to counter this growing collective amnesia in the economics profession by presenting and reassessing not only past developments in economic thinking going as far back as the eighteenth century, but also by analyzing contemporary schools of thought. This is a book that can be used as a textbook or as an additional source of stimulating reading, especially appropriate for students enrolled in any undergraduate course covering the broad field of economic thought, both historical and contemporary.’
– Mario Seccareccia, University of Ottawa, Canada and Editor of the International Journal of Political Economy
‘Economics claims to be a regularly advancing science. Its history will be a story of progress. We look to the early thinkers – the Classics – largely for anticipations of our advanced scientific work. Not so in this book; it does show the progress of the mainstream – but it is progress up a blind alley; and we see a return to the Classics, but it is to find the point at which the discipline went off the rails. An alternative, vigorous and progressive picture of the economy is presented in well-written and well-researched articles, focusing on a good selection of the greatest economists. The book presents a good account of the actual state of the discipline; far from being a regularly advancing science, it is a sometimes chaotic scene of intellectual conflict, fascinating and very exciting at times!’
– Edward J. Nell, New School for Social Research, US
‘It’s always a good time to read a book on the history of economic thought. At least for the sake of history, which revives the narratives rooted in both language and imagination; and suggests the taste for adventure, grounded in research and discovery. The merit of this book is to bring us into this journey using fourteen suggestions cast in a thematic way. Taken as a whole, the book unearths economics as a sort of lost civilization; read just in specific chapters, each appears as an intriguing detail inspiring for further inquiries. Structure and brilliant exposure make the book interesting to students and scholars. They are both exposed to the evidence of a process that through successive stratifications built the meaning of economics: by the exercise of memory all fragments become pillars of knowledge. No need to decide winners or losers, just the same ambivalent emotion to discover that the open questions for our future are still so like those of the great thinkers who preceded us.’
– Anna-Maria Variato, University of Bergamo, Italy
– Mario Seccareccia, University of Ottawa, Canada and Editor of the International Journal of Political Economy
‘Economics claims to be a regularly advancing science. Its history will be a story of progress. We look to the early thinkers – the Classics – largely for anticipations of our advanced scientific work. Not so in this book; it does show the progress of the mainstream – but it is progress up a blind alley; and we see a return to the Classics, but it is to find the point at which the discipline went off the rails. An alternative, vigorous and progressive picture of the economy is presented in well-written and well-researched articles, focusing on a good selection of the greatest economists. The book presents a good account of the actual state of the discipline; far from being a regularly advancing science, it is a sometimes chaotic scene of intellectual conflict, fascinating and very exciting at times!’
– Edward J. Nell, New School for Social Research, US
‘It’s always a good time to read a book on the history of economic thought. At least for the sake of history, which revives the narratives rooted in both language and imagination; and suggests the taste for adventure, grounded in research and discovery. The merit of this book is to bring us into this journey using fourteen suggestions cast in a thematic way. Taken as a whole, the book unearths economics as a sort of lost civilization; read just in specific chapters, each appears as an intriguing detail inspiring for further inquiries. Structure and brilliant exposure make the book interesting to students and scholars. They are both exposed to the evidence of a process that through successive stratifications built the meaning of economics: by the exercise of memory all fragments become pillars of knowledge. No need to decide winners or losers, just the same ambivalent emotion to discover that the open questions for our future are still so like those of the great thinkers who preceded us.’
– Anna-Maria Variato, University of Bergamo, Italy
Contributors
Contributors: Hassan Bougrine, Scott Carter, Guglielmo Forges Davanzati, Nicola De Liso, Amitava Dutt, John E. King, William McColloch, Suranjana Nabar-Bhaduri, Steven Pressman, Louis-Philippe Rochon, Sergio Rossi, Malcolm Sawyer, Claus Thomasberger, Matías Vernengo
Contents
Contents:
Introduction to A Brief History of Economic Thought 1
Hassan Bougrine and Louis-Philippe Rochon
PART I THE HISTORY OF ECONOMICS BEFORE KEYNES
1 The Mercantilists and Physiocrats 4
Hassan Bougrine
2 The Classical School 14
Suranjana Nabar-Bhaduri and Matías Vernengo
3 Karl Marx and the Marxist School 35
Scott Carter
4 The Neoclassical School 54
Hassan Bougrine
PART II KEYNES AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
5 John Maynard Keynes 74
Amitava Dutt
6 Michał Kalecki 94
Malcolm Sawyer
7 Thorstein Bunde Veblen 112
Guglielmo Forges Davanzati
8 Joseph Alois Schumpeter 125
Nicola De Liso
9 Karl Polanyi: The Place of the Economy in Society 148
Claus Thomasberger
PART III THE HISTORY OF ECONOMICS AFTER KEYNES
10 The Keynesian School and the Neoclassical Synthesis 173
John E. King
11 Milton Friedman and the Monetarist School 193
Sergio Rossi
12 The Rational Expectations School 211
William McColloch and Matías Vernengo
13 The New Keynesian School 228
Steven Pressman
14 The Post-Keynesian School 246
Louis-Philippe Rochon
Author index 273
Subject index 278
Introduction to A Brief History of Economic Thought 1
Hassan Bougrine and Louis-Philippe Rochon
PART I THE HISTORY OF ECONOMICS BEFORE KEYNES
1 The Mercantilists and Physiocrats 4
Hassan Bougrine
2 The Classical School 14
Suranjana Nabar-Bhaduri and Matías Vernengo
3 Karl Marx and the Marxist School 35
Scott Carter
4 The Neoclassical School 54
Hassan Bougrine
PART II KEYNES AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
5 John Maynard Keynes 74
Amitava Dutt
6 Michał Kalecki 94
Malcolm Sawyer
7 Thorstein Bunde Veblen 112
Guglielmo Forges Davanzati
8 Joseph Alois Schumpeter 125
Nicola De Liso
9 Karl Polanyi: The Place of the Economy in Society 148
Claus Thomasberger
PART III THE HISTORY OF ECONOMICS AFTER KEYNES
10 The Keynesian School and the Neoclassical Synthesis 173
John E. King
11 Milton Friedman and the Monetarist School 193
Sergio Rossi
12 The Rational Expectations School 211
William McColloch and Matías Vernengo
13 The New Keynesian School 228
Steven Pressman
14 The Post-Keynesian School 246
Louis-Philippe Rochon
Author index 273
Subject index 278
