Economic Theory In The Twentieth Century, An Intellectual History - Volume I: 1890-1918. Economics in the Golden Age of Capitalism

Description

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. Contents......Page 6 List of Tables......Page 9 1.1 Mainstream Economics and the History of Economic Theory......Page 10 1.2 Schumpeter’s Legacy: A Different Perspective on the Role of the History of Economic Theory......Page 13 1.3 Our Approach to the History of Economic Theory: A Historical and Intellectual Reconstruction......Page 15 1.4 The Subject of This Book: Economic Theory in the Twentieth Century......Page 17 References......Page 18 Part I: Economic Theory in the Golden Age of Capitalism: From the Last Decades of the Nineteenth Century to the First World War......Page 21 2.1 The Historical Scenario: The Belle Époque of Capitalism......Page 22 The Crisis of Classical Political Economy and the Historical School’s Criticism......Page 25 The Theoretical Turning Point of the 1870s and 1880s......Page 28 Jevons......Page 32 Walras......Page 33 Menger......Page 34 Marshall......Page 35 Edgeworth......Page 36 2.3 The Map of Economic Theory from the Last Decade of the Nineteenth Century to the First World War: Leading Centers and Peripheries......Page 38 References......Page 42 3.1 Alfred Marshall (1842–1924)......Page 44 Biographical Note......Page 45 Prologue......Page 47 On the Nature and Method of Economics......Page 48 Consumers’ Choice, Utility, and Demand......Page 51 The Theory of Competitive Equilibrium......Page 53 The Theory of Distribution......Page 57 Marshall’s Economics: The Historical and Institutional Analysis of Industry and Trade, 1919......Page 59 Marshall’s Economics: A Note on Monetary and Cycle Theory and Money, Credit and Commerce, 1923......Page 62 The Construction of a School: The British Economic Association, the Economic Journal, and the Economics Tripos......Page 64 Edgeworth as Editor of the Economic Journal......Page 65 An Overview......Page 67 Pigou and the Welfare Economics of Wealth and Welfare, 1912......Page 71 Pigou and the ‘Cambridge Equation’, 1917......Page 72 The Cycle Theories: Hawtrey’s and Robertson’s Works......Page 73 Biographical Note......Page 75 A Criticism of Das Kapital, Vol. I, 1884......Page 76 Wicksteed’s Economics: The Essay on the Co-ordination of the Laws of Distribution, 1894......Page 78 Wicksteed’s Economics: The Common Sense of Political Economy (1910) and “The Scope and Method of Political Economy” (1914)......Page 80 3.4 An Economic Heretic in the Marshallian Era: John A. Hobson (1858–1940)......Page 84 Biographical Note......Page 85 Hobson’s Economics: The Physiology of Industry, 1889......Page 87 References......Page 90 4.1 Walras’s Legacy at the Beginning of the 1890s and the Paretian Turn......Page 96 Biographical Note......Page 98 Premise to Pareto’s Economics: The Considerazioni sui Principi Fondamentali dell’Economia Pura, 1892–1893......Page 102 Pareto’s Economics: The Cours d’économie politique, 1896–1897......Page 105 Methodological Issues: Rational Method Versus Experimental Method......Page 106 Pure Political Economy: A Restatement of Walras’s Theory......Page 109 Topics in Applied Economics: Pareto’s Law of Income Distribution and Dynamic Issues......Page 111 Conceptual Issues: From the Cardinal to Ordinal Utility......Page 113 A New Formulation of General Economic Equilibrium......Page 116 Political Economy and Sociology: Pareto’s Trattato di sociologia generale, 1916–1917......Page 117 Political Economy and the Other Social Sciences: A New Line of Inquiry......Page 118 A New Methodological Turning Point: The Adoption of a Holistic Approach......Page 119 A General Theory of Human Action: Logical and Non-logical Actions......Page 120 An Overview......Page 123 Enrico Barone (1859–1924)......Page 124 Pasquale Boninsegni (1869–1939)......Page 126 Eugen Slutsky (1880–1948)......Page 127 Mathematical Economics in the Paretian Era......Page 128 References......Page 130 5.1 Prologue......Page 136 The New Historical School: Introduction......Page 138 Gustav Schmoller......Page 139 Biographical Note......Page 140 Schmoller’s Historical Economics: The Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre (Outline of General National (Political) Economy), 1900–1904......Page 141 Schmoller’s Followers......Page 144 A Biographical Overview......Page 147 Theoretical Contributions......Page 151 Menger’s Legacy and the Formation of a School......Page 154 Biographical Note......Page 156 Wieser’s Economics: Der Natürliche Werth (Natural Value), 1899......Page 158 Wieser’s Economics: Theorie der gesellschaftlichen Wirtschaft (Social Economics), 1914......Page 162 Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk......Page 163 Biographical Note......Page 164 Böhm-Bawerk’s Economics: Kapital und Kapitalzins (Capital and Interest), 1884–1889......Page 166 Biographical Note......Page 170 Schumpeter’s Economics: Das Wesen und der Hauptinhalt der theoretischen Nationalökonomie (The Nature and Essence of Economic Theory), 1908......Page 173 Schumpeter’s Economics: Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung (Theory of Economic Evolution), 1911......Page 176 The New Generation: Ludwig von Mises......Page 181 Biographical Note......Page 182 Mises’s Economics: The Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel (The Theory of Money and Credit), 1912......Page 183 Prologue......Page 186 Biographical Note......Page 187 Hilferding’s Economics: Das Finanzkapital. Eine Studie über die jüngste Entwicklung des Kapitalismus (Finance Capital. A Study of the Latest Phase of Capitalist Development), 1910......Page 189 Biographical Note......Page 190 Bortkiewicz’s Economics: “Wertrechnung und Presirechnung im Marxschen System” (Value and Price in the Marxian System), 1906–1907......Page 191 References......Page 193 6.1 Introduction......Page 201 Prologue......Page 202 Knut Wicksell......Page 203 Biographical Note......Page 204 Wicksell’s Economics: Über Wert, Kapital und Rente (Value, Capital and Rent), 1894, and Vorlesungen über Nationalökonomie, I (Lectures on Political Economy, I), 1901......Page 206 Wicksell’s Economics: Geldzins und Güterpreise (Interest and Prices), 1898 and Vorlesungen über Nationalökonomie, II (Lectures on Political Economy, II), 1906......Page 209 Biographical Note......Page 212 Cassel’s Economics: Theoretische Sozialökonomie (The Theory of Social Economy), 1918......Page 214 Economics in Italy......Page 216 Economics in France......Page 219 Economics in Russia......Page 220 References......Page 221 The Late Emergence of Economics as a Field of Research in the United States......Page 225 The American Methodenstreit of the 1880s and the Foundation of the American Economic Association......Page 226 1890s–1918: The Neoclassical Revolution and Its Institutionalist Criticism......Page 228 An Academic Network in Evolution......Page 230 7.2 Economics at Columbia: J. B. Clark (1847–1938)......Page 231 Biographical Note......Page 232 Clark’s Economics: The Distribution of Wealth, 1899......Page 234 7.3 Economics at Yale: Irving Fisher (1867–1947)......Page 236 Biographical Note......Page 237 Fisher’s Economics: Mathematical Investigations, 1892......Page 239 Fisher’s Economics: The Rate of Interest, 1907......Page 242 Fisher’s Economics: The Purchasing Power of Money, Its Determination and Relation to Credit, Interest, and Crises, 1911......Page 244 7.4 Economics at Harvard: Frank Taussig (1859–1940) and the First Harvard School......Page 248 Biographical Note......Page 249 The Governance of the Department of Economics and the Birth of the First Harvard School......Page 251 Taussig’s International Economics: A Note......Page 253 Biographical Note......Page 254 Teacher, Organizer, and Monetary Economist......Page 255 Thorstein Veblen......Page 257 Biographical Note......Page 258 From the Criticism of Economics to the Foundation of an Evolutionary Economics......Page 259 Veblen’s Institutional Economics: The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions, 1899, and The Theory of Business Enterprise, 1904......Page 262 The Birth of the Institutionalist School in Chicago......Page 264 References......Page 266 8.1 Marginalists and Neoclassicists versus Historicists: From the Menger Versus Schmoller Methodenstreit to the Attempt at Reconciliation in J. N. Keynes’s Scope and Method of Political Economy, 1883–1891......Page 272 1883, Menger Versus Schmoller......Page 273 1891, J. N. Keynes’s Reconciliation Attempt in Scope and Method of Political Economy......Page 275 Schumpeter on the Methodenstreit: A Note......Page 277 The History of the Controversy......Page 278 The Notion of Ideal Entrepreneur Versus the Principle of Industrial Competition......Page 280 Walras’s tâtonnement Versus Edgeworth’s Re-contracting......Page 283 Concluding Remarks......Page 287 Economists and Scientists on Mathematical Economics, 1901–1914......Page 289 Prologue......Page 293 Böhm-Bawerk’s Criticism......Page 296 Hilferding’s Reply......Page 298 References......Page 299 9: The Great War and the End of an Era......Page 303 References......Page 306 Index......Page 307