The Wealth of Ideas: A History of Economic Thought

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Preface......Page 11
 1. Introduction......Page 17
 2. The cumulative view......Page 18
 3. The competitive view......Page 21
 4. The stages of economic theorising: conceptualisation and model-building......Page 27
 5. Political economy and the history of economic thought......Page 29
 6. Which history of economic thought?......Page 30
 1. Why we call it prehistory......Page 34
 2. Classical antiquity......Page 39
 3. Patristic thought......Page 44
 4. The Scholastics......Page 47
 5. Usury and just price......Page 50
 6. Bullionists and mercantilists......Page 57
 7. The birth of economic thought in Italy: Antonio Serra......Page 62
 1. Life and writings......Page 69
 2. Political arithmetic and the method of economic science......Page 71
 3. National state and economic system......Page 74
 4. Commodity and market......Page 79
 5. Surplus, distribution, prices......Page 85
 1. The debates of the time......Page 92
 2. John Locke......Page 96
 3. The motivations and consequences of human actions......Page 100
 4. Bernard de Mandeville......Page 103
 5. Richard Cantillon......Page 106
 6. François Quesnay and the physiocrats......Page 112
 7. The political economy of the Enlightenment: Turgot......Page 119
 8. The Italian Enlightenment: the Abbé Galiani......Page 123
 9. The Scottish Enlightenment: Francis Hutcheson and David Hume......Page 127
 1. Life......Page 131
 2. Method......Page 134
 3. The moral principle of sympathy......Page 137
 4. The wealth of nations......Page 142
 5. Value and prices......Page 150
 6. Natural prices and market prices......Page 155
 7. The origin of the division of labour: Smith and Pownall......Page 161
 8. Economic and political liberalism: Smith's fortune......Page 165
 1. The perfectibility of human societies, between utopias and reforms......Page 171
 2. Malthus and the population principle......Page 174
 3. ’Say’s law’......Page 180
 4. Under-consumption theories: Lauerdale, Malthus, Sismondi......Page 183
 5. The debate on the poor laws......Page 185
 6. The debate on the colonies......Page 188
 7. Bentham's utilitarianism......Page 190
 1. Life and works......Page 195
 2. Ricardo's dynamic vision......Page 197
 3. From the corn model to the labour theory of value......Page 202
 4. Absolute value and exchangeable value: the invariable standard of value......Page 207
 5. Money and taxation......Page 212
 6. International trade and the theory of comparative costs......Page 217
 7. On machinery: technological change and employment......Page 219
 1. The forces in the field......Page 223
 2. Robert Torrens......Page 225
 3. Samuel Bailey......Page 231
 4. Thomas De Quincey......Page 234
 5. John Ramsey McCulloch......Page 235
 6. The Ricardian socialists and cooperativism......Page 237
 7. William Nassau Senior and the anti-Ricardian reaction......Page 242
 8. Charles Babbage......Page 246
 9. John Stuart Mill and philosophical radicalism......Page 249
 10. Mill on political economy......Page 254
 1. Introduction......Page 260
 2. Life and writings......Page 261
 3. The critique of the division of labour: alienation and commodity fetishism......Page 265
 4. The critique of capitalism and exploitation......Page 267
 5. Accumulation and expanded reproduction......Page 272
 6. The laws of movement of capitalism......Page 277
 7. The transformation of labour values into prices of production......Page 279
 8. A critical assessment......Page 284
 9. Marxism after Marx......Page 288
 1. The 'marginalist revolution': an overview......Page 294
 2. The precursors: equilibrium between scarcity and demand......Page 297
 3. William Stanley Jevons......Page 301
 4. The Jevonian revolution......Page 304
 5. Real cost and opportunity cost......Page 308
 6. Philip Henry Wicksteed and Francis Ysidro Edgeworth......Page 310
 1. Carl Menger......Page 313
 2. The 'Methodenstreit'......Page 319
 3. Max Weber......Page 322
 4. Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk......Page 324
 5. Knut Wicksell and the Swedish school......Page 328
 6. Friedrich von Hayek......Page 331
 1. The invisible hand of the market......Page 338
 2. Lèon Walras......Page 342
 3. Vilfredo Pareto and the Lausanne school......Page 352
 4. Irving Fisher......Page 356
 5. The debate on existence, uniqueness and stability of equilibrium......Page 358
 6. The search for an axiomatic economics......Page 361
 1. Life and writings......Page 366
 2. The background......Page 369
 3. The Principles......Page 373
 4. Economics becomes a profession......Page 382
 5. Monetary theory: from the old to the new Cambridge school......Page 384
 6. Maffeo Pantaleoni......Page 386
 7. Marshallism in the United States: from John Bates Clark to Jacob Viner......Page 388
 8. Thornstein Veblen and institutionalism......Page 390
 9. Welfare economics: Arthur Cecil Pigou......Page 392
 10. Imperfect competition......Page 395
 11. Marshall's heritage in contemporary economic thought......Page 398
 1. Life and writings......Page 400
 2. Probability and uncertainty......Page 404
 3. The Treatise on money......Page 407
 4. From the Treatise to the General theory......Page 411
 5. The General theory......Page 414
 6. Defence and development......Page 423
 7. The asymmetries of economic policy in an open economy and international institutions......Page 425
 8. Michal Kalecki......Page 427
 9. The new Cambridge school......Page 429
 1. Life......Page 432
 2. Method......Page 436
 3. From statics to dynamics; the cycle......Page 438
 4. The breakdown of capitalism......Page 444
 5. The path of economic science......Page 447
 1. First writings: money and banking......Page 451
 2. Friendship with Gramsci......Page 454
 3. Criticism of Marshallian theory......Page 456
 4. Imperfect competition and the critique of the representative firm......Page 459
 5. Cambridge: Wittgenstein and Keynes......Page 461
 6. The critical edition of Ricardo's writings......Page 466
 7. Production of commodities by means of commodities......Page 468
 8. Critique of the marginalist approach......Page 473
 9. The Sraffian schools......Page 476
  (a) Pasinetti's ’Ricardian’ reconstruction......Page 477
  (b) Garegnani’s 'Marxian’ reconstruction......Page 479
  (c) Sylos Labini’s 'Smithian’ reconstruction......Page 481
 1. Introduction......Page 484
 2. The microeconomics of general economic equilibrium......Page 487
 3. The new theories of the firm......Page 490
 4. Institutions and economic theory......Page 495
 5. Macroeconomic theory after Keynes......Page 496
  (a) The neoclassical synthesis......Page 497
  (b) Monetarists and rational expectations theoreticians......Page 500
  (c) The post-Keynesians......Page 503
 6. The theory of growth......Page 504
 7. Quantitative research: the development of econometrics......Page 507
 8. New analytical techniques: theory of repeated games, theory of stochastic processes, chaos theory......Page 512
 9. Interdisciplinary problems and the foundations of economic science: new theories of rationality, ethics and new utilitarianism, growth and sustainable development, economic…......Page 516
 1. How many paths has economic thought followed?......Page 521
 2. The division of labour among economists: can we forge ahead along different paths?......Page 524
 3. Which of the various paths should we be betting on?......Page 527
References......Page 531
Index of names......Page 580
Subject index......Page 591