This book provides a comprehensive exposition and appraisal of Marx's political economy, beginning with the philosophical and sociological foundations of his work and indication how his economic theor
First published as a second edition in 1989, Socialist Planning presented a fully revised and updated edition of a book that had established itself as the standard introductory text on the economics o
Dal Degan reconstructs Sismondi’s life and work, situating his ideas within the context of both the Republicanism of his background and the liberal thinking of the time. She explores his interest in e
How has the washing machine changed the way we spend money? Using the washing of clothes as a microcosm of household economics Wörsdorfer examines the evolution of technology and practice over a perio
Between 1909-17, Gustavo Del Vecchio developed a ‘theory of circulation’. In a series of articles he set out his thoughts on the utility and value of money, credit, discount rates, banking and interna
This book is concerned with the use of fiscal and monetary policies to overcome three major obstacles to development commonly faced by less developed countries: inadequate investment; misallocation of investment resources; and internal and external imbalances i.e. inflation and balance of payments deficits. The book is divided into six chapters the first two of which are devoted to the definition of concepts and to an explanation of the Keynesian model of income determination and of Kalecki's model of financing investment, within the framework of which the role of fiscal and monetary measures and of foreign capital is later examined. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the role of fiscal measures and of foreign capital, respectively, in promoting domestic investment. Chapter 5 examines the use of both fiscal and monetary instruments, including industrial and agricultural development banks, to influence the pattern of investment. The last chapter is devoted to the problems of internal and external
The failure of orthodox economic analysis to provide acceptable answers to the dominant contemporary policy problems has given rise to a widespread feeling of 'methodological crisis' in the discipline. Students find it increasingly hard to relate to a textbook-authenticated paradigm which seems to be in the process of disintegration. The object of this book is to put some of the current theoretical controversies into long term perspective by tracing their historical antecedents. A connected object is to interpret some of the doctrinal divisions in the modern debate by showing that they spring from profound disagreements about what economics is and what questions the economist ought to be trying to answer. It examines the way leading theorists have adapted their theories and concepts to major changes in the problem-situation facing policy makers. The book is in no sense exhaustive (either in the range of theories or in the selection of theorists discussed) but focuses particularly on
Frederic Lee sets out the foundations of a post-Keynesian price theory through developing an empirically grounded production schema. The administered, normal cost and mark-up price doctrines are explained in parts I-III of the book, as many of their theoretical arguments are important for developing the foundations. This involves discussing the work of Gardiner Means, Philip Andrews, and Michal Kalecki as well as the developers of the doctrines, such as Edwin Nourse, Paolo Sylos Labini, Harry Edwards, Josef Steindl and Alfred Eisner. Drawing upon the arguments and formal modelling offered by the doctrines, in conjunction with empirical evidence from one hundred studies on pricing and production, Dr Lee develops an empirically grounded pricing model and production schema. He argues that the model and the schema together constitute the foundations for post-Keynesian price theory.
Capitalism in the twentieth century was marked by periods of persistent bad performance alternating with episodes of good performance. A lot of economic research ignores this phenomenon; other work concentrates almost exclusively on developing technology as its cause. This 2001 book draws upon Schumpeterian, Institutional and Keynesian economics to investigate how far these swings in performance can be explained as integral to capitalist development. The authors consider the macroeconomic record of the developed capitalist economies over the past 100 years (including rates of growth, inflation and unemployment) as well as the interaction of economic variables with the changing structural features of the economy in the course of industrialization and transformation. This approach allows for changes both in the economic structure and in the economic variables to be generated within the system. This study will be essential reading for macroeconomists and economic historians.
Frederic Lee sets out the foundations of a post-Keynesian price theory through developing an empirically grounded production schema. The administered, normal cost and mark-up price doctrines are explained in parts I-III of the book, as many of their theoretical arguments are important for developing the foundations. This involves discussing the work of Gardiner Means, Philip Andrews, and Michal Kalecki as well as the developers of the doctrines, such as Edwin Nourse, Paolo Sylos Labini, Harry Edwards, Josef Steindl and Alfred Eisner. Drawing upon the arguments and formal modelling offered by the doctrines, in conjunction with empirical evidence from one hundred studies on pricing and production, Dr Lee develops an empirically grounded pricing model and production schema. He argues that the model and the schema together constitute the foundations for post-Keynesian price theory.
Joan Robinson shows how the economic mechanisms that produce wealth in the midst of growing misery can be understood. For this purpose she uses the classical theory of accumulation and the modern theory of international trade and finance. Her simple but penetrating analysis illuminates the problems of poverty, accumulation, industrialization and trade, while exposing misleading conceptions of the Third World. Throughout the book, general principles are demonstrated with particular examples, making those principles both clearer and more relevant. The book's conclusion is that the economic problems of the Third World remain rooted in deep-seated political conflicts of national and international interests.
Capitalism in the twentieth century was marked by periods of persistent bad performance alternating with episodes of good performance. A lot of economic research ignores this phenomenon; other work concentrates almost exclusively on developing technology as its cause. This 2001 book draws upon Schumpeterian, Institutional and Keynesian economics to investigate how far these swings in performance can be explained as integral to capitalist development. The authors consider the macroeconomic record of the developed capitalist economies over the past 100 years (including rates of growth, inflation and unemployment) as well as the interaction of economic variables with the changing structural features of the economy in the course of industrialization and transformation. This approach allows for changes both in the economic structure and in the economic variables to be generated within the system. This study will be essential reading for macroeconomists and economic historians.
Economic Thought and History looks at the relationship between facts and thought in historical economic research, viewing it in the context of periods of economic crisis and providing detailed analyse
This book makes Keynes's writings in his General Theory accessible to students by presenting this theory in a careful, consistent manner that is faithful to the original. Keynes's theory continues to be important, because the issues it raised, such as the problems of involuntary unemployment, the volatility of investment, and the complexity of monetary arrangements in modern capitalist economies, are still with us. Keynes's method of analysis, which tries to allow for the complications of dealing with historical time, deserves the careful attention given in this book. Keynes's formal analysis dealt only with a short period of time during which changes in productive capacity as a result of net investment were small relative to initial productive capacity. Roy Harrod and Joan Robinson were the two most prominent followers of Keynes who attempted to extend his analysis to the long period by allowing for the effects of investment on productive capacity as well as on effective demand. The
This book presents a study in the foundations of monetary theory with several unique features. It consists of two parts: a critique of the varieties of neoclassical monetary theory, and a rigorous statement of the foundations of Post Keynesian monetary theory. The two parts reflect Joseph Schumpeter's distinction between monetary theories in the divergent traditions of Real and Monetary Analysis. Part I offers a novel critique of Wicksellian and neo-Walrasian general equilibrium versions of Real analysis. The critique of Wicksell's monetary theory demonstrates the general impossibility of defining the natural rate of interest without which the loanable funds theory collapses. The critique of neo-Walrasian monetary theory, on the other hand, exploits the inessential role of 'money' in temporary equilibrium and overlapping generations models and develops a novel interpretation of the Patinkin controversy and the Clower finance constraint. The implications of these developments are then t
The Demise of Finance-dominated Capitalism goes well beyond the dominant interpretation that the recent financial and economic crises are rooted in malfunctioning and poorly regulated financial market
"A fascinating, masterful, generally objective, critical examination of Chilean economic development primarily between 1973-94. Focuses on the role of the Chicago School in reshaping the economic stru
Financialisation and the Financial and Economic Crises provides comparative, empirical case studies of a diverse set of eleven countries. In particular, the book helps in understanding the current (ma
By the time of his death the English economist Lionel Robbins (1898–1984) was celebrated as a 'renaissance man'. He made major contributions to his own academic discipline and applied his skills as an economist not only to practical problems of economic policy – with conspicuous success when he served as head of the economists advising the wartime coalition government of Winston Churchill in 1940–45 – and of higher education – the 'Robbins Report' of 1963 – but also to the administration of the visual and performing arts that he loved deeply. He was devoted to the London School of Economics, from his time as an undergraduate following active service as an artillery officer on the Western Front in 1917–18, through his years as Professor of Economics (1929–62), and his stint as chairman of the governors during the 'troubles' of the late 1960s. This comprehensive biography, based on his personal and professional correspondence and other papers, covers all these many and varied activities.
This book tells the story of the search for disequilibrium micro-foundations for macroeconomic theory, from the disequilibrium theories of Patinkin, Clower and Leijonhufvud to recent dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models with imperfect competition. Placing this search against the background of wider developments in macroeconomics, the authors contend that this was never a single research program, but involved economists with very different aims who developed the basic ideas about quantity constraints, spillover effects and coordination failures in different ways. The authors contrast this with the equilibrium, market-clearing approach of Phelps and Lucas, arguing that equilibrium theories simply assumed away the problems that had motivated the disequilibrium literature. Although market-clearing models came to dominate macroeconomics, disequilibrium theories never went away and continue to exert an important influence on the subject. Although this book focuses on one strand in m
