Neoclassical Economics

The twelve essays by respected economists and historians collected here take a precise look at the mechanisms that brought about the shift from pluralism to neoclassicism in American economics. They discuss such topics as the demise of the Social Gospel Movement, the role of general education and graduate study in Chicago economics, the Sherman Antitrust Act, the transformation of economics through a survey of journal articles, and changes in American monetary thought.

This is the 1998 supplement to the journal History of Political Economy. All 1998 subscribers will receive a copy of this book as part of their annual subscription.

This book provides a surprising answer to two puzzling questions that relate to the very "soul" of the professional study of economics in the late twentieth century. How did the discipline of economics come to be dominated by an approach that is heavily dependent on mathematically derived models? And what happened to other approaches to the discipline that were considered to be scientifically viable less than fifty years ago? Between the two world wars there were two well-accepted schools of thought in economics: the "neoclassical," which emerged in the last third of the nineteenth century, and the "institutionalist," which started with the works of Veblen and Commons at the end of the same century. Although the contributions of the institutionalists are nearly forgotten now, Yuval Yonay shows that their legacy lingers in the study and practice of economics today. By reconsidering their impact and by analyzing the conflicts that arose between neoclassicists and institutionalists, Yonay brings to life a hidden chapter in the history of economics.

The author is a sociologist of science who brings a unique perspective to economic history. By utilizing the actor-network approach of Bruno Latour and Michel Callon, he arrives at a deeper understanding of the nature of the changes that took place in the practice of economics. His analysis also illuminates a broader set of issues concerning the nature of scientific practice and the forces behind changes in scientific knowledge.

This book examines the legacy of the capital switching debate of the early 1960's and the enormous impact it has had on economic theory.

Many consider "Foundations of Economic Method to be Lawrence Boland's best work. This updated edition is radically changed from the original positioning methodology vis-a-vis the current practice of economists and is all the better for it.

In this book, Lawrence Boland takes issue with both economic methodologists and practising economists, by arguing that mainstream economics might benefit by using methodology to take a critical look at economic theory.

This ground-breaking volume brings together the essays of top theorists including Arjo Klamer, Deirdre McCloskey, Julie Nelson, Shuan Hargreaves-Heap and Philip Mirowski on a diverse range of topics such as gender, post-colonial theory, rationality, and modernism.

Entrepreneurial Economics is concerned with the role of entrepreneurs, and the nature and scope of entrepreneurship in the economy. It includes illustrations of successful entrepreneurs and more detailed case studies.

Treating the market as a complex social category, and not just as a purely economic phenomenon, this book presents two frameworks for analyzing the market in relation to society. After presenting first the economic framework and then the sociological framework, the author combines the two and, when feasible and sensible, integrates them. The result is an original and enlightening examination of such subjects as the nature of the market, market laws, equilibrium, and prices.

Feminist economists have demonstrated that questioning implicit assumptions about gender results in an economics that is less biased and more faithful to empirical evidence than are mainstream accounts. This rigorous and comprehensive book describes, analyzes and criticizes all of the main issues of feminist economics including: neoclassical economics, post-colonial theory and evolutionary economics.