A History of Economic Theory: Classic Contributions, 1720-1980 (Softshell Books) [Paperback]

Jürg Niehans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1994 | Series: Softshell Books

A History of Economic Theory offers a comprehensive account of the builders and building blocks of modern mainstream economics. Jurg Niehans shows how the analytical tools used by economists have evolved from the eighteenth century to the present. Niehans first surveys the development of classical economics from the scholastic and mercantilist traditions to Marx. He then follows the progress of marginalist economics from Thunen to Fischer. In the book's final section, he describes economic theory in the model-building era from Pigou and Keynes to Rational Expectations.<P>Building his story around the economists themselves, Niehans presents a pantheon of economic theory. It includes the famous from Smith and Riccardo to Samuelson and Friedman, as well as detailed discussions of lesser-known figures who have nevertheless made classic contributions. For each theorist Niehans offers a biographical sketch followed by a description, interpretation, and critical assessment of his work. With the current revival of interest in the history of economics, economists will find A History of Economic Theory not only a rich source of information but also a challenging analysis of the dynamics of scientific progress.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Well organized. Its chapters on monetary topics and marginalist writers are balanced and informative. Many economists neglected in other histories are here given their due... As a convenient desk reference, this book has much to offer.

(Journal of Economic History )

Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801849764
• ISBN-13: 978-0801849763
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #904,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Keynes's model in the GT never assumed fixed money wages, March 25, 2005

By 

Michael Emmett Brady "mandmbrady" (Bellflower, California ,United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A History of Economic Theory: Classic Contributions, 1720-1980 (Softshell Books) (Paperback)

Niehans appears to be unable to offer an objective assessment of many of the economists that he covers in a series of short essays in this book.Basically,Niehans views the history of economic thought as if it were composed of two different kinds of economists,the good guys who believe in Say's Law as a general covering law,which Niehans defines as the postulate that in the long run price adjustments alone will always guarantee the full employment of all resources(resource scarcity) excluding necessary slack and down time for repair,maintenance, retooling,rest,etc.,and the bad guys,who don't accept Say's law as the general case,but only as a special case operating only when economies are on the boundaries of both their static(short run)and dynamic(long run)production possibilities curves with an optimal stock of capital goods.The bad guys are the mercantilists,Sir James Steuart,Sismondi,Malthus,Marx,the laterJohn S Mills, the later Marshall,Veblen,and Keynes.The good guys are Smith,Bentham,James Mills,Say,Ricardo,Senior,Pigou,Robertson,Kalecki,Friedman and Modigliani.I will concentrate on covering some of the errors of ommission and commission made, with respect to the work of Keynes in the General Theory(1936),by Niehans throughout his book.The first incorrect assessment of Keynes's work is the claim that Keynes based his model in the GT on the assumption of rigid money wages(See Niehans,pp.114,350,353,355,356,471 for a few examples).Nowhere in the GT does Keynes assume money wages are rigid except as a simplification in the early chapters of the GT.Keynes assumed that short run money wages were held constant.Note also that prices are fully flexible in all chapters of the GT.Since a firms economic decision to hire labor in the labor market is a function of the real wage,and the real wage is completely flexible,I have no idea about the point Niehans is trying to make,since A C Pigou made the same identical assumption as Keynes did about money wages in the short run-they were held constant in the short run in his 1933 book,The Theory of Unemployment.In chapters 19,20,21,and the appendix to chapter 19 of the GT,money wages are assumed to be fully flexible in both the upward and downward direction.Keynes concludes in chapter 19 ,as a result of his analysis, that money wages that are sticky in a monetary economy are to be preferred to fully flexible money wages because, dynamically, sticky money wages are a necessary condition for the stability of money values over time.Niehans offers no evidence for his claim that Keynes's model in the GT was not fully articulated and left many confusions to be cleared up(Niehans,p.355).Niehans offers no textual evidence for his claim that Kalecki far exceeded Keynes in economic substance,analytic rigor and in lucidity of exposition.(Niehans,p.376).He offers no support for his claim that Keynes was neither a strong nor original theorist on page 444.I do not recommend this book for the novice reader.However,an experienced reader can overlook these deficiencies and profit from reading some of these essays.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Reference on Economists and their schools, July 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A History of Economic Theory: Classic Contributions, 1720-1980 (Softshell Books) (Paperback)

The only book I've seen, outside the Palgrave reference book, that gives brief vignettes on different economists and their schools. Author does not mince words, writes strong, and gets to the point. A nice one-volume tome. Also includes some mathematics, which is nice.