Bücher der Reihe Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics

More Heat Than Light is a history of how physics has drawn some inspiration from economics and also how economics has sought to emulate physics, especially with regard to the theory of value. It traces the development of the energy concept in Western physics and its subsequent effect upon the invention and promulgation of neoclassical economics. Any discussion of the standing of economics as a science must include the historical symbiosis between the two disciplines. Starting with the philosopher Emile Meyerson's discussion of the relationship between notions of invariance and causality in the history of science, the book surveys the history of conservation principles in the Western discussion of motion. Recourse to the metaphors of the economy are frequent in physics, and the concepts of value, motion, and body reinforced each other throughout the development of both disciplines, especially with regard to practices of mathematical formalisation. However, in economics subsequent misuse of conservation principles led to serious blunders in the mathematical formalisation of economic theory. The book attempts to provide the reader with sufficient background in the history of physics in order to appreciate its theses. The discussion is technically detailed and complex, and familiarity with calculus is required.

Professor Sent offers an innovative type of analysis of the recent history of rational expectations economics. In the course of exploring the multiple dimensions of rational expectations analysis, the author focuses on the work of Thomas Sargent, an instrumental pioneer in the development of this school of thought.

This work analyzes the centrality of law in nineteenth century historical and institutional economics and serves as a prehistory to the new institutional economics of the late twentieth century.

Laidler surveys the writings of a large number of economists in the inter-war years and argues that the 'Keynesian Revolution' is a myth, and that the 'new economics' was a careful and selective synthesis of an 'old economics' which had been developing for twenty years or more.

The Victorian polymath William Stanley Jevons (1835-82) is generally and rightly venerated as one of the great innovators of economic theory and method. This book is an investigation into the cultural and intellectual resources that Jevons drew upon to revolutionize research methods in economics.

This book examines and compares the 'old' institutionalism of Veblen, Mitchell, Commons, and Ayres, with the 'new' institutionalism developed from neoclassical and Austrian sources.

This 1988 book presents a historical investigation of the theoretical development of contemporary Equilibrium Business Cycle Theory (EBCT). The author examines the central features of the EBCT by tracing both the history of business cycle theory and the history of econometrics.

This 2002 book expands our understanding of the distinctive policy analysis produced between 1919 and 1950 by economists and other social scientists for four major international organizations: the League of Nations, the International Labor Organization, the Bank for International Settlements, and the United Nations. These practitioners included some of the twentieth century's eminent economists, including Cassel, Haberler, Kalecki, Meade, Morgenstern, Nurkse, Ohlin, Tinbergen, and Viner. Irving Fisher and John Maynard Keynes also influenced the work of these organizations. Topics covered include: the relationship between economics and policy analysis in international organizations; business cycle research; the role and conduct of monetary policy; public investment; trade policy; social and labor economics; international finance; the coordination problem in international macroeconomic policy; full employment economics; and the rich-country-poor-country debate. Normative agendas underlying international political economy are made explicit, and lessons are distilled for today's debates on international economic integration.

This 1996 work examines the history of debates between Friedman and his critics over money's causal role in business cycles from 1948 to 1991.