The Division of Labor in Economics : A History

ISBN-13: 9780415449076 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 256 str.

Guang-Zhen Sun

Opis

This book painstakingly identifies and elaborates on the tradition in economic analysis of the division of labor by examining the studies on this topic that have emerged over the past two and a half millennia, especially in about two and a quarter centuries since Adam Smith (1776). Studies of the division of labor are found in the writings of many authors ranging from Plato to Smith, Karl Marx, von Friedrich Hayek and George Stigler. The first part of the book is therefore to be devoted to close examination of pieces of lasting importance that have emerged in history of ideas, and of their connections.

The second aim is to assess and synthesize the contemporary studies, namely the post-WWII studies, especially since the revival of research interest in the division of labor in the late 1970s to the present, in light of such a tradition, thereby highlighting and assessing advancements recently made and suggesting new directions into which further exploration appears to be scientifically rewarding.

Spis treści

Preface  1. Introduction  Part 1: Pre-Smith Analysis  2. Early Analyses  3. Mercantilists and the Emergence of the Political Economy of the Division of Labour  Part 2: The Smithian Economics of the Deivision of Labour  4. The Smithian Economics of the Division of Labour and the Market Process: The Principle  Part 3: Marx on the Division of Labour in Capitalist Manufacturing and the Hayekian Problem of Knowledge  5. Machinery and the Factory System: Charles Babbage and Karl Marx on the Division of Labour in Manufacturing  6. Catallaxy and the Division of Knowledge: F.A. Hayek’s Insights  Part 4: Economic Development Framed Framed in the Economics of The Division of Labour  7. Urbanization and Industrialization  8. Human Capital, the Extent of the Market and Economic Growth  9. Economic Organization and the Division of Labour

O autorze

Guang-Zhen Sun is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, the University of Macau, Macau