This history of international monetary thought from the end of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century provides the most comprehensive survey of the literature on the theory of international finance yet produced. The author argues that progress in the field has not been linear and classifies the literature according to groupings of ideas and personalities rather than chronologically. After a brief survey of the Classical doctrines, she examines the developments of all the main schools through the Neoclassicals, the Keynesians, and the New Classicals.

This book examines and compares the two major traditions of thought that have attempted to incorporate institutions within economics. These are the "Old" (or American) Institutionalist tradition of Veblen, Mitchell, Commons and Ayres, and the "New" Institutionalism that has developed more recently from neoclassical and Austrian sources. The discussion is organized around a set of key problems involving the use of formal or nonformal analytical methods, individualist or holistic approaches, the respective roles of rational choice and rule following behavior, the relative importance of...

Focusing on the period of Milton Friedman's collaboration with Anna J. Schwartz, from 1948 to 1991, this work examines the history of debates between Friedman and his critics over money's causal role in business cycles. Professor Hammond shows that critics' reactions were grounded in two distinctive features of Friedman and Schwartz's way of doing economic analysis--their National Bureau business cycle methods and Friedman's Marshallian methodology. Drawing extensively on unpublished materials, Professor Hammond's treatment offers new insights on Milton Friedman's attempts to settle debates...

Negishi examines a broad range of topics in the history of economics that have relevance to current economic theories. The author contends that one of the tasks for historians of economics is to analyze and interpret theories currently outside the mainstream of economic theory, in this case, Walrasian economics. Familiar topics covered include the division of labor, economies of scale, wages, profit, international trade, market mechanisms, and money. These are considered in reference to the well-known non-Walrasian schools of thought.

Over the twentieth century monetary theory played a crucial role in the evolution of the international monetary system. The severe shocks and monetary gyrations of the interwar years interacted with theoretical developments that superseded the rigid rules of commodity standards and led to the full-fledged conception of monetary policy. The definitive demise of the gold standard then paved the way for monetary reconstruction. Monetary theory was a decisive factor in the design of the reform proposals, in the Bretton Woods negotiations, and in forging the new monetary order. The Bretton Woods...

The Cobb-Douglas regression, a statistical technique developed to estimate what economists called a 'production function', was introduced in the late 1920s. For several years, only economist Paul Douglas and a few collaborators used the technique, while vigorously defending it against numerous critics. By the 1950s, however, several economists beyond Douglas's circle were using the technique, and by the 1970s, Douglas's regression, and more sophisticated procedures inspired by it, had become standard parts of the empirical economist's toolkit. This volume is the story of the Cobb-Douglas...