This volume represents a contribution to the philosophy of economics with a distinctive point of view -- the contributors have selected particular areas of economics and have probed these areas for the philosophical and methodological issues that they raise. The primary essays are written by philosophers concentrating on philosophical issues that arise at the level of the everyday theoretical practice of working economists. Commentary essays are provided by working economists responding to the philosophical arguments from the standpoint of their own disciplines. The volume thus represents...

In macrodynamics and business cycle analysis we find nowadays a variety of approaches elaborating frameworks for studying the fluctuations in economic and financial data. These approaches are viewed from Keynesian, monetarist and rational expectations standpoints. There are now also numerous empirical methods for the testing of nonlinear data generating mechanisms.
This volume brings together a selection of contributions on theories of the business cycle and new empirical methods and synopsizes the new results. The volume (i) gives an overview of current models and modern concepts and...

What is the role of economic theory? Is there any common ground among economists of different schools concerning the role or roles to be played by theory? These were the basic questions in my mind when I undertook to edit a book on the subject. I thought it might prove insightful to exam ine the views of distinguished economists of very different persuasions and perspectives on the discipline in general. Accordingly, I invited economists from many of the major schools or groups in contemporary economics to contribute essays. Some were uninterested; some were too busy; but many were more than...

What is the relation between economics and religion? In particular, are theology and economics entirely autonomous and distinct areas of inquiry? Economics and Religion: Are They Distinct? takes an inductive approach using case studies to shed light on the extent to which economics may be regarded as independent of the religious beliefs of its practitioners. The case studies comprise the first part of the book and are listed chronologically. These case studies are followed by commentaries, or interpretive essays; the authors of these commentaries are acting as a jury to consider the...

Interest in John Maynard Keynes's economic, political and philosophical thinking has undergone a tremendous revival in the last decade. The essays and comments collected in this volume were written on a set of themes representative of the current state of interpretation of Keynes's thinking. Some of the topics investigated have received much attention in the past, and some are of more recent interest. In the former category are topics on standard issues in the interpretation of Keynes's economics: the transition in Keynes's thinking from the The Treatise on Money to The General...

The study of bureaucracy must include certain key questions: what are bureaucrats and bureaucracies; why do they exist and what are their functions; how do they behave; how much power do they possess; what is their impact on efficiency and production; and how do they affect society?
This book contains analyses of all these issues, done by a variety of economists of differing backgrounds, approaches and opinions, broadly categorized under the labels Neoclassical, Institutionalist, and Marxist, although there are overlaps and correspondences that cross ideological and/or paradigmal...

This collection of papers reflects the variety of interpretations and definitions connected with the concept of mercantilism' which have evolved historically during the last two centuries. They range from interpretations of mercantilistic' ideas to interpretations of policies. They stress the relationship between economic, social and political ideas and range from the 17th to the late 20th century. Lastly, they provide us with more knowledge of specific national cases as well as a discussion of mercantilism as a general phenomenon.

When we first invited the group of distinguished scholars represented here to contribute to a new volume on Austrian economics, four themes were stressed: tensions, new directions, selectivity, and criticism. In this brief introduction we will explain why those themes were emphasized and thereby shed light on our intentions and aspirations for the volume. The subtitle "Tensions and New Directions" indicates clearly the intent of the volume desired. If we take the 1871 publication of Carl Menger's Principles of Economics (Grundsiitze der Volkswirthschaftslehre) as mark ing its birth, the...

Although there is a burgeoning interest among economists in information economics', much of the literature adopts a reductionist conceptualization of information, defining it exclusively as reduction in uncertainty, exploring the implications of imperfect information on markets. This neoclassical treatment obscures major interrelations between economic and communicatory processes.
Drawing on a range of distinguished scholarship from both the economic and communication studies disciplines, Information and Communication in Economics explores the implications for economic...

William Darity, Jr. In 1984 the Kluwer series in Modern Economic Thought, under the editorial direction of Warren Samuels, brought out a book under my editorship entitled Labor Economics: Modern Views. It consisted of a series of essays and commentaries that sought, in a critical fashion, to assess the state of the art in the field of labor economics with respect to several themes. These included methodology versus practice, the analysis of discrimination by gender and race, the phenomenon of persistent racial differences in un employment exposure, occupational safety and health regulation,...