Game Theory - the formal modelling of conflict and cooperation - first emerged as a recognized field with a publication of John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern's Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour in 1944. Since then, game-theoretic thinking about choice of strategies and the interdependence of people's actions has influenced all the social sciences. However, little is known about the history of the theory of strategic games prior to this publication.
In this volume, the history of strategic games - from its origins up to 1945 - is traced through the work of:
* 19th...

This collection of essays considers the evolution of economic thought in France. The period covered is vast, extending from the 16th to the 20th century. The aim is to bring to the forefront those economists, themes and controversies which are important in the context of recent research, and about which new ideas can be developed. The contributors consider economists such as Galiani, Necker, Turgot, Say, Sismondi, Dupuit, Walras, and Bicquilley - a recently discovered, historically important economist. The themes explored include: Law's system; the application of mathematics and probability...

Gandhi's economic theories were a part of his vision of self-government, which meant not just freedom from colonial rule but the achievement of self-reliance and self-respect by the villagers of India. Areas examined include:
* consumption behaviour
* industrialization, technology and the scale of production
* trusteeship and industrial relations
* work and leisure
* education as human capital

It is only during the 20th century that it has become possible to pursue a career as an economist. The dramatic expansion of higher education and the growing numbers of economists in public service and in the private sector has created a demand for a thoroughly professional economics. In this text, 14 economists describe their early introduction to the study of economics and their contribution to the development of academic economics in Britain. With experience covering a period stretching from the mid 1920s to the late 1960s, many of the contributors not only provide an insight into the role...

The classical approach to economic problems, which can be traced back to Adam Smith and David Ricardo, has been revived in recent years. The essays in this collection argue that this classical approach holds the key to an explanation of important present-day economic phenomena. The study opens with a clarification of what is meant by classical economics and examines how modern methods of economic analysis are related to the works of the classical economists. Chapters deal with the problem of economic growth and foreign trade. Contributors attempt to show that both the von Neumann growth model...

Since the publication of Keynes's General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in 1936, macroeconomic theory has altered considerably. Each author in this volume focuses on an issue which either preceded, accompanied or followed the 'Keynesian Revolution' and helped to shape economics in subsequent years. Contributors reconsider some of the major concepts of the "General Theory": unemployment and the identity of income and output. They also highlight some of the controversies in macroeconomic theory and review the macroeconomic policy implications and consequences.

The economic thought, based on Marxist philosophy, which formed theoretical underpinning of centrally planned socialist economies, was peculiar to the Soviet and eastern European region, and was radically different from mainstream western thought. Written by east European scholars, this volume provides an overview of 50 years of economic thinking under communist rule in Europe and during the first phase of post-communist trnasformation. It also provides an analytical assessment of the impact of economic science on the reform and transition process. The book includes six country-specific...

This remarkable volume provides a critical assessment of Neoclassical Synthesis, long regarded as the standard interpretation of Keynes. Taking issue with this orthodoxy, the author offers a unique interpretation of the foundation of modern macroeconomics, arguing that the subject derives from the conflict between two research programmes inspired by different paradigms in physics: the Newtonian programme of Hicks and the Einsteinian approach of Keynes.
Original and provocative in its reflections, Keynes and the Neoclassical Synthesis not only offers a...

This is an original and controversial reflection on the course of human history and a remarkable attempt to develop a scientific model of laws for the social sciences. It:
* considers the nature of laws and the reasons we might expect to find them in history
* employs an underlying framework concerning societal dynamics, historical change, and institutional change, which are in fact the laws of history.
This volume consolidates the author's previous research in The Dynamic Society and The Ephemeral Civilization.