Broad in scope and carefully balanced in emphasis, this book is a major treatise on the theory and practice of public fi nance. It is unique in its presentation of a worldwide perspective and in its treatment of both the instruments of public fi nance and the goals, effects, and criteria of public fi nance measures.

The history of economic thought has always attracted some of the brightest minds within the discipline as a whole. These chroniclers of the discipline's development have helped form our view of it, and it is no surprise that many among them have been at the forefront of new movements in the history of ideas. This collection summarizes the work of these key historians of economics and attempts to quantify their impact. Some of these writers such as Friedrich Hayek and Joan Robinson are already assured of their place among the greatest economists of the twentieth century, while the collection...

Warren J. Samuels has been a prominent figure in the study of economics in the twentieth century. This book brings together essays by leading scholars in the areas of economics in which Samuels has made his most important contributions: the history of economic thought, economic methodology, and institutional and post-Keynesian economics.

This work is designed to give the reader a sense of the breadth and possibilities of economics. The essays, all published here for the first time, investigate issues such as:

• The institutional structures that shape economic activity...

This is an expanded second edition of Nicholas Mercuro and Steven Medema's influential book Economics and the Law, whose publication in 1998 marked the most comprehensive overview of the various schools of thought in the burgeoning field of Law and Economics. Each of these competing yet complementary traditions has both redefined the study of law and exposed the key economic implications of the legal environment. The book remains true to the scope and aims of the first edition, but also takes account of the field's evolution.

At the book's core is an expanded discussion...

Upon hearing that Ronald Coase had been awarded the Nobel Prize, a fellow economist's first response was to ask with whom Coase had shared the Prize. Whether this response was idiosyncratic or not, I do not know; I expect not. Part of this type of reaction can no doubt be explained by the fact that Coase has often been characterized as an economist who wrote only two significant or influential papers: "The Nature of the Firm" (1937) and "The Problem of Social Cost" (1960). And by typical professional standards of "significant" and "influential" (i. e., widely read and cited), this perception...

Examines a controversial area of economic analysis: the appropriate role of government within the economic system. This book offers a comprehensive and integrated history of the evolution of the relationship between governments and economies, examining the British classical tradition, the American progressive movement, and corporatist ideology.

Adam Smith turned economic theory on its head in 1776 when he declared that the pursuit of self-interest mediated by the market itself--not by government--led, via an invisible hand, to the greatest possible welfare for society as a whole. The Hesitant Hand examines how subsequent economic thinkers have challenged or reaffirmed Smith's doctrine, some contending that society needs government to intervene on its behalf when the marketplace falters, others arguing that government interference ultimately benefits neither the market nor society.

Steven Medema explores what...

Revision of: History of economic thought / Lionel Robbins -- Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1998.

This book presents, for the first time, a detailed transcription of Jacob Viner's Economics 301 class as taught in 1930. These lecture notes provide insight into the legacy of Jacob Viner, whose seminal contributions to fields such as international economics and the history of economics are well known, but whose impact in sparking the revival of Marshallian microeconomics in the United States via his classroom teaching has been less appreciated. Generations of graduate students at the University of Chicago have taken Economics 301. The course has been taught by such luminaries as Milton...

Upon hearing that Ronald Coase had been awarded the Nobel Prize, a fellow economist's first response was to ask with whom Coase had shared the Prize. Whether this response was idiosyncratic or not, I do not know; I expect not. Part of this type of reaction can no doubt be explained by the fact that Coase has often been characterized as an economist who wrote only two significant or influential papers: "The Nature of the Firm" (1937) and "The Problem of Social Cost" (1960). And by typical professional standards of "significant" and "influential" (i. e. , widely read and cited), this perception...