Essays on the Methodology and Discourse of Economics PDF Download

Author: Warren J. Samuels
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349123714
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Contains a collection of articles on economics as a system of discourse and on certain epistemological problems of economics. The treatment of both topics centres on the role of often implicit assumptions as to whose interests count in reaching conclusions especially as to policy.

Author: Warren J. Samuels
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 9780814779491
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
An essential addition to any economics library, these five volumes present the contributions and writings of an influential and prolific scholar.

Author: R.B. McKenzie
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400974213
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
The essays in this volume were a challenge to me to write. I am an economist to the core, inclined to evaluate most observed behavior and public policies with conventional neoclassical theory. The essays represent my attempt to come to grips with the meaning and importance of what I try to do as a professional economist. They reflect my attempt to acquire a new and improved understanding of the usefulness and limitations of the writings of professional economists, especially my own. In this regard, although I hope others will find the thoughts useful, the volume represents a personal statement of how one economist views his and others' work. For that reason the discussion is often openly normative, tinged with the conviction that social discourse is more than costs and benefits and that economics cannot be fully evaluated by the methods - economic methods - that are the subject of the evaluation. These essays could not have been written without considerable encouragement and help from colleagues and friends. The following people are recognized for having read one or more chapters and for having contributed critical, substantive comments: Diana Bailey, Wilfred Beckerman, Geoffrey Brennan, William Briet, James Buchanan, Delores Martin, David Maxwell, Mary Ann McKenzie, Warren Samuels, Robert Staaf, Richard Wagner, Karen Vaughn, and Bruce Yandle. I am very much in their debt. However, they should not be held accountable for any of the positions taken and any errors that may remain.

Author: Warren J. Samuels
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401713774
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
1 Warren J. Samuels The study of economics as discourse requires a perspective that focuses on the relationships among knowledge (or truth), discourse (or lan guage), and meaning. Central to this task is the recognition that the con duct of economic analysis uses words and that words embody meanings that are applied to the object of study, but do not necessarily derive from that object although they define that object for us. Knowledge Economists are engaged in efforts to understand and explain the econ omy. In the pursuit of this knowledge they have attempted to make coherent the respect(s) in which belief is to be accepted as knowledge, or the sense(s) in which this knowledge has the quality of "truth. " The field of methodology in economics parallels the fields of epistemology and philosophy of science in the attempt to make sense of and to prescribe the terms on which efforts at knowledge may be accepted as "true," or the terms on which statements can be accepted as "knowledge. " The conduct of such methodological inquiry typically treats economics as a science 1 2 ECONOMICS AS DISCOURSE engaged in the pursuit of truth as an epistemological category - though there have almost always been economists who were skeptical of the status of economics as a science, and the pursuit of knowledge is only one of three putative function of economics, the other two being psychic balm and social control.

Author: Samuel Hollander
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134765975
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This book, the third in the series of Samuel Hollander's essays, covers twelve key studies on the economic theory and method of John Stuart Mill. This volume provides an accessible sourcebook on Mill's relationship with David Ricardo, and the 'Classical School', as well as confirming his relevance for modern economics and for the place of economics within the social sciences.

Author: Warren J. Samuels
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781349122684
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
This book is a collection of articles on schools, individuals and topics within the mainstream of the history of economic thought. The principal schools are the Physiocrats and the English Classical Economists. The principal individuals are Francois Quesnay, Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, Francis Y. Edgeworth, Friedrich von Wieser, Frank W. Taussig, and William H. Hutt. The principal topics include the economic role of government, power, the psychology of economics, and the early history of macroeconomics.

Author: Daniel M. Hausman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521417402
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
This collection brings together the essays of one of the foremost American philosophers of economics. Cumulatively they offer fresh perspectives on foundational questions such as: what sort of science is economics? and how successful can economists be in acquiring knowledge of their subject matter?

Author: Charles M.A. Clark
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940110655X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
Marc R. Tool, both through his writings and his editorship of the Journal of Economic Issues, has had a profound influence on institutional economics. Tool's efforts, in his own words, "has been to keep values on the agenda of economic inquiry," which is another way of saying "keep economic inquiry relevant. " Tool's work on the theory of social value and instrumental valuation has helped to keep institutional economics focused on the core economic and social issues facing society, providing both a perspective from which to analyze the economy and a criteria for evaluating outcomes. This collection of essays is a testament to this legacy. Although these 15 chapters cover a wide and diverse range of topics, it is the common themes which are most striking: the inescapable necessity of values in economic discourse; the central role of valuation in economic activity; and most importantly, the requirement of democratic participation to achieve "efficient" solutions to the economic problem. These essays are offered to honor a body of work, a set of ideas, but mostly a man who, by directing economic inquiry to these core issues, has promoted "the continuity of human life and the noninvidious recreation of community through the instrumental use of knowledge.

Author: Harro Maas
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135122172
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Ever since the inception of economics over two hundred years ago, the tools at the discipline’s disposal have grown more and more more sophisticated. This book provides a historical introduction to the methodology of economics through the eyes of economists. The story begins with John Stuart Mill's seminal essay from 1836 on the definition and method of political economy, which is then followed by an examination of how the actual practices of economists changed over time to such an extent that they not only altered their methods of enquiry, but also their self-perception as economists. Beginning as intellectuals and journalists operating to a large extent in the public sphere, they then transformed into experts who developed their tools of research increasingly behind the scenes. No longer did they try to influence policy agendas through public discourse; rather they targeted policymakers directly and with instruments that showed them as independent and objective policy advisors, the tools of the trade changing all the while. In order to shed light on this evolution of economic methodology, this book takes carefully selected snapshots from the discipline’s history. It tracks the process of development through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, analysing the growth of empirical and mathematical modelling. It also looks at the emergence of the experiment in economics, in addition to the similarities and differences between modelling and experimentation. This book will be relevant reading for students and academics in the fields of economic methodology, history of economics, and history and philosophy of the social sciences.

Author: Wassily Leontief
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000676714
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This work comprises the major papers of this extraordinary Nobel Laureate in economics. The common concern of the papers included in this volume is economic theory, its structure, uses, and abuses. As the late Harry G. Johnson said: "No one reading this volume can fail to be struck by the depth of scholarship Professor Leontief is capable of deploying and the profundity of his understanding of methodological problems of economic theory, and his critique of the work of other economists."