Description
Book SynopsisMethodology, Money and the Firm brings together Denis O'Brien's most important essays on issues ranging from methodology to competition policy but is primarily focused on the history of economic thought, an area in which he has made a notable contribution.
This two volume set begins with Professor O'Brien's work on methodology and includes essays which take their approaches from the history and philosophy of science as applied to economics, and from the role of theory and data in economics. Industrial problems are addressed in the next section, focusing particularly on competition policy but also covering the question of patents and the neglected contributions of Alfred Marshall in the field of industrial economics. Marshall's achievements are also a theme of the third section which deals with the treatment of the firm by economists. Later sections include discussions of money and trade, the history of English economics from Petty to the end of the classical era, and English and Austrian economics after 1870 with essays on Marshall, Robbins and Hayek. The book also includes a specially written introduction in which Professor O'Brien explains the influences behind his work.
Trade Review'This compendium of economic scholarship should be brought to the attention of all economics students - and of all practising economists. It demonstrates wide reading (which is meticulously referenced), thoughtful appraisal and clear argument, and so by both method and content offers a corrective to the deficiencies of our much modern economics. . . . I am confident that economists will benefit from studying any of O'Brien's exemplars of good practice.'Table of ContentsPart 1 Methodology: whither economics?; theories of the history of science - a test case; theory and empirical observation; economists and data. Part 2 The industry: information agreements - a problem in search of a policy, with D. Swann; 200 years of competition; competition policy in Britain - the silent revolution; divestiture - the case of AT&T; patents - an economist's view; Marshall's industrial analysis. Part 3 The firm: the evolution of the theory of the firm; research programmes in competitive structure; Marshall, monopoly and rectangular hyperbolas. Part 4 Money and trade: monetary economics; Overstone, Lord; [Overstone's] monetary thought; the transition in Torrens' monetary thought; the macroeconomics of Thomas Joplin; Torrens, McCulloch and Disraeli; customs unions - trade creation and trade diversion; competition and credit control. Part 5 English economics 1660-1860: Petty's "Political Arithmetick"; Ravenstone, Piercy; classical economics; Ricardian economics and the economics of David Ricardo; classical reassessments; J.R. McCulloch and the theory of value; Torrens on wages and emigration; Torrens, McCulloch and the "Digression on Sismondi" - whose digression, with A.C. Darnell; J.R. McCulloch. Part 6 English and Austrian economics after 1870: A. Marshall, 1842-1925; Marshall's work in relation to classical economics; Lionel Charles Robbins, 1898-1984; Lionel Robbins and the Austrian connection; Hayek as an intellectual historian.
