Description
Book SynopsisThe most persistent theme of Nathan Rosenberg's work is a concern with the emergence and diffusion of economic ideas. Bringing together Professor Rosenberg's many contributions to the history of economic thought, this volume offers a series of important insights on how economics itself emerged as a distinct discipline.
The Emergence of Economic Ideas extends our understanding of the development of capitalist institutions and the manner in which these institutions have contributed to the unique technological dynamism of capitalist societies. The book also - and necessarily - focuses upon the emergence of ideas about capitalism. That is to say, the discipline of economics is itself a body of ideas, and analytical techniques, that have been developed over the past two centuries in order to explain how capitalist economies have developed and how they work. Professor Rosenberg examines the key contributions - from Mandeville, Adam Smith, Babbage, Marx, Schumpeter and Stigler - in the growth of this critical collection of ideas.
Economists interested in the emergence of their discipline and historians of ideas will welcome this collection which will make Professor Rosenberg's many substantial contributions more widely accessible to teachers, students and researchers.
Trade Review'These engaging essays are presented, as is normal in this series, in their original format, yielding the benefit of the original pagination and the aesthetic cost of a highly variable typeface.' -- Ian Steedman,The Manchester School
Table of ContentsMandeville and laissez-faire; some institutional aspects of the "Wealth of Nations"; Adam Smith and the division of labour - two views or one?; Adam Smith, consumer tastes and economic growth; Adam Smith on profits - paradox lost and regained; another advantage of the division of labour; Adam Smith and the stock of moral capital; Charles Babbage - pioneer economist; Karl Marx on the economic role of science; Marx as a student of technology; Joseph Schumpeter - radical economist; George Stigler - Adam Smith's best friend.
