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Published by EH.NET (December 2003)
Warren J. Samuels, Jeff F. Biddle and John B. Davis, editors, _A Companion
to the History of Economic Thought_. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. xvii + 712
pp. $134.95 (hardcover), ISBN: 0-631-22573-0.
Reviewed for EH.NET by Mauro Boianovsky, Department of Economics,
Universidade de Brasilia.
The publication of this companion is a major event in the history of
economic thought field. Warren Samuels, Jeff Biddle (both at Michigan State
University) and John Davis (Marquette University, Wisconsin) have put
together an impressive collection of thirty-nine essays covering the state
of the art in the history of economic thought and historiography. The
volume is divided into two parts -- "Historical Surveys" and
"Historiography" -- plus an introductory chapter. The contributors are
well-known experts in different aspects and periods of the history and
methodology of economics.
Twenty-eight surveys comprise Part I, arranged chronologically from ancient
times until postwar economics. Chapters 2 to 11 provide surveys of
traditional topics such as ancient Greek and medieval economics,
mercantilism, physiocracy, political arithmetic, Adam Smith, classical
economics, and Marx. Chapters 14 to 18 and 23 cover the German and English
historical schools, American economic thought before 1900, English and
Austrian marginalists, early general equilibrium analysis and interwar
institutional economics. Macroeconomics is discussed in chapters 21, 22 and
26, including pre-Keynesian business cycle theory, Keynes, and postwar
monetary economics. Microeconomics is the theme of chapters 19, 20, 24 and
25, on interwar imperfect competition theory, perfect competition and the
neoclassical synthesis, and postwar general equilibrium and game theories.
Chapter 28 is divided into five subchapters surveying several branches of
postwar heterodox economics. Other chapters (12, 13 and 27) deal with
topics such as non-Marxian socialism, utopian economics and the economic
role of the government. Although most of the entries in Part I may be
described as surveys of the literature, some are written as papers where
authors develop new insights about certain episodes in history of economic
thought (e.g. chapters 9, 21, 25 and 27 on homogeneity and race in
post-Ricardian economics, "the stabilization of price theory" between 1920
and 1955, "the formalist revolution" of the 1950s, and changes in the
interpretation of the role of the government in the economy, respectively).
The only other collection to date that can be compared to the _Companion_
in scope is the (1987) _New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics_, which
included several entries on the history of economics. In the early 1990s a
few thematic paperback volumes (on general equilibrium, capital theory,
monetary economics, etc.) were made out of the entries in the _New
Palgrave_, but there was no specific volume collecting the entries on
history of thought. From that perspective, the _Companion_ fills a gap in
the literature. Many of the entries in the _Companion_ refer to their
matches in the _New Palgrave_ (e.g., chapters 7, 11 and 16 on Smith, the
surplus interpretation of classical economics, and English marginalism,
respectively) and/or provide updated references to the vast secondary
literature that has come out since the late 1980s. Some chapters do neither
(e.g. chapter 8 on classical economics).
Although Part I of the _Companion_ provides a comprehensive treatment of
the main topics in the history of economics, a few gaps may be noticed. The
organization of the collection according to schools of thought and/or time
period has several advantages, but also some drawbacks. Important topics
such as trade theory, public finance and the theory of public goods, and
econometrics are barely mentioned. Other examples are Wicksell's
contribution to capital theory and Ramsey's model of optimal growth.
Malthus's approach to effective demand is discussed in just one brief
paragraph (pp. 123-24). Despite the positive reference to studies of
"neglected" economists in the introductory chapter (p. 3), most of those
economists continue to be neglected in this _Companion_ (e.g., J. Dupuit
and H. Gossen on price theory, F. B. Hawley and N. Johanssen on saving and
investment).
Part II is formed mostly by new material, reflecting the intense debate
that has taken place in the last few decades about historiographic matters
in economic thought. Chapter 1 is a summing up of the main arguments of the
second part of the _Companion_ (there is no similar introductory chapter
for the first part, presumably because the historical surveys deal with
more familiar material). Chapter 29 provides a useful overview of the main
themes of modern historiography in general and in economics. The next
chapter discusses in detail the contribution of the recent "science
studies" approach to the history of economics. Chapters 31 to 33 provide a
fascinating account of the several aspects of textual exegesis in HET,
including an assessment of the use of mathematical modeling in the rational
reconstruction of texts of the past. Developments in economic methodology
after Kuhn are surveyed in chapter 34. Chapter 35 takes up the role of
biography in HET, a topic that was the object of heated debate between G.
Stigler and W. Jaffe in the 1960s. The next two chapters study some crucial
features of the use and acceptance of economic ideas associated with the
history of the formulation of economic policy and of the transmission of
economic theories across international boundaries, respectively. Chapter 38
claims that HET should be seen in the broad context of the history of ideas
in general. The last chapter raises the important issue of the use of HET
by both supporters and critics of orthodox economics.
One interesting exercise is to do some cross-reading of the two parts of
the _Companion_ in order to check in what extent the historiographic
concerns discussed in part II are reflected in the historical surveys of
the first part. It is worth noting, for instance, that although much
attention is paid to the "constructivist" approach in the historiographic
discussion, there are very few signs of its influence in the first part of
the book, as witnessed by the relative lack of references to authors such
as M. Foucault and P. Mirowski in the interpretations of physiocracy and of
the marginalist revolution, respectively. In the same way, the reader would
benefit from reading chapter 28 (on postwar heterodoxy) together with
chapter 39, where the problems involved in the relation between HET and
heterodoxy are taken up.
Given the range and diversity of views of this _Companion_, it is
representative of some of the best work that has been done in HET recently.
As the editors inform the readers (p. xvi), there are plans to put together
another _Companion_ dealing only with HET in the postwar period. One can
hardly wait.
Mauro Boianovsky is associate professor of economics at Universidade de
Brasilia. His main field of research is the history of macroeconomics.
Recent and forthcoming publications include "Patinkin, the Cowles
Commission, and the Theory of Unemployment and Aggregate Supply," _European
Journal of the History of Economic Thought_ (2002); "Wicksell, Cassel, and
the Idea of Involuntary Unemployment" (with Hans-Michael Trautwein),
_History of Political Economy_ (2003); "Some Cambridge Reactions to the
General Theory: David Champernowne and Joan Robinson on Full Employment,"
_Cambridge Journal of Economics (forthcoming, 2004); and "The IS-LM Model
and the Liquidity Trap Concept: From Hicks to Krugman," _History of
Political Economy_ (2004).
Copyright (c) 2003 by EH.Net. All rights reserved. This work may be copied
for non-profit educational uses if proper credit is given to the author and
the list. For other permission, please contact the EH.Net Administrator
([log in to unmask]; Telephone: 513-529-2851). Published by EH.Net
(December 2003). All EH.Net reviews are archived at
http://www.eh.net/BookReview
Ross B. EmmettJames Madison CollegeMichigan State University317 South Case
HallEast Lansing, MI 48825Phone: 517-432-6139Fax: 517-432-1804
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