------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------  
Published by EH.NET (August 2005)  
  
Michael Szenberg and Lall Ramrattan, editors, _Reflections of Eminent   
Economists_. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2004. xv + 459 pp. $125   
(hardcover), ISBN: 1-84376-628-0.  
  
Reviewed for EH.NET by Arthur M. Diamond, Jr., Department of   
Economics, University of Nebraska at Omaha.  
  
  
Most of the essays in this collection were previously published   
between 1988 and 2001, as opening articles in issues of _The American   
Economist_, which Szenberg has long edited. The book contains a   
breathless introduction by Szenberg and Ramrattan, and a brief,   
more-restrained, but thoughtful foreword by Kenneth Arrow. I   
particularly enjoyed Arrow's comments on the variety of motivations   
that productive economists have for doing economics.  
  
Two related collections, edited or co-edited by Szenberg, pre-date   
this one. The 1991 _Eminent Economists: Their Life Philosophies_   
contained the autobiographies of twenty-two eminent economists, nine   
of whom have received the Nobel Prize. _Passion and Craft: Economists   
at Work_ contained the autobiographies of twenty economists who were   
somewhere in the "middle" of their careers when they penned their   
essays before the book appeared in 1999.  
  
The current book consists of twenty-six autobiographical   
alphabetically-arranged essays, by the following economists: I.   
Adelman, B. Balassa, C.S. Bell, B.R. Bergmann, M. Blaug, M.   
Bronfenbrenner, G. Chichilnisky, R.A. Easterlin, R.G. Ehrenberg, V.R.   
Fuchs, R.W. Garrison, E. Ginzberg, E.M. Gramlich, E.E. Hagen, G.C.   
Harcourt, E. Malinvaud, H.M. Markowitz, A.H. Meltzer, G.H. Moore,   
W.Y. Oi, M. Perlman, K.W. Rothschild, F.M. Scherer, J.L. Simon, H.   
Uzawa, and A. Walters. How much value you find in this book will   
depend partly on how many of these economists are important to you.  
  
I found the most interesting essays to be those by Blaug,   
Bronfenbrenner, Perlman, Scherer and Simon. One reason may be that I   
had greater prior appreciation of the research of these scholars. But   
there are others on the list from whose work I have also benefited,   
including Easterlin, Ehrenberg, Fuchs, and Oi.  
  
I think maybe the main reason the most interesting essays are most   
interesting is that their authors seem to be somewhat more reflective   
and revealing about their intellectual careers and personal   
experiences, and what lessons those experiences have for the   
profession as a whole, and novice scholars in particular. (Many of   
the less interesting essays are basic chronologies of where the   
economist went, who the economist encountered, and what the economist   
wrote.)  
  
There is a restrained suggestion in the foreword, preface and   
introduction that the essays in the book might serve as evidence from   
which to inductively glean generalizations about what biographical   
and historical events encourage, discourage, or provide direction to   
intellectual activities. The essays do indeed sometimes suggest   
hypotheses about these sorts of issues.  
  
But the essays would not be quite as useful for any sort of rigorous,   
Stiglerian statistical test of such hypotheses, in part because we   
are provided no information about the criteria for inclusion in the   
volume. I would like to have known how the editors decided who to   
invite to contribute to these essays? Did they consult citation   
rankings? What percent of the economists invited actually submitted   
essays? Were those eminent economists who were invited, and who   
submitted essays, a representative sample of the broader population   
of eminent economists in their religion, gender, and subfield of   
specialization?  
  
About twenty percent of the essays (e.g., Blaug, Bronfenbrenner,   
Ginzberg, Scherer, and Simon) offer wise criticism of the   
over-mathematization of the economics profession. I personally would   
take heart if I thought that twenty percent of the broader population   
of eminent economists shared this concern. But alas, I suspect that   
those economists inclined to spend time in the kind of philosophical   
reflection requested for these essays may be a biased sample, where   
those not happy with current trends are over-represented. (On the   
mathematization issue, Blaug claims (p. 90) and Scherer presents   
evidence (pp. 396-97) that economics has become significantly more   
mathematical, and less empirical, than even physics, traditionally   
the hardest of the "hard" sciences.)  
  
The editors hope the book will help novice economists make their way   
in the profession, and will provide useful source material to   
historians of economic thought. While some of the essays might, in   
fact, be useful to novices, it is doubtful if many novices will read   
the book. Some novices might be discouraged by the $125 price, though   
the $50 price of the paperback edition planned for publication in   
October 2005 may be slightly less imposing. However, most novices   
will probably focus most of their time on producing the research on   
which their careers depend, not on reflecting on the wisdom of their   
forebears.  
  
If I am wrong and some young economists do pick up this book, I would   
most strongly recommend that they read the essays by Bronfenbrenner   
and Simon. The Bronfenbrenner essay is well-written, and, with   
superficial cynicism, but underlying idealism, offers sage, useful   
advice to novices. One example (p. 105): "Teaching, at or below the   
undergraduate level, is a common fate, often involuntary, for   
economists at some stage of their careers. Economists should   
therefore rid themselves, if they can, of the notion that such   
teaching is below their dignity, even if their 'average students'   
belong in universities only to the limited extent that deaf-mutes   
belong in the Metropolitan Opera."  
  
The essay by the late Julian Simon is another I would recommend to   
novices. Simon was an outlier in the problems he examined, the method   
he applied, and the conclusions he reached. His ability to continue   
to be productive in spite of a low level of professional recognition,   
may provide an example of what can be accomplished, if one has   
sufficient determination, and a sufficiently thick skin.  
  
More likely to make use of the essays than novices are historians of   
economic thought interested in recent history. The essays also might   
prove useful for other purposes than those mentioned by the editors.   
For example, many of the authors focus a large part of their   
attention on their intellectual biography. Part of what they tell us   
is which of their publications were most important and what the   
central messages are of those publications. Thus, some of these   
essays offer a fairly palatable basic introduction to some of the   
literatures to which these significant economists contributed.  
  
  
Arthur M. Diamond Jr.'s publications are mainly in the areas of labor   
economics, economics of science and the history of economic thought.   
He is currently working on several projects related to Schumpeter's   
process of creative destruction. His most recent articles have   
focused on the contributions to the economics of science and   
technology of Edwin Mansfield, Zvi Griliches and George Stigler.  
  
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