My recommendation would be David Laidler, "Hawtrey, Harvard and the Origins of the Chicago Tradition", Journal of Political Economy, December 1993; also Laidler's _Fabricating the Keynesian Revolution_ (CUP 1999), esp. chs 8 and 9.

Roger Sandilands

________________________________
From: Societies for the History of Economics [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anna de Bruyckere [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 4:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SHOE] Rules vs discretion & time inconsistency

Dear all,

I am trying to get a better historical and philosophical understanding of the rules vs discretion debate for economic policy, with the problem of time inconsistency as a central focus/argument for rule following rather than discretionary policy.

I am currently looking for seminal contributions to that literature (Kydland & Prescott's 1977 'Rules rather than Discretion' being an obvious part of it), as well as for any historical or philosophical perspectives on it. With respect to the latter, it may be that I have not been searching very well, but I have mostly found just one piece, Argy's 1988 'A Post-War History of the Rules vs Discretion Debate' (which I read as a contribution to "Milton Friedman: Critical Assessments", 1990, eds. Wood and Woods).

I'd be much obliged in case some of you would have suggestions on how to proceed. I will make sure to compile a summary of suggestions and share that on the list with you all.

With my best wishes,
Anna


Anna de Bruyckere
Darwin College
Cambridge CB3 9EU
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