Marina,

Amadae's 2003 book Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy... contains nice historical elements on social choice theory.

Also, some papers by Philippe Mongin on the one hand or Antoinette Baujard on the other hand, are really clear and helpful to situate historically and analytically social choice theory within normative economics. If you go on Baujard's webpage, there is a working paper version of a forthcoming chapter called "welfare economics", which (is very good and) contains most of the references I have in mind.

Also, if you happen to read french maybe you could ask Irène Berthonnet her freshly defended phD dissertation. It's on the history of (pareto) efficiency in neoclassical economics, and though I haven't read it, from discussions with her I know that there is a historical discussion of contract theory there (and of social choice theory as well).

Dorian.

(PS: Irène, if you're on this list, please don't kill me for having promoted your work...)

2014-12-28 13:01 GMT+01:00 Марина Узунова <[log in to unmask]>:

Dear Bruce,

Thank you! Koszegi's review is indeed excellent in summing up the recent behavioral literature although what I consulted when I read it was a working paper, will have a look at the published version, thank you. The references too are largely to the recent behavioral literature - but going to them, of course, one can always find a few cited classical contributions.

In any case, if someone else is interested, this seems to be the most comprehensive review of the classical literature as it stood after the ascent in the 70s, 80s and 90s and the problems that preoccupied it then (or the most comprehensive I have found):

Tirole, J. (1999). Incomplete contracts: Where do we stand?. Econometrica, 67(4), 741-781.

A complete historical monograph doesn't seem to exist. Nevertheless, the beginning of each chapter of Jean-Jacques Laffont's Incentives and Political Economy (2000, Oxford: Oxford University Press) gives a very clear overview with references to key contributions on the application of principal-agent models specifically to political economy.

Thank you again, further suggestions are naturally always welcome, best wishes,
Marina

-------- Оригинално писмо --------
От: Bruce Larson
Относно: Re: [SHOE] History of Social Choice Theory and Contract Theory
До: [log in to unmask]
Изпратено на: Петък, 2014, Декември 26 23:50:21 EET

Marina,

Today I received the most recent Journal of Economic Literature in my physical mailbox. Contained therein is the following article:

Botond Koszegi, "Behavioral Contract Theory," JEL vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 1075-1118

It has extensive references--pp. 1114-18--and, although I have reviewed them, they seems like a promising place go look for the history of contract theory.

Best wishes,

Bruce Larson
University of North Carolina at Asheville

On Sun, Dec 21, 2014 at 10:31 AM, Марина Узунова <[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Dear all,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend an exhaustive book-length study on the history of Social Choice Theory or Contract Theory. I am aware of the numerous review and single-issue articles as well as the special issue of Social Choice and Welfare (2005, 25 (2-3)) on the former but have so far failed to find a larger historical monograph devoted entirely to either of the two topics. Any suggestions or guides would be most welcome!

Thank you in advance,
Marina Uzunova