Prosopography, or less accurately collective biography, is a method of analyzing of what a group of people from a specific historical context have or have not in common. Although it is a well-established method, it is novel to the history of economics. In this chapter I outline how to apply...

Be it on topics of property, contract, commerce, trade, tax, legal history, or other matters, jurisprudence in the United States often invokes economic thinking in providing a rationale for legal outcomes. Consequently, I wondered how often the appeal to economic thinking in the courts included...

In der Ökonomik tritt der zirkuläre unechte Fortschritt auf, der sich z.B. vom kumulativen, besonders für die Naturwissenschaften charakteristischen Fortschritt abgrenzt. Die Ideen- bzw. Dogmengeschichte kann somit eine wertvolle Erkenntnisquelle sein. In diesem Papier wird das Konzept der...

In der Ökonomik tritt der zirkuläre “unechte” Fortschritt auf, der sich z.B. vom kumulativen, besonders für die Naturwissenschaften charakteristischen Fortschritt abgrenzt. Die Ideen- bzw. Dogmengeschichte kann somit eine wertvolle Erkenntnisquelle sein. In diesem Papier wird das Konzept...

This book profiles the lives and ideas of some of the leading thinkers on individual liberty - from ancient times to the present day - and sheds light on the key elements of liberal thought and those who shaped it across the centuries. The book identifies their common goals, but also highlights...

Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill and Alfred Marshall shared a concern over excessive inequality of wealth and income, along with an attachment to individual choice, free markets and a minimal economic role of government. In this paper, I address the question of the size distribution of income, or...

This paper examines Alfred Marshall's theory of organization and business management, and explores the significance of his wisdom and foresight. Despite considerable research on Alfred Marshall’s economic theory, little attention, among economists in particular, has been given to his theory of...

In a developing country such as Jamaica, the success of policy decisions their successes and failures in a world driven by financial globalization and the New Open Economy Macro-Model (NOEM) continues to be predetermined by the constantly evolving paradigm of the dialectics of the post modernist...

Adam Smith was the first economist, philosopher or mathematician in history to give a clear and specific definition of what the term “uncertainty” meant and to apply it consistently in his analysis of decision making in the Wealth of Nations. The term uncertainty for Smith, as it was for...

For most economists at Chicago, Marshall was simply an input, the supplier of an approach to economic analysis. For Ronald Coase, however, Marshall was much more than this — a subject of fascination and, at times, almost a reverence and obsession. Trained in the late 1920s and early 1930s at...