The evolution of economic thought can be traced back from its beginnings in classical antiquity up to the present day. In this book, Professor Alessandro Roncaglia offers a clear, concise and updated version of his award-winning The Wealth of Ideas, studying the development of economic thought...

The field of economics has proliferated in complexity and importance since the Second World War. Alessandro Roncaglia recounts the history of the different approaches (marginalist, neoclassical, Keynesian, Austrian, monetarism, rational expectations, institutionalist, evolutionary,...

This chapter focuses on the rise and fall of the twin ideas-myths of money as a veil and the invisible hand of the market. First, Middle Ages metallistic theory is considered. It is stressed that not all classical economists shared (Adam Smith’s and David Ricardo’s) “received view,”...