Early neoclassical economists presumed an element of irrationality in the context of intertemporal decision making. W.S. Jevons, Irving Fisher, Alfred Marshall, and A.C. Pigou observed a preference for present over future consumption, and each took this as evidence that consumer "foresight" or...

This paper offers an explanation for why the use of statistical procedures was resisted in economics until late in the nineteenth century. Mill's insistence that the economist, in application, turn attention to 'disturbing causes' and treat each observed outcome as a case study implied that...

This paper utilizes the Social Science Citation Index and G. J. Stigler and C. L. Friedland's 1985 Calendar of Great Economists to test several implications of an efficient market model of scientific research. Among the questions investigated are how fast an economist's work decays over time in...