Although involved in projects of influent institutions like the Cowles Commission, the NBER, and the Michigan Survey Research Center (SRC), George Katona, the “pioneer student and chief collector of consumer anticipations data” (Tobin, 1959, p. 1) is virtually absent from accounts of the...

Economists have been unable to comprehend the logical framework of Keynes’ A Treatise on Probability (1921) and General Theory (1936). This is due to their failure to read both works in their entirety. Instead, they concentrate on the first three chapters of Part I of the General Theory or the...

Trygve Haavelmo's methodological manifesto "The Probability Approach in Econometrics" not only laid down the paradigm for the research pursued at the Cowles Commission, but also sets out a strategy for measurement outside the laboratory. His conceptualization of "passive observation" is still...

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, a large number of price index number formulae have been developed, mostly named after their inventors, such as the Paasche and Layspeyres indexes. Parallel with the invention of new index formulae, criteria were developed for distinguishing between...

At present, the national accounts statistics are compiled on the basis of concepts and classifications in international guidelines. In this paper, we trace the roots of these guidelines, compare the subsequent guidelines and discuss also alternative accounting systems like extended accounts and SAM

The aim of this paper is to consider how the Chicago school of economics influenced the economic thought of Friedrich Hayek in his period of the University of Chicago, where he was a follower of the Committee of Social Thought from 1950 to 1962. This period is well known as “Hayek’s...

The current dominant belief among economists that Smith made no original contributions to economic theory outside of presenting an original system of thought that was composed of the original analysis of other thinkers is incorrect.Smith made four unique contributions which have been overlooked....