This paper uses as source material twenty-three autobiographical essays by Nobel economists presented since 1984 at Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas) and published in Lives of the Laureates (MIT Press). A goal of the lecture series is to enhance understanding of the link between biography...

This review assesses the evolution of economic geography over the past two decades, picking up where Scott's (2000) intellectual history of the field's “great-half century” ends. It is part retrospective and prospective; as such, it aims beyond a historical review to outline some ideas about...

Public choice economics, like most economics, typically assigns only a small role to various forms of talk between individuals. By contrast, throughout Richard Wagner's oeuvre, there is an undercurrent of talk about talk. This essay argues that talk matters because of two key assumptions in...

The ‘societal crisis of the present' (Gesellschaftskrisis der Gegenwart) is defined by the German neoliberals Eucken, Röpke and Rüstow as a state of ‘massification' (Vermassung), proletarianization and disintegration – accompanied by a far-reaching moral decadence, an ethical nihilism...

This draft chapter for the Elgar International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics is intended to give advice to instructors who might be teaching a history of economic thought course to undergraduates for the first time or who have perhaps been teaching for a while but would like to...

Over the past two decades there has been a revival of Georg Friedrich Knapp's "state money" approach, also known as chartalism. The modern version has come to be called Modern Money Theory. Much of the recent research has delved into three main areas: mining previous work, applying the theory to...

Great achievements in knowledge are produced by older innovators today than they were a century ago. Using data on Nobel Prize winners and great inventors, I find that the age at which noted innovations are produced has increased by approximately 6 years over the 20th Century. This trend is...

For the first time since the 1930s, deflation in both goods and asset prices poses as much, or more, of a threat than does inflation. In this paper we explore public and policy maker perceptions and reactions to deflation covering the period from the late 19th century until the present. We also...

This paper identifies and analyses some key challenges that OECD and partner economies may face over the coming 50 years if underlying global trends relating to growth, trade, inequality and environmental pressures prevail. For example, global growth is likely to slow and become increasingly...

Economic growth is the basis of increased prosperity. This makes the attainment of growth a key objective for governments across the world. The rate of growth can be affected by policy choices through the effect that taxation has upon economic decisions and through productive public...