Given the renewed interest in negative interest rates as method for removing the floor to nominal interest rates, this article offers a concise review of Gesell's life, work and its place in the history of economic thought. It provides a brief biographical sketch of Gesell, demonstrating both...

This paper concerns a neglected aspect of Lucas's work: his methodological writings, published and unpublished. Particular attention is paid to his views on the relationship between theory and ideology. I start by setting out Lucas's non-standard conception of theory: to him, a theory and a...

Although much of the debate between Hayek and Keynes is today portrayed in terms of policy differences, those are not the most fundamental divisions between their conceptions of economics. I argue that their economics diverges most significantly in how they understand the role of capital in a...

This paper concerns a neglected aspect of Lucas's work: his methodological writings, published and unpublished. Particular attention is paid to his views on the relationship between theory and ideology. I start by setting out Lucas's non-standard conception of theory: to him, a theory and a...

This article restates the essential link existing between Malthus' theory of prices and distribution, and his theory of effective demand. The first part of the article deals with his theory of prices and distribution, and shows that, although his contribution to this field has been largely...

The title of this paper – “Why Economists Disagree” – takes its name from Fritz Machlup's speech before the American Philosophical Society on November 12, 1964, five months after the fourth Bellagio Group conference of thirty-two non-governmental economists, convened by Machlup to...

This paper explores the links between the re-opening of the Italian and other European economies, their balance of payments, and the choice of a strategy for economic reconstruction at the end of World War II, through an analysis of the work and activities of the Italian economist Bresciani...

I examine two competing proposals for reforming and reviving confidence in the international monetary regime. Robert Triffin introduced and championed the proposal for centralized reserves. Fritz Machlup championed the proposal for flexible rates originally introduced by Milton Friedman. Triffin...