In the context of the special issue on Joseph Steindl, we offer here a republication of Steindl's contribution to the series “Recollections of Eminent Economics”, originally published in vol. 37 n. 148 of “Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review”. With the series of Recollections the...

The purpose of this chapter is to link Ronald Coase's methodological approach to what he ‘learned' when he was at the London School of Economics (LSE) from Edwin Cannan and Arnold Plant. The main lesson Coase taught us and insisted upon was that economics should not be too ‘abstract' and...

This paper is an exploration of the genesis of Paul Samuelson's Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947) from the perspective of his commitment to Edwin B. Wilson's mathematics. The paper sheds new lights on Samuelson's Foundations at two levels. First, Wilson's foundational ideas, embodied in...

Apart from followers as Milton Friedman, Paul Samuelson, Ronald Coase, and Maurice Allais, most economists abandoned Irving Fisher’s economic framework after the post-1929 Great Crisis. Without citing Fisher however, in 1958 Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller reutilised his framework to found...

James Buchanan, one of the founders of public choice theory and constitutional economics, began his career studying fiscal federalism in the doctoral program at the University of Chicago. This paper explores Buchanan’s early interest in Australian experiences with federation and...

'What are the economic lessons from Mahanthma Gandhi’s independence leadership in India' was a question directed to me in the 'All Expert’s' Economic Forum. This question was unique and leads to the integration of a social achievement in the foreground, with its economic implications in the...

I investigate the conjecture (proposed by his namesake Vernon L. Smith) that Adam Smith was afflicted by Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism. I summarize the evidence confirming this conjecture. Concluding that on balance there is considerable evidence supporting Smith’s...

As a student at the London School of Economics (LSE), Ronald Coase posed a seemingly naïve question that would, in time, fundamentally change the face of economics and earn him the Nobel Prize: ‘Why do firms exist?' The import of this simple question derived not only from the response Coase...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of economic informality and its application in the rural context of developing and transitional economies, applying Keith Hart's (1987) notion of informality as a 'remedial concept'. Some remedy is needed to make sense of the many 'palpable...

This paper is a survey of the thirteen journal articles and notes that Paul Samuelson published prior to the defense of doctoral dissertation in 1941. These publications cover a wide range of topics - the theory of consumer behavior and measurement of utility, international trade, capital...