Surveys of Economic Theory

Volume I Money, Interest, and Welfare

verfasst von: The American Economic Association, The Royal Economic Society

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Enthalten in: Professional Book Archive

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

I. Monetary Theory and Policy

Abstract

In order to isolate a field of study clearly enough demarcated to be usefully surveyed, it is necessary to define monetary theory as comprising theories concerning the influence of the quantity of money in the economic system, and monetary policy as policy employing the central bank’s control of the supply of money as an instrument for achieving the objectives of general economic policy. In surveying the field thus narrowly defined fourteen years ago, Henry Villard [123] began by remarking on the relative decline in the significance attached to it as compared with the offshoot fields of business cycle and fiscal (income and employment) theory, a decline related to the experience of the 1930’s, the intellectual impact of Keynes’s General Theory [66], and the inhibiting effects of the wartime expansion of public debt on monetary policy. While this division of labor has continued, and has indeed been accentuated by the emergence of the cross-cutting field of economic growth and development as an area of specialization, the field of money has been increasingly active and has received increasing attention in the past fourteen years.

Harry G. Johnson

II. A Survey of Inflation Theory

Abstract

Since 1945 the geographical extent and temporal stubbornness of The Great Inflation ² have shaken many economists’ faith in the orthodoxies of preceding generations. Neo-orthodoxies, including restatements, are only dimly in evidence. Our survey is accordingly more of a guide through chaos than a history of received doctrine or a systematic critique of a few rival positions.

Martin Bronfenbrenner, Franklyn D. Holzman

III. Recent Theories Concerning the Nature and Role of Interest

Abstract

The place of interest rates in the economic process has since 1945 been mainly discussed, within the literature in English, along three lines: first, criticism and defence of Keynes’s position; secondly, advocacy of a stock or of a flow analysis, or of the need to combine them; thirdly, examination of the claim of interest to be a suitable and effective regulator of the pace of growth of the nation’s wealth. The following survey tries to explain and criticise this debate and to interject some suggestions into it, without aiming at more than an illustrative coverage of the literature. It is earnestly hoped that the absence of a name from this article will not be taken to imply any judgment on the value and importance of any person’s work.

G. L. S. Shackle

IV. A Survey of Welfare Economics, 1939–59

Abstract

While it continues to fascinate many, welfare economics does not appear at any time to have wholly engaged the labours of any one economist. It is a subject which, apparently, one dabbles in for a while, leaves and, perhaps, returns to later in response to a troubled conscience—which goes some way to explain why, more than other branches of economics, it suffers from an unevenness in its development, a lack of homogeneity in its treatment and, until very recently, a distressing disconnectedness between its parts.²

E. J. Mishan

Titel: Surveys of Economic Theory
verfasst von: The American Economic Association
The Royal Economic Society
Copyright-Jahr: 1965
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-349-00278-8
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-00280-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-00278-8

Springer Professional

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

I. Monetary Theory and Policy

II. A Survey of Inflation Theory

III. Recent Theories Concerning the Nature and Role of Interest

IV. A Survey of Welfare Economics, 1939–59