The Limitations of Marginal Utility (Essential Economics Series: Celebrated Economists)

The Limitations of Marginal Utility (Essential Economics Series: Celebrated Economists) PDF

Author: Thorstein Veblen

Publisher: Read Books Ltd

Published: 2015-02-10

Total Pages: 23

ISBN-13: 1473399114

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Originally published in 1909, this is a work by Thorstein Veblen, an American economist and sociologist. It is an article written for the Journal of Political Economy publication outlining some of his theories on economics. We are republishing this work with a brand new introductory biography of the author with the aim of placing it in the context of his other writings and achievements. The following passage is an extract from the article: 'The limitations of the marginal-utility economics are sharp and characteristic. It is from first to last a doctrine of value, and in point of form and method it is a theory of valuation. The whole system, therefore, lies within the theoretical field of distribution, and it has but a secondary bearing on any other economic phenomena than those of distribution -- the term being taken in its accepted sense of pecuniary distribution, or distribution in point of ownership.'

The Economist's View of the World

The Economist's View of the World PDF

Author: Steven E. Rhoads

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1985-05-23

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780521317641

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This book explains and assesses the ways in which micro, welfare and benefit-cost economists view the world of public policy. In general terms, microeconomic concepts and models can be seen to appear regularly in the work of political scientists, sociologists and psychologists. As a consequence, these and related concepts and models have now had sufficient time to influence strongly and to extend the range of policy options available to government departments. The central focus of this book is the 'cross-over' from economic modelling to policy implementation, which remains obscure and uncertain. The author outlines the importance of a wider knowledge of microeconomics for improving the effects and orientation of public policy. He also provides a critique of some basic economic assumptions, notably the 'consumer sovereignty principle'. Within this context the reader is in a better position to understand the 'marvellous insights and troubling blindnesses' of economists where often what is controversial politically is not so controversial among economists.

Measuring Utility

Measuring Utility PDF

Author: Ivan Moscati

Publisher: Oxford Studies in History of E

Published: 2018-11-22

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 0199372764

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Utility is a key concept in the economics of individual decision-making. However, utility is not measurable in a straightforward way. As a result, from the very beginning there has been debates about the meaning of utility as well as how to measure it. This book is an innovative investigation of how these arguments changed over time. Measuring Utility reconstructs economists' ideas and discussions about utility measurement from 1870 to 1985, as well as their attempts to measure utility empirically. The book brings into focus the interplay between the evolution of utility analysis, economists' ideas about utility measurement, and their conception of what measurement in general means. It also explores the relationships between the history of utility measurement in economics, the history of the measurement of sensations in psychology, and the history of measurement theory in general. Finally, the book discusses some methodological problems related to utility measurement, such as the epistemological status of the utility concept and its measures. The first part covers the period 1870-1910, and discusses the issue of utility measurement in the theories of Jevons, Menger, Walras and other early utility theorists. Part II deals with the emergence of the notions of ordinal and cardinal utility during the period 1900-1945, and discusses two early attempts to give an empirical content to the notion of utility. Part III focuses on the 1945-1955 debate on utility measurement that was originated by von Neumann and Morgenstern's expected utility theory (EUT). Part IV reconstructs the experimental attempts to measure the utility of money between 1950 and 1985 within the framework provided by EUT. This historical and epistemological overview provides keen insights into current debates about rational choice theory and behavioral economics in the theory of individual decision-making and the philosophy of economics.

The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity

The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity PDF

Author: National Bureau of Economic Research

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2015-12-08

Total Pages: 647

ISBN-13: 1400879760

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The papers here range from description and analysis of how our political economy allocates its inventive effort, to studies of the decision making process in specific industrial laboratories. Originally published in 1962. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Struggle over the Soul of Economics

The Struggle over the Soul of Economics PDF

Author: Yuval P. Yonay

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 1998-05-11

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1400822521

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This book provides a surprising answer to two puzzling questions that relate to the very "soul" of the professional study of economics in the late twentieth century. How did the discipline of economics come to be dominated by an approach that is heavily dependent on mathematically derived models? And what happened to other approaches to the discipline that were considered to be scientifically viable less than fifty years ago? Between the two world wars there were two well-accepted schools of thought in economics: the "neoclassical," which emerged in the last third of the nineteenth century, and the "institutionalist," which started with the works of Veblen and Commons at the end of the same century. Although the contributions of the institutionalists are nearly forgotten now, Yuval Yonay shows that their legacy lingers in the study and practice of economics today. By reconsidering their impact and by analyzing the conflicts that arose between neoclassicists and institutionalists, Yonay brings to life a hidden chapter in the history of economics. The author is a sociologist of science who brings a unique perspective to economic history. By utilizing the actor-network approach of Bruno Latour and Michel Callon, he arrives at a deeper understanding of the nature of the changes that took place in the practice of economics. His analysis also illuminates a broader set of issues concerning the nature of scientific practice and the forces behind changes in scientific knowledge.

Modern Economic Thought

Modern Economic Thought PDF

Author: Sidney Weintraub

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2016-11-11

Total Pages: 600

ISBN-13: 1512808652

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This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

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