Economic Thought

In this concise yet comprehensive history, Heinz D. Kurz traces the long arc of economic thought from its emergence in ancient Greece to its systematic presentation among the classical thinkers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to the influential work of scholars such as Paul Samuelson and Kenneth J. Arrow. With a keen eye for how economic insights are acquired, lost, and reborn, Kurz focuses on the dynamic individuals who give old ideas new life and the historical events that provoke different approaches and theories.
Over the course of this journey, Kurz explains what Adam Smith meant by the "invisible hand"; how Karl Marx's "law of motion" works in capitalist economies; the roots of the Austrian economists' emphasis on the problems of information, incomplete knowledge, and uncertainty; John Maynard Keynes's principle of effective demand and economic stabilization; and the insights and challenges offered by growth theory, welfare economics, game...
In this concise and strategic history, Heinz D. Kurz selects major moments in the development of economic ideas to portray the growth of the field and how economic insights are acquired, lost, and reborn. His timeline focuses on the dynamic individuals who give old ideas new life and the historical events that provoke the combination and recombination of different approaches and theories. Kurz takes the reader from ancient Greece to classical economics to the visionary work of Kenneth J. Arrow and Amartya Sen. Among many other topics, he explains what Adam Smith meant by an “invisible hand”; how Karl Marx’s “law of motion” works in capitalist economies; the roots of Austrian economists’ emphasis on the problems of information, incomplete knowledge, and uncertainty; and John Maynard Keynes’s principle of effective demand and economic stabilization. A final chapter sums up the major concerns of economists today and their relation to world events.
Heinz D. Kurz is professor of economics at the University of Graz in Austria and founder and head of the Graz Schumpeter Centre. He has also taught at Cambridge University and the New School for Social Research. His books in English include Understanding “Classical” Economics: Studies in Long Period Theory and Theory of Production: A Long-Period Analysis.