Business Cycle Theory, Part II:
Selected Texts 1860–1939
Editor: Mauro Boianovsky
978 1 85196 726 1: 234x156mm: £450.00/$795.00
In the mid-nineteenth century the business cycle was increasingly recognised as a recurrent phenomenon. The problem attracted many outstanding economists throughout the Western world until the Second World War. This edition contains key texts from the range of literature in the field. It covers a long list of Anglo-Saxon writers as well as the most important contributions from the French, German, Italian, Russian and Swedish debates. Several of the texts are published for the first time in an English translation.
While the oldest business cycle theories presented in this edition did not achieve the degree of analytical rigour associated with modern economists, the richness of their observations, their demonstration of the complex interaction between real and monetary, as well as structural change factors in economic systems, and the close association between the historical and analytical methods typical of their analyses provides a fertile source of inspiration for business cycle analysts.
- Features specially commissioned new translations
- Includes a general introduction, headnotes and an index
Contents
Volume 5: Economic Growth, Technical Change and Business Cycles
J A Schumpeter, ‘Über das Wesen der Wirtschaftskrisen’, Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung, 19 (1910), pp. 271–325. First-time English translation, ‘On the Nature of Economic Crises’; D H Robertson, A Study of Industrial Fluctuation, part II (1915), pp. 121–205; G Cassel, Theory of Social Economy ([1918]1932), pp. 32–41; 51–63; 533–41; 622–6; 639–52; A Hansen, Business-Cycle Theory: Its Development and Present Status (1927), pp. 59–119; J A Schumpeter, ‘The Explanation of the Business Cycle’, Economica, 7 (1927), pp. 286–311; J A Schumpeter, ‘The Instability of Capitalism’, Economic Journal, 38 (1928), pp. 361–86; J A Schumpeter, ‘The Analysis of Economic Change’, Review of Economic Statistics, 17 (1935), pp. 1–10; E Lundberg, Studies in the Theory of Economic Expansion (1937), pp. 181–242; R F Harrod, ‘An Essay in Dynamic Theory’, Economic Journal, 49 (1939), pp. 14–33
Volume 6: The Accelerator, Overaccumulation and Underconsumption
T N Carver, ‘A Suggestion for a Theory of Industrial Depressions’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 17 (1903), pp. 497–500; G Cassel, ‘ Om kriser och daliga tider’, Ekonomisk Tidskrift, 4 (1904), pp. 21–35; 51–81) First-time English translation, ‘Of Crisis and Bad Times’; A Aftalion, ‘La réalite des surproductions générales: Essai d'une théorie des crises génerales et periodiques’, Revue d’Économie Politique, 20 (1906), pp. 696–706; 23 (1909), pp. 81–117, 201–29, 241–59. First-time English translation, ‘The Reality of General Overproduction: Essay on a Theory of General and Periodic Crises’; J A Hobson, The Industrial System (1910), pp. 39–55; 284–311; Otto Bauer, ‘Otto Bauer’s “Accumulation of Capital”’, History of Political Economy, 18 ([1913] 1986), pp. 87–110; J M Clark, ‘Business Acceleration and the Law of Demand: A Technical Factor in Economic Cycles’, Journal of Political Economy, 25 (1917), pp. 217–35; W T Foster and W Catchings, Business without a Buyer (1927), pp. 38–56; M Bouniatian, ‘The Theory of Economic Cycles Based on the Tendency toward Excessive Capitalization’, Review of Economic Statistics, 10 (1928), pp. 67–79; R Frisch, ‘The Interrelation between Capital Production and Consumer-Taking’, Journal of Political Economy, 39 (1931), pp. 646–54; R F Harrod, The Trade Cycle: An Essay (1936), pp. 88–101; G Haberler, Prosperity and Depression: A Theoretical Analysis of Cyclical Movements (1937), pp. 244–74; P A Samuelson, ‘Interactions between the Multiplier Analysis and the Principle of Acceleration’, Review of Economic Statistics, 21 (1939)., pp. 75–8; P A Samuelson, ‘A Synthesis of the Principle of Acceleration and the Multiplier’, Journal of Political Economy, 47 (1939), pp. 786–97
Volume 7: Saving, Investment and Expectations
W Bagehot, ‘ Why Lombard Street is Often Very Dull and Sometimes Extremely Excited’ in Lombard Street ([1873] 1931), pp. 118–52; F B Hawley, Enterprise and the Productive Process (1907), pp. 206–67; N Johannsen, A Neglected Point in Connection with Crises (1908), pp. 34–54; 77–88; F Lavington, The Trade Cycle (1922), pp. 18–37; 80–92; A C Pigou, Industrial Fluctuations (1929), pp. 26–34; 72–98; R F Kahn, ‘The Relation of Home Investment to Unemployment’, Economic Journal, 41 (1931), pp. 173–98; A Hansen and H Tout, ‘Annual Survey of Business Cycle Theory: Investment and Saving in Business Cycle Theory’, Econometrica, 1 (1933), pp. 119–47; F A Hayek, ‘Capital and Industrial Fluctuations – A Reply to a Criticism’, Econometrica, 2 (1934), pp. 152–67; D H Robertson, ‘Industrial Fluctuation and the Natural Rate of Interest’, Economic Journal, 44 (1934), pp. 650–6; G Haberler, ‘Some Reflections on the Present State of Business Cycle Theory’, Review of Economic Statistics, 18 (1936), pp. 299–305; D G Champernowne, ‘Unemployment, Basic and Monetary: the Classical and the Keynesian’, Review of Economic Studies, 3 (1936), pp. 201–16; B Ohlin, ‘Some Notes on the Stockholm Theory of Savings and Investment’, Economic Journal, 47 (1937), pp. 53–69 and 221–40; R F Kahn, ‘The League of Nations Inquiry into the Trade Cycle’, Economic Journal, 47 (1937), pp. 670–9; G Haberler, Prosperity and Depression: A Theoretical Analysis of Cyclical Movements, 2nd edition (1939), pp. 168–95; 233–54
Volume 8: Quantitative Business Cycle Analysis
V Pareto, ‘Les Crises Économiques’ in Cours D’Économie Politique, vol. 2 (1897), pp. 277–97. First-time English translation, ‘Economic Crises’; H L Moore, Economic Cycles: Their Law and Causes (1914), pp. 94–127; C Bullock, W Persons and W Crum , ‘The Construction and Interpretation of the Harvard Index of Business Conditions’, Review of Economic Statistics, 9 (1927), pp. 74–92; J Tinbergen, ‘Konjunkturforschung und Varationsrechnung’, Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, 61 (1929), pp. 533–41. First-time English translation, ‘Business Cycle Research and the Calculus of Variation’; J Tinbergen, ‘Determination and Interpretation of Supply Curves: An Example’ in The Foundations of Econometric Analysis ([1930] 1995); J Tinbergen, ‘A Shipbuilding Cycle?’ in Jan Tinbergen – Selected Papers ([1931] 1959); R Frisch, ‘A Method of Decomposing an Empirical Series into Its Cyclical and Progressive Components’, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 26 (1931), pp. 73–8; R Frisch, ‘Review of J. Akerman´s Om det Ekonomiska Livets Rytmik’, Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift, 34 (1931), pp. 281–300. First-time English translation from the Norwegian; L Amoroso, ‘Contributo alla Teoria Matematica della Dinamica Economica’ in G. Demaria (ed.), Nuova Collana di Economisti (1932), pp. 421–40. First-time English translation, ‘A Contribution to the Mathematical Theory of Economic Dynamcs’; J Tinbergen, ‘The Notion of Horizon and Expectancy in Dynamic Economic Theory’, Econometrica, 3 (1933), pp. 247–52; M Kalecki, ‘Essay on the Business Cycle Theory’ in J Osiatynski (ed), Collected Works of Michal Kalecki, vol. 1 ([1933] 1990), pp. 65–81 and 93–108; W C Mitchell, ‘Business Cycles’, in E. Seligman (ed), Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, vol. 3 (1934), pp. 92–107; M Kalecki, ‘A Macrodynamic Theory of Business Cycles’, Econometrica, 3 (1935), pp. 327–44; J Tinbergen, ‘Annual Survey: Suggestions on Quantitative Business Cycle Theory’, Econometrica, 3 (1935), pp. 241–308; J Tinbergen, ‘An Economic Policy for 1936’ in Jan Tinbergen – Selected Papers ([1936] 1959), pp. 37–84; M Kalecki, ‘A Theory of the Business Cycle’, Review of Economic Studies, 4 (1936–7), pp. 77–97; N Kaldor, ‘A Model of the Trade Cycle’, Economic Journal, 50 (1940), pp. 78–92
Reviews
'the great virtues of a collection like this, and an important reason why it should be in libraries, is that it provides curious graduate students and junior faculty members in departments where the history of economic thought is not taught (ie., most of them these days) with access to a well organised set of readings on a topic of great importance.'
– David Laidler, History of Political Economy