This book aims to start a debate on the relationship between economic theory - and more precisely business cycle theory - and economic policy, emphasising the diversity of views on economic policy which characterised older periods, in contrast to the homogeneity of the analysis and diagnosis provided by current business cycles developments. Since the 1970s, economic theorists excluding any economic policy interventions and favouring strictly supply-side economic policies have gained a growing influence. The development of Equilibrium Business Cycles theories coincides with the collapse, at least in academic circles, of the Keynesian consensus favouring stabilization policies. The alternative approach which emerged was based on an a priori hypothesis about the stability of the economy - or at least on its remarkable ability to stabilize itself. The direct consequence of this approach is that any stabilization objective for economic policy is not only misguided but also inefficient. There are many reasons why Keynesian policies ceased to be dominant in theoretical circles, but the most helpful circumstances for the rapid propagation of a new revolutionary theory is certainly the existence of an established orthodoxy, clearly inconsistent with the most salient facts of reality. This book offers a sample of different theoretical approaches to business cycles, examining their respective views on economic policy with the objective of understanding business cycles that have been lost, and identifying those views which explain fluctuations and the way we conceive economic policy. This book was originally published as a special issue of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought.

2010 marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of Leon Walras, the brilliant originator and first formaliser of general equilibrium theory - one of the pillars of modern economic theory. In advancing much derided practical solutions Walras also displayed more concern for the problems of living in a second best world than is common in modern pure theories of the invisible hand, efficient market hypothesis, DSGE macroeconomics or the thinking of some contemporary free market admirers all based on general equilibrium theory. This book brings contributions from the likes of Kenneth Arrow, Alan Kirman, Richard Posner, Amartya Sen and Robert Solow to share their thoughts and reflections on the theoretical heritage of Leon Walras. Some authors reminisce on the part they played in the development of modern general economics theory; others reflect on the crucial part played by general equilibrium in the development of macroeconomics, microeconomics, growth theory, welfare economics and the theory of justice; others still complain about the wrong path economic theory took under the influence of post 1945 developments in general equilibrium theory.

2010 marks the hundredth anniversary of the death of L on Walras, the brilliant originator and first formaliser of general equilibrium theory -- one of the pillars of modern economic theory. In advancing much derided practical solutions Walras also displayed more concern for the problems of living in a second best world than is common in modern pure theories of the invisible hand, efficient market hypothesis, DSGE macroeconomics or the thinking of some contemporary free market admirers all based on general equilibrium theory. This book brings contributions from the likes of Kenneth Arrow, Alan Kirman, Richard Posner, Amartya Sen and Robert Solow to share their thoughts and reflections on the theoretical heritage of L on Walras. Some authors reminisce on the part they played in the development of modern general economics theory; others reflect on the crucial part played by general equilibrium in the development of macroeconomics, microeconomics, growth theory, welfare economics and the theory of justice; others still complain about the wrong path economic theory took under the influence of post 1945 developments in general equilibrium theory.

Price theory has always been and still is at the heart of economic theory. Concentrating on the primary literature, this set brings together texts of the many and often conflicting intelectual endeavours to solve this difficult economic issue.

This important book offers a detailed and analytical reconstruction of the pioneering attempts of Walras and Pareto to coordinate money and general equilibrium theory. It argues that the very logic of the original static general equilibrium model excludes the integration of monetary and value theory. The book presents for the first time the entire Lausanne tradition from Walras to Pareto. Its detailed coverage of the main literature between 1870 and 1923 contributes to the understanding of a central issue in modern general equilibrium theory, that is, the impossibility of coordinating money and price theory with the logic of Walras's model based on the theory of exchange. It shows how money is prevented from playing its essential role as a social institution in allowing monetary exchanges between individuals. In particular, the discussion focuses on the static nature of Walras's pure economics and the simultaneous lack of a proper means of exchange. In conclusion it calls for some radical re-thinking on this theoretical construction on which much modern economic theory is based. Money and General Equilibrium Theory will be welcomed by historians of economic thought, microeconomists and general equilibrium and money theorists.

Price theory has always been and still is at the heart of economic theory. Concentrating on the primary literature, this set brings together texts of the many and often conflicting intelectual endeavours to solve this difficult economic issue.

Price theory has always been and still is at the heart of economic theory. Concentrating on the primary literature, this set brings together texts of the many and often conflicting intelectual endeavours to solve this difficult economic issue.

Price theory has always been and still is at the heart of economic theory. Concentrating on the primary literature, this set brings together texts of the many and often conflicting intelectual endeavours to solve this difficult economic issue.

Price theory has always been and still is at the heart of economic theory. Concentrating on the primary literature, this set brings together texts of the many and often conflicting intelectual endeavours to solve this difficult economic issue.

Price theory has always been and still is at the heart of economic theory. For the past two and a half centuries, economic theorists have been trying in many different ways to understand and explain the determination of relative prices between goods and services. Usually at a very high degree of sophistication, the profession's brightest minds have been slowly building up this crucial stepping-stone of the entire field of economics analysis.

Price theory has always been and still is at the heart of economic theory. Concentrating on the primary literature, this set brings together texts of the many and often conflicting intelectual endeavours to solve this difficult economic issue.

The primary aim of the book is to provide a critical evaluation of the origin and development of the Cambridge saving-investment analysis. This work disentangles painstakingly from a maze of sometimes contradictory, obscure and often neglected contributions, the line which leads from Marshall's interest theory to Keynes's income adjustment process. In particular, it charts, for the first time, the various steps taken by this line of inquiry in the writings of Pigou, Hawtrey, Robertson, Lavington and Keynes.

This book aims to start a debate on the relationship between economic theory - and more precisely business cycle theory - and economic policy, emphasising the diversity of views on economic policy which characterised older periods, in contrast to the homogeneity of the analysis and diagnosis provided by current business cycles developments. Since the 1970s, economic theorists excluding any economic policy interventions and favouring strictly supply-side economic policies have gained a growing influence. The development of Equilibrium Business Cycles theories coincides with the collapse, at least in academic circles, of the Keynesian consensus favouring stabilization policies. The alternative approach which emerged was based on an a priori hypothesis about the stability of the economy - or at least on its remarkable ability to stabilize itself. The direct consequence of this approach is that any stabilization objective for economic policy is not only misguided but also inefficient. There are many reasons why Keynesian policies ceased to be dominant in theoretical circles, but the most helpful circumstances for the rapid propagation of a new revolutionary theory is certainly the existence of an established orthodoxy, clearly inconsistent with the most salient facts of reality. This book offers a sample of different theoretical approaches to business cycles, examining their respective views on economic policy with the objective of understanding business cycles that have been lost, and identifying those views which explain fluctuations and the way we conceive economic policy. This book was originally published as a special issue of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought.