Great Economists Who Shaped the World and What They Can Teach Us
June 10, 2024
Mochrie, an economics professor at Heriot-Watt University, debuts with an erudite history of economics, told through profiles of thinkers who have advanced the discipline. According to Mochrie, Aristotle believed that charging interest was immoral, and Saint Thomas Aquinas only grudgingly allowed that merchants could ethically profit from trade. Elsewhere, Mochrie impartially contrasts Adam Smith’s conception of the market as a mechanism for channeling self-interest into socially benign cooperation with Karl Marx’s ideas about how market dynamics empower capitalists to exploit workers. In addition to discussing the ideas of John Stuart Mill, John Maynard Keynes, and Friedrich Hayek, Mochrie highlights the contributions of contemporary economists, describing how Gary Becker applied economic analysis to ostensibly non-financial relationships (he argued that families exist only because membership confers monetary benefits) and how Esther Duflo’s research showed the benefits of conducting randomized controlled trials over analyzing data collected for other purposes. Mochrie has a talent for making economic ideas accessible, and the analysis covers major disputes within the discipline without picking sides. This is an ideal resource for readers whose eyes otherwise glaze over at the mere mention of supply-and-demand curves.
July 1, 2024
The National economics columnist Mochrie (economics, Heriot-Watt Univ.; coauthor, The Use and Effect of ICT on Scotland's Rural Business Community) provides a historical overview of the development of economic theory. He profiles 24 scholars and thinkers and demonstrates how economic theory has evolved, from the time of Aristotle, when musings about economics arose from philosophy and focused primarily on individual behavior and household management, to the Enlightenment period, with the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, and beyond. He brings the narrative to the present day, sketching the careers and notable achievements of prominent economists, mostly men, but he mentions several women too; many were the recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. This book notes their impact on governmental actions and covers the Great Depression, unemployment rates, inflation, poverty, policy, and more. VERDICT Mochrie shows how the study of economics developed from different traditions, including history, law, and engineering, all bringing a distinctive stamp to their respective theoretical approaches. A deeply researched, chronological, lively introduction to the history and theory of economics.--Rebecca Mugridge
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