The Age of Fragmentation
A History of Contemporary Economic Thought

A wide-ranging historical account and critical analysis of the global development of economics from 1940 to the present day.

Alessandro Roncaglia (Author)

9781108745819, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 December 2019

192 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 2.5 cm, 0.66 kg

'Alessandro Roncaglia has crafted a tour de force. The Age of Fragmentation is a most worthwhile book, one that should be read by all economists no matter what their theoretical orientation is. Roncaglia demonstrates a vast storehouse of knowledge, acute analytical abilities, and sensible critical faculties.' John F. Henry, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

The field of economics has proliferated in complexity and importance since the Second World War. Alessandro Roncaglia recounts the history of the different approaches (marginalist, neoclassical, Keynesian, Austrian, monetarism, rational expectations, institutionalist, evolutionary, classical-Sraffian) and the different fields (micro, macro, money and finance, industrial and game theory, institutions, public finance, econometrics), illustrating the thought and personality of the most important contemporary economists (from Hayek to Sraffa, from Modigliani and Samuelson to Friedman, from Simon to Sen, and many others), focusing on the conceptual foundations of the different streams. At the same time he appraises critically the important debates and controversies in the field and concludes by discussing possible future directions for economic thought. This follow-up to The Wealth of Ideas: A History of Contemporary Economic Thought is a readable introduction to the contemporary economics discourse, accessible to economics students and informed general readers, and an important complement for advanced students and economists active in specialized fields.

1. Introduction. A non-linear discourse
Part I. The Background: 2. The foundations: classicals and marginalists
3. The immediate precursors
Part II. The Giants of the Short Century: 4. The founder of neo-liberalism: Friedrick von Hayek
5. The revolutionary: Piero Sraffa
Part III. The Fragmentation of the Mainstream: 6. The new microeconomics: general equilibrium and expected utilities, theory of industrial organization
7. The macroeconomics of the neoclassical synthesis
8. The myth of the invisible hand: neo-liberal streams
9. Applied economics and econometrics
Part IV. The Weakening of the Paradigm: 10. Behavioural economics and bounded rationality
11. From efficient financial markets to the theory of crises
Part V. Is a New Paradigm Possible?: 12. Post-Keynesian macroeconomics
13. Marxism, evolutionism, institutionalism
14. Ethics and the problem of power.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Economic theory & philosophy [KCA], Economics [KC]