The Age of Fragmentation A History of Contemporary Economic Thought

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.

Alessandro Roncaglia is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Sapienza University of Rome, member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (since 2018 in its Presidency Council) and former President of the Italian Economists Society. His book The Wealth of Ideas (Cambridge, 2005) received the Blanqui Prize of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought. He also won the Guggenheim Prize in the History of Economic Thought for 2019.