Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

United States, Economics in (1945 to Present)

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

  • 33 Accesses

Abstract

After 1945, American economics was transformed as radically as in the previous half century. Economists’ involvement in the war effort compounded changes that originated in the 1930s to produce profound effects on the profession, and many of these were continued through institutions that developed during the Cold War. This article traces the way the institutions of the profession interacted with the content of economics to produce the technical economics centred on a core of economic theory and econometric methods that dominate it today. Attention is also drawn to the broader role of American profession in economics outside the United States.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 6,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 8,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Amadae, S.M. 2003. Rationalizing capitalist democracy. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arrow, K.J. 1951. Social choice and individual values. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Backhouse, R.E. 1998. The transformation of U.S. economics, 1920–1960, viewed through a survey of journal articles. In From interwar pluralism to postwar neoclassicism, eds. Morgan, M. and M. Rutherford. 85–107. Durham: Duke University Press. History of Political Economy 30 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Backhouse, R.E. 2005. The rise of free-market economics: Economists and the role of the state since 1970. In The role of government in the history of economic thought, ed. S.G. Medema and P. Boettke. Durham: Duke University Press. History of Political Economy 37 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Backhouse, R.E. and Laidler, D.E.W. 2004. What was lost with ISLM. In The IS–LM model: Its rise, fall, and strange persistence, ed. K.D. Hoover and M. De Vroey. Durham: Duke University Press. History of Political Economy 36 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Barber, W.J. 1997. Postwar changes in American graduate education in economics. In The post-1945 internationalization of economics, ed. Coats, A.W.. Durham: Duke University Press. History of Political Economy 28 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, M. 2001. A perilous progress: Economists and public purpose in twentieth century America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaug, M. 1999. The formalist revolution or what happened to orthodox economics after World War II? In From classical economics to the theory of the firm: Essays in honour of D.P.O’Brien, ed. R.E. Backhouse and J. Creedy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, H.R. 1953. Graduate education in economics. American Economic Review 43(4, part 2): 1–223.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burns, A., and W.C. Mitchell. 1946. Measuring business cycles. New York: NBER.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coats, A.W. 1992a. Changing perceptions of American graduate education in economics, 1953–1991. Journal of Economic Education 23: 341–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coats, A.W. 1992b. Economics in the United States, 1920–1970. In On the history of economic thought: British and American economic essays, ed. A.W. Coats, Vol. 1. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coats, A.W. 1997. The post-1945 internationalization of economics. Durham: Duke University Press History of Political Economy 28 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Coats, A.W. 2001. The AEA and the radical challenge to social science. In Economics broadly considered: Essays in honor of Warren J. Samuels, ed. J.E. Biddle, J.B. Davis, and S.G. Medema. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochrane, J.L. 1979. Industrialism and industrial man in retrospect: A critical review of the ford foundation’s support for the inter-university study of labor. Ann Arbor: Ford Foundation, distributed by University Microfilms International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colander, D. 1992. The sounds of silence: The profession’s response to the COGEE report. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 80: 600–607.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colander, D. 2005. The making of an economist redux. Journal of Economic Perspectives 19(1): 175–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colander, D., and A. Klamer. 1987. The making of an economist. Journal of Economic Perspectives 12(3): 95–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colander, D., and A. Klamer. 1990. The making of an economist. Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colander, D., and H. Landreth. 1996. The coming of Keynesianism to America: Conversations with the founders of Keynesian economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colander, D., and H. Landreth. 1998. Political influence on the textbook Keynesian revolution: God, man and Lorie Tarshis at Yale. In Keynesianism and the Keynesia revolution in America: A memorial volume in honour of Lorie Tarshis, ed. O.F. Hamouda and B.B. Price. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Debreu, G. 1959. The theory of value. London: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorfman, R., P.A. Samuelson, and R.M. Solow. 1958. Linear programming and economic analysis. New York: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, L. 2005. The power of ideas: The heritage foundation at twenty-five years. Ottawa: Jameson Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, M. 1953. The methodology of positive economics. In Essays in positive economics. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, C.D.W. 1998. The patrons of economics in a time of transformation. In From interwar pluralism to postwar neoclassicism, ed. M. Morgan and M. Rutherford. Durham: Duke University Press History of Political Economy 30 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, D.F. 1965. The role of the history of economic thought in the understanding of modern economic theory. American Economic Review 55: 119–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hands, D.W., and P. Mirowski. 1998. A paradox of budgets: The postwar stabilization of American neoclassical demand theory. In From interwar pluralism to postwar neoclassicism, ed. M. Morgan and M. Rutherford. Durham: Duke University Press History of Political Economy 30 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, A. 1953. A guide to Keynes. London: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, W.L. 1991. The education and training of economics doctorates: Major findings of the executive secretary of the American economic association’s commission on graduate education in economics. Journal of Economic Literature 29: 1054–1087.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harberger, A. 1997. Good economics comes to Latin America, 1955–95. In The post-1945 internationalization of economics, ed. A.W. Coats. Durham: Duke University Press History of Political Economy 28 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingrao, B. and Israel, G. 1990. The invisible hand: Economic equilibrium in the history of science. Trans. I. McGilvray. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz, B. 1989. Foreign intelligence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, L.R. 1947. The Keynesian revolution. 2nd ed, 1968. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koopmans, T.C. 1947. Measurement without theory. Review of Economics and Statistics 29(3): 161–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krueger, A.O. 1991. Report of the commission on graduate education in economics. Journal of Economic Literature 29: 1035–1053.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, F.S. 1984. The marginalist controversy and the demise of full-cost pricing. Journal of Economic Issues 18(4): 1107–1132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, F.S. 2000. On the genesis of post Keynesian economics: Alfred S. Eichner, Joan Robinson and the founding of post Keynesian economics. Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 18-C: 3–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, F.S. 2004. To be a heterodox economist: The contested landscape of American economics, 1960s and 1970s. Journal of Economic Issues 38: 747–763.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lester, R.A. 1946. Shortcomings of marginal analysis for wage-employment policies. American Economic Review 36: 63–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonard, R. 1991. War as a ‘simple economic problem’: The rise of an economics of defense. In Economics and national security: A history of their interaction, ed. C.D. Goodwin. Durham: Duke University Press History of Political Economy 23 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Loureiro, M.R. 1997. The professional and political impacts of the internationalization of economics in Brazil. In The post-1945 internationalization of economics, ed. A.W. Coats. Durham: Duke University Press History of Political Economy 28 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • McCallum, B.T. 2000. Recent developments in monetary policy analysis: The roles of theory and evidence. In Macroeconomics and the real world. volume 1: Econometric techniques and macroeconomics, ed. R.E. Backhouse and A. Salanti. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMillan, J. 2002. Reinventing the bazaar: A natural history of markets. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Medema, S.G. 2000. ‘Related disciplines’: The professionalization of public choice analysis. In Toward a history of applied economics, ed. R.E. Backhouse and J. Biddle. Durham: Duke University Press History of Political Economy 32 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehrling, P.G. 1998. The money interest and the public interest: American monetary thought, 1920–1970. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirowski, P. 2002. Machine dreams: Economics becomes a cyborg science. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, W.C. 1925. Quantitative analysis in economic theory. American Economic Review 15(1): 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mongin, P. 1992. The ‘full-cost’ controversy of the 1940s and 1950s: A methodological assessment. History of Political Economy 24: 311–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, M. 1991. A history of econometric ideas. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, M., and M. Rutherford. 1998. From interwar pluralism to postwar neoclassicism. Durham: Duke University Press History of Political Economy 30 (Annual Supplement).

    Google Scholar 

  • Novick, D. 1954. Mathematics: Logic, quantity and method. Review of Economics and Statistics 36: 357–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patinkin, D. 1956. Money, interest and prices. Evanston: Row, Peterson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruggles, N., ed. 1970. Economics. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruggles, R. 1962. Relation of the undergraduate major to graduate economics. American Economic Review 52: 483–489.

    Google Scholar 

  • Samuelson, P.A. 1947. Foundations of economic analysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Samuelson, P.A. 1948. Economics: An introductory analysis. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solow, R.M. 1997. How did economics get that way, and what way did it get? Daedalus 126: 39–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valdes, J.G. 1995. Pinochet’s economists: The chicago school in chile. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vining, R. 1949. Koopmans on the choice of variables to be studied and of methods of measurement. Review of Economics and Statistics 31(2): 77–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weintraub, E.R. 1998. Axiomatisches missverstaendniss. Economic Journal 108: 1837–1847.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weintraub, E.R. 2002. How economics became a mathematical science. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. http://link.springer.com/referencework/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5

    Roger E. Backhouse

Authors
  1. Roger E. Backhouse
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Copyright information

© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Backhouse, R.E. (2018). United States, Economics in (1945 to Present). In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2502

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation