Samfunnsøkonomi: En idéhistorie

Economics evolving: A History of Economic Thought

Translated to Russian by A. Appolonov and Yu. Kapturevsky; under scientific editing by D. Shestakov. Moscow: Gaidar Institute Press, 2019. – 552 p.

ISBN 978‑5‑93255‑537-8

In clear, nontechnical language, this introductory textbook describes the history of economic thought, focusing on the development of economic theory from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations to the late twentieth century. The text concentrates on the most important personalities in the history of economics, from Adam Smith, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx in the classical period to John Maynard Keynes and the leading economists of the postwar era, such as John Hicks, Milton Friedman, and Paul Samuelson, providing insight into their lives and environment. 

The author dwells upon the development of theories concerning prices and markets, money and the price level, population and capital accumulation, and the choice between socialism and the market economy. The Book Economics Evolving: A History of Economic Thought shows how apparently simple ideas that are now taken for granted were at one time at the cutting edge of economics research. For example, the demand curve that today's first year students are familiar with, was originally drawn by one of the most innovative theorists in the history of economics. The reader will not only find out how economic science has progressed, but also understand that it is still developing.