This book contains the most sustained and serious attack on mainstream, neoclassical economics in more than forty years. Nelson and Winter focus their critique on the basic question of how firms and industries change overtime. They marshal significant objections to the fundamental neoclassical assumptions of profit maximization and market equilibrium, which they find ineffective in the analysis of technological innovation and the dynamics of competition among firms. To replace these assumptions, they borrow from biology the concept of natural selection to construct a precise and detailed evolutionary theory of business behavior. They grant that films are motivated by profit and engage in search for ways of improving profits, but they do not consider them to be profit maximizing. Likewise, they emphasize the tendency for the more profitable firms to drive the less profitable ones out of business, but they do not focus their analysis on hypothetical states of industry equilibrium. The results of their new paradigm and analytical framework are impressive. Not only have they been able to develop more coherent and powerful models of competitive firm dynamics under conditions of growth and technological change, but their approach is compatible with findings in psychology and other social sciences. Finally, their work has important implications for welfare economics and for government policy toward industry.

A timeless classic of economic theory that remains fascinating and pertinent today, this is Frank Knight's famous explanation of why perfect competition cannot eliminate profits, the important differences between "risk" and "uncertainty," and the vital role of the entrepreneur in profitmaking. Based on Knight's PhD dissertation, this 1921 work, balancing theory with fact to come to stunning insights, is a distinct pleasure to read. FRANK H. KNIGHT (1885-1972) is considered by some the greatest American scholar of economics of the 20th century. An economics professor at the University of Chicago from 1927 until 1955, he was one of the founders of the Chicago school of economics, which influenced Milton Friedman and George Stigler.

Alchian has made important contributions to the economic analysis of inflation and unemployment and to the theory of costs and of the firm. He has played the leading role in the development of a theory of property rights. His writing is distinguished by his ability to disentangle the essential from the trivial and, above all, by his skill in showing how the same basic economic forces are at working in a wide variety of apparently completely different social settings.

Universal Economics is a new work that bears a strong resemblance to its two predecessors, University Economics (1964, 1967, 1972) and Exchange and Production (1969, 1977, 1983). Collaborating again, Professors Alchian and Allen have written a fresh presentation of the analytical tools employed in the economic way of thinking. More than any other principles textbook, Universal Economics develops the critical importance of property rights to the existence and success of market economies. The authors explain the interconnection between goods prices and productive-asset prices and how market-determined interest rates bring about the allocation of resources toward the satisfaction of consumption demands versus saving/investment priorities. They show how the crucial role of prices in a market economy cannot be well understood without a firm grasp of the role of money in a modern world. The Alchian and Allen application of information and search-cost analysis to the subject of money, price determination, and inflation is unique in the teaching of economic principles. No one has ever done price theory better than Alchian -- that is, no one has ever excelled Alchians ability to explain the reason, role, and nuances of prices, of competition, and of property rights. And only a precious few -- I can count them on my fingers -- have a claim for being considered to have done price theory as well as he did it. -- Donald Boudreaux, George Mason University. Armen A. Alchian (19142013), one of the twentieth centurys great teachers of economic science, taught at UCLA from 1958 to 1984. Founder of the UCLA tradition in economics, he has become recognized as one of the most influential voices in the areas of market structure, property rights, and the theory of the firm. William R. Allen taught at Washington University prior to joining the UCLA faculty in 1952. Along with research primarily in international economics and the history of economic theory, he has concentrated on teaching economics. Universal Economics is his third textbook collaboration with Armen Alchian. Jerry L. Jordan wrote his doctoral dissertation under the direction of Armen Alchian. He was Dean of the School of Management at the University of New Mexico, a member of President Reagans Council of Economic Advisors and of the U.S. Gold Commission, Director of Research of the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis, and President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

In this provocative book, Paul Glimcher argues that economic theory may provide an alternative to the classical Cartesian model of the brain and behavior. Glimcher argues that Cartesian dualism operates from the false premise that the reflex is able to describe behavior in the real world that animals inhabit. A mathematically rich cognitive theory, he claims, could solve the most difficult problems that any environment could present, eliminating the need for dualism by eliminating the need for a reflex theory. Such a mathematically rigorous description of the neural processes that connect sensation and action, he explains, will have its roots in microeconomic theory. Economic theory allows physiologists to define both the optimal course of action that an animal might select and a mathematical route by which that optimal solution can be derived. Glimcher outlines what an economics-based cognitive model might look like and how one would begin to test it empirically. Along the way, he presents a fascinating history of neuroscience. He also discusses related questions about determinism, free will, and the stochastic nature of complex behavior.

This book is intended to provide economists with mathematical tools necessary to handle the concepts of evolution under uncertainty and adaption arising in economics, pursuing the Arrow-Debreu-Hahn legacy. It applies the techniques of viability theory to the study of economic systems evolving under contingent uncertainty, faced with scarcity constraints, and obeying various implementation of the inertia principle. The book illustrates how new tools can be used to move from static analysis, built on concepts of optima, equilibria and attractors to a contingent dynamic framework.