Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T11:28:08.385Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIST AS HISTORIAN OF ECONOMICS: THE CASE OF WILLIAM J. BARBER

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2019

Mauro Boianovsky
Mauro Boianovsky*
Affiliation:
Universidade de Brasilia, [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The paper shows how William Barber’s background as a development economist influenced his research agenda in the history of economic thought, in terms of the questions he asked and the way he approached them. The links between the history of economic theory and of policy-making are highlighted, as well as Barber’s investigation of the engagement of British economists with India’s economic matters throughout the time span of the British East India Company.

Type
Symposium in Memory of William J. Barber (1925–2016)
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 325 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank Robert Dimand and Richard Adelstein for helpful comments, and (the late) Gabriel de Oliva Cunha, Gerardo Serra, and Scott Scheall for bibliographical support. Research funding from CNPq is gratefully acknowledged.

References

REFERENCES

Adelman, Jeremy. 2013. Worldly Philosopher—The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Alacevich, Michele, and Boianovsky, Mauro, eds. 2018. “The Political Economy of Development Economics: A Historical Perspective,” annual supplement, History of Political Economy 50. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Ambirajan, Srinivasa. 1978. Classical Political Economy and British Policy in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arndt, Heinz W. 1987. Economic Development: The History of an Idea. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arrighi, Giovanni. 1970. “Labor Supplies in Historical Perspective: A Study of the Proletarization of the African Peasantry in Rhodesia.” Journal of Development Studies 6: 197–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Backhouse, Roger E. 2002. The Penguin History of Economics. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Barber, William J. 1959. “The Political Economy of Central Africa’s Experiment with Inter-racial Partnership.” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 25: 324–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, William J. 1961a. The Economy of British Central Africa: A Case Study of Economic Development in a Dualistic Society. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Barber, William J. 1961b. “Disguised Unemployment in Underdeveloped Economies.” Oxford Economic Papers 13: 103–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, William J. 1967. A History of Economic Thought. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Barber, William J. 1969. “James Mill and the Theory of Economic Policy in India.” History of Political Economy 1: 85–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, William J. 1970. “Dualism Revisited: Economic Structures and the Framework of Economic Policy in a Post-colonial Setting.” In Streeten, P., ed., Unfashionable Economics: Essays in Honor of Lord Balogh. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, pp. 33–55.Google Scholar
Barber, William J. 1975. British Economic Thought and India, 1600–1858: A Study in the History of Development Economics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Barber, William J. 1985. From New Era to New Deal: Herbert Hoover, the Economists, and American Economic Policy, 1921–1933. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, William J. 1990. “Does Scholarship in the History of Economics Have a Useful Future?” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 12: 110–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, William J. 1994. “British Classical Economists and Underdevelopment in India.” In Meier, G., ed., From Classical Economics to Development Economics. London: St. Martin, pp. 51–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, William J. 1995. “Chile con Chicago: A Review Essay.” Journal of Economic Literature 33: 1941–1949.Google Scholar
Barber, William J. 1996. Designs within Disorder: Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Economists, and the Shaping of American Economic Policy, 1933–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, William J. 1998. “Not So Dismal a Science: Reflections.” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 20: 177–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, William J. 2003. “American Economics to 1900.” In Samuels, W. J., Biddle, J. E., and Davis, J. B., eds., A Companion to the History of Economic Thought. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 231–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, William J. 2008. Gunnar Myrdal: An Intellectual Biography. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayly, Christopher A. 1998. “Eric Thomas Stokes (1924–1981).” Proceedings of the British Academy 97: 467–498.Google Scholar
Black, Robert D. Collison. 1953. “The Classical Economists and the Irish Problem.” Oxford Economic Papers 5: 26–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, Robert D.Collison. 1960. Economic Thought and the Irish Question, 1817–1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Black, Robert D.Collison. 1972. “The Irish Experience in Relation to the Theory and Practice of Economic Development.” In Youngson, A. J., ed., Economic Development in the Long Run. London: Allen & Unwin, pp. 192–210.Google Scholar
Boianovsky, Mauro. 2018a. “When the History of Ideas Meets Theory: Arthur Lewis and the Classical Economists on Development.” In Alacevich, M. and Boianovsky, M., eds., “The Political Economy of Development Economics: A Historical Perspective,” annual supplement, History of Political Economy 50. Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 172–190.Google Scholar
Boianovsky, Mauro. 2018b. “Economists and Their Travels, or the Time when JFK Sent Douglass North on a Mission to Brazil.” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 40: 149–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boianovsky, Mauro. 2019. “Arthur Lewis and the Classical Foundations of Development Economics.” Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 37A: 103–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cassel, Gustav. [1918] 1932. The Theory of Social Economy. Translated by S. L. Barron. New York: Harcourt, Brace.Google Scholar
Clarke, Duncan. 2012. Africa’s Future. Darkness to Destiny: How the Past Is Shaping Africa’s Economic Evolution. London: Profile Books.Google Scholar
Coats, Alfred William. 1969. “Research Priorities in the History of Economics.” History of Political Economy 1: 9–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coats, Alfred William. 1983. “The First Decade of HOPE (1968–79).” History of Political Economy 15: 303–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowen, Michael P., and Shenton, Robert W.. 1996. Doctrines of Development. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Deane, Phyllis. 1991. “The Role of History of Economic Thought.” In Greenaway, D., Bleaney, M., and Stewart, I., eds., Companion to Contemporary Economic Thought. London: Routledge, pp. 25–48.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Craufurd. 1967. “Economic Analysis and Development in British West Africa.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 15: 438–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, Craufurd. 2008. “History of Economic Thought.” In Durlauf, S. and Blume, L., eds., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Second edition. Volume 4. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 48–57.Google Scholar
Goodwin, Craufurd, Spengler, Joseph, and Smith, Robert. 1969. “Avant-Propos.” History of Political Economy 1: 1–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, Bent. 1979. “Colonial Economic Development with Unlimited Supply of Land: A Ricardian Case.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 27: 611–627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1977. The Passions and the Interest: Political Arguments for Capitalism before Its Triumph. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hoselitz, Berthold F., ed. 1960. Theories of Economic Growth. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Krugman, Paul. 1993. “Toward a Counter-revolution in Development Theory.” Proceedings of the World Bank Annual Conference on Development Economics 1992. Supplement to the World Bank Economic Review. Washington, DC: World Bank, pp. 15–38.Google Scholar
Lewis, W. Arthur. 1954. “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labor.” Manchester School 22: 139–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDowell, Gary. 1969. “Review of Barber, A History of Economic Thought.” Journal of Economic History 29: 544–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meardon, Stephen. 2018. “Yankee Ingenuity in Theories of American Economic Development, from the Founding to the Closing of the Frontier.” In Alacevich, M. and Boianovsky, M., eds., “The Political Economy of Development Economics: A Historical Perspective,” annual supplement, History of Political Economy 50. Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 41–58.Google Scholar
Mill, James 1817. The History of British India. Ten volumes. London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy.Google Scholar
Miller, W. L. 1976. “Review of Barber, British Economic Thought and India.” History of Political Economy 8: 305–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moss, Laurence, ed. 1998. “Remembrance and Appreciation Roundtable for Henry William Spiegel (1911–1995): Émigré Economist, Historian of Economics, Creative Scholar and Companion.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 57: 345–361.Google Scholar
Myrdal, Gunnar. [1930] 1953. The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory. Translated by P. Streeten. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Myrdal, Gunnar. 1968. Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Paganelli, Maria P. 2002. “Economies in Transition and in Development: A Possible Warning from Adam Smith.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 19: 149–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, Ralph. 1975. “Review of Barber, British Economic Thought and India.” Journal of Economic History 35: 837–838.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, George. 1976. “Review of Barber, British Economic Thought and India.” Journal of Economic Literature 14: 468–470.Google Scholar
Singer, Hans W. 1976. “Review of Barber, British Economic Thought and India.” Economic History Review 29: 330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sobel, Irvin. 1983. “Joseph J. Spengler: The Institutionalist Approach to the History of Economics.” Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 1: 243–270.Google Scholar
Solow, Robert. 1956. “A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 70: 65–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spengler, Joseph J. 1960a. “John Stuart Mill on Economic Development.” In Hoselitz, B., ed., Theories of Economic Growth. New York: The Free Press, pp. 113–154.Google Scholar
Spengler, Joseph J. 1960b. “Mercantilist and Physiocratic Growth Theory.” In Hoselitz, B., ed., Theories of Economic Growth. New York: The Free Press, pp. 3–64.Google Scholar
Spengler, Joseph J. 1969. “Cassel on Population.” History of Political Economy 1: 150–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spiegel, Henry W. 1949. The Brazilian Economy: Chronic Inflation and Sporadic Industrialization. Philadelphia: Blakiston Co.Google Scholar
Spiegel, Henry W. 1955. “Theories of Economic Development: History and Classification.” Journal of the History of Ideas 16: 518–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokes, Eric T. 1959. The English Utilitarians and India. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stokes, Eric T. 1976. “Review of Barber, British Economic Thought and India.” English Historical Review 91: 649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winch, Donald. 2010. “R. D. Collison Black, 1922–2008: A Personal Tribute.” History of Political Economy 42: 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar