Judging Economic Policy: Selected Writings Of Gottfried Haberler (Political Economy of Global Interdependence)

Paul Samuelson judges that Gottfried Haberler’s work “should qualify him for about two-and-a-half Nobel Prizes in economics—one for his quantum improvement in trade theory beyond Ricardo’s paradigm of labor’s comparative advantage, one for his definitive synthesis of business cycle theory, and beyond these his policy wisdom over a period of six decades.” It is Haberler’s “policy wisdom” that serves as the basis for this comprehensive collection of the eminent economist’s work.Throughout the book, Haberler’s contributions demonstrate the clarity of his analyses for exploring the complex economics of policy issues and for identifying key governmental responses to problems of unemployment, trade, and development. Presenting Haberler as the eclectic economist he is, the editors show that far from being an ideologue, Haberler is an economist who uses whatever approaches and theories are appropriate for the problems he considers. The portrait that emerges is one of a multifaceted thinker, able to choose freely among competing theories and to effectively apply them to complex and demanding policy issues.