Economic Writings Selections 1904-1945

This book makes available for the first time in English a substantial part of Otto Neurath's economic writings. The essays and small monographs translated here extend from his student years to his last ever finished piece. They chart not only Neurath's varied interests in the economic history of antiquity, in war economics and schemes for the socialisation of peacetime economies, in the theory of welfare measures and social indicators and in issues of the theory of collective choice, but also show his philosophical interests emerging in his contributions to seminal debates of the German Social Policy Association. This volume shows that Neurath's important contributions to the socialist calculation debate are but one aspect of a many-sided and original oeuvre. The translations are preceded by an introductory essay by one of the editors which contextualises the selections by locating them in the various debates of the time that provided their original setting.

This book is of interest to economists, philosophers of social science and of economics as well as to historians of philosophy of science and of analytic philosophy.

Introduction: Neurath’s Economics in Critical Context.- Introduction: Neurath’s Economics in Critical Context.- Studies in Ancient and Modern Economic History.- Interest on Money in Antiquity.- Economic History of Antiquity [Excerpts].- War Economy.- Serbia’s Successes in the Balkan War [1912].- State Cartels and State Trusts as Organisational Forms of the Future.- The Economic Order of the Future and the Economic Sciences.- Early Contributions to the Theory of Economics and Social Science.- On the Theory of Social Science.- Interventions in Discussions of the Social Policy Association.- Economics in Kind, Calculation in Kind and Their Relation to War Economics.- The Conceptual Structure of Economic Theory and its Foundations.- Socialisation Theory.- A System of Socialisation.- Total Socialisation.- Economic Plan and Calculation in Kind.- Socialist Utility Calculation and Capitalist Profit Calculation.- Economics and Social Science in Unified Science.- The Current Growth in Global Productive Capacity.- Sociological Predictions.- Inventory of the Standard of Living.- Late Reflections on the Theory of Planning.- After Six Years.