The Theory of Economic Progress.

Extract

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The Theory of Economic Progress.

Fifty years ago, at the publication of The Theory of Economic Progress [TEP 1944], the dimensions and character of institutional economics were rather weakly defined and somewhat vague. This was before either the publication of Gamb's Beyond Supply and Demand [1946] or of Gruchy's Modern Economic Thought [1947] both of which are viewed as seminal works in what could perhaps best be referred to as post-Veblenian institutionalism. In fact, TEP, in conjunction with these other two books, represents a reawakening of what supposedly had been buried a decade or so before their appearance [Homan 1932]. But Ayres gave to this formless, nebulous system of thought a general theory.

Save for the works of Veblen and J. R. Commons, particularly the latter's Legal Foundations [1924] and his Institutional Economics [1934], there was not all that as a body of work that one could point to as institutional economics. Most certainly the work of Veblen was clearly differentiated from that of the conventional economic wisdom. But as Ayres wrote in 1938, concerning Veblen's contribution to institutionalism, "... Although Veblen's thought is closely reasoned and coherent, no single book reflects his mind in its entirety. He was a systematic th...

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