The Case for Simplicity: a Paradigm for the Political Economy of the 21st Century

This is a pre-publication of the chapter of the same name which was first published in Freeman et al (2001), reproduced with the kind permission of the publishers. I have re-organized it for scholarly use as a separate text, with the references included and with footnotes instead of endnotes. I have made one correction to the numbers in the table at the top of page 7, which is footnoted on page 8. Thanks to Antionio Bernardeschi for pointing out this mistake. The text has been reformatted, and some minor spelling mistakes have been corrected. It is the same as the original in all other respects and can safely be used as a reference copy. It should be cited as “Freeman, A. 2001. ‘The Case for Simplicity’ in Freeman, A., Andrew Kliman and Julian Wells (eds) 2001. The New Value Controversy in Economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. pp55-66.”