In contrast to the focus on the requirements for efficient allocation and the possibilities for meeting these requirements, which have been the prime theoretical focus in economics during the last century, Alfred Marshall's primary concern as an economist was the organisation of the growth of...

“It is now becoming widely recognised that many of the central unresolved problems in economics turn on questions of knowledge” ( Loasby, 1986 , p. 41). Nearly twenty years after that was written, it may be appropriate to take a (necessarily selective) look at ideas about human knowledge and...

The double contrast between allocation and process and between formal proof and empirically based reasoning is selectively applied to the history of economics. Hume's rejection of provable knowledge led to Smith's psychological explanation of science and thence to his theory of growth through...

Rational choice theory relies on premises that are correct and complete; but, in general, neither can be assured. Knowledge is an open system of selected relationships and the adequacy of our representations of phenomena is always subject to Knightian uncertainty. The management of industrial...

A system is a set of elements which are connected in particular ways. The formal general equilibrium model is an extreme case in which every element is directly connected to every other and in which all potential external connections, including connections from the future, are incorporated in...

This unique Handbook explores both the economics of the firm and the theory of the firm, two areas which are traditionally treated separately in the literature. On the one hand, the former refers to the structure, organization and boundaries of the firm, while the latter is devoted to the...