The Economic Approach: Unpublished Writings of Gary S. Becker eds. by Julio J. Elias, Casey B. Mulligan, and Kevin M. Murphy Human Capital for Humans: An Accessible Introduction to the Economic Science of People by Pablo A. Peña
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: 00 cloth; $25.00 paper back.During a long and pro lific career, Gary Becker carved out a dis tinc tive place in mod ern eco nom ics.More than any one else, he came to epit o mize con tem po rary attempts to apply eco nomic the ory to new top ics or areas of human behav ior that were not normally ana lyzed from a strictly eco nomic per spec tive (i.e., using the basics of neoclassical price the ory).This led him to face sig nifi cant resis tance among dis ci plin ary peers and other social sci en tists.Despite his impor tance, rec og ni tion, and impact in eco nom ics, it is strik ing how lim ited the attempts to exam ine Becker's work from a his to rio graph i cal per spec tive have been thus far.The two books reviewed in this short essay are rel e vant sources for any one inter ested in fill ing that gap and offer inter est ing mate rial for a bet ter under stand ing of Becker's con tri bu tion to twen ti eth-cen tury eco nom ics, though they also raise some his to rio graphic issues due to their approach.Gary S. Becker's post hu mous vol ume, The Economic Approach: Unpublished Writ ings of Gary S. Becker, edited by his for mer stu dents, col leagues, and close collab o ra tors Julio J. Elias, Casey B. Mulligan, and Kevin M. Mur phy, is an impor tant book not pri mar ily because it adds a few unknown pieces to an already vast cor pus, but mainly because it pres ents a col lec tion of writ ings high light ing Becker's method
Source: History of Political Economy
Author: Pedro N. Teixeira
Institution: Universidade do Porto
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7220746633