The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle.

SCHUMPETER, Joseph A. [Robert M. Solow].

$7,800.00

Item Number: 63014

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936.

First edition of what many scholars believe to be Schumpeter’s masterpiece. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by Nobel Prize-winning economist and student of Joseph Schumpeter, Robert Solow on the front free endpaper, with the inscription which reads, “I sat in Schumpeter’s lectures just about 70 years ago. The best of what I remember is in the middle chapters of this book. Robert Solow 5/10/06.” Solow in reviewing Schumpeter’s work said, “In my view–and that of most contemporary economists, I believe–Schumpeter’s most original and most lastingly significant book was Theory of Economic Development, which appeared in 1911 (and was translated into English in 1934). It was at the University of Czernowitz, … that he worked out his conception of the entrepreneur, the maker of “new combinations,” as the driving force and characteristic figure of the fits-and-starts evolution of the capitalist economy. He was explicit that, while technological innovation was in the long run the most important function of the entrepreneur, organizational innovation in governance, finance, and management was comparable in significance.” In near fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. First editions are rare.

Schumpeter proclaims in this classical analysis of capitalist society that economics is a natural self-regulating mechanism when undisturbed by "social and other meddlers." In his preface he argues that despite weaknesses, theories are based on logic and provide structure for understanding fact. "[O]ne of the one hundred best books (of all time) in organization and management" (Management and Literature).