From Keynnes to Piketty: the centurythat shook up economics

Abstract

Sometime ago I read an obituary about the American sociologist Daniel Bell. It said that two of his books were included in the Times Literary Supplement List of the 100 Most Infl uential Books since World War II. To satisfy my curiosity, I compared the Times Literary Supplement ( TLS ) list with my own list of books written by economists. To my delight I discovered that most of the books on my list were also included in the TLS list. However, there are also diff erences. Th is is partly explained by the fact that the TLS list ends in the 1990s, while my list ends in 2014. And, surely, the criteria applied by the ones who put together the TLS list were diff erent from mine. Th e fi rst criterion I applied was that the selected books should best refl ect the often turbulent political and economic developments since the early part of the twentieth century. Th e second criterion was that the selected works should be refl ective of the ups and downs of mainstream economic theories (in particular Keynesianism and neoclassical theory) and how these theories infl uenced public opinion and policymaking in the political domain. Th e third selection criterion was that the books should explain the factors behind these economic ups and downs.