Political Arithmetic: Simon Kuznets and the Empirical Tradition in Economics (National Bureau of Economic Research Series on Long-Term Factors in Economic Development)

We take for granted today that the assessments, measurements, and forecasts of economists are crucial to the decision-making of governments and businesses alike. But less than a century ago that wasn’t the case—economists simply didn’t have the necessary information or statistical tools to understand the ever more complicated modern economy. With __Political Arithmetic__, Nobel Prize–winning economist Robert Fogel and his collaborators tell the story of economist Simon Kuznets, the founding of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the creation of the concept of GNP, which for the first time enabled us to measure the performance of entire economies. The book weaves together the many strands of political and economic thought and historical pressures that together created the demand for more detailed economic thinking—Progressive-era hopes for activist government, the production demands of World War I, Herbert Hoover’s interest in business cycles as President Harding’s commerce secretary, and the catastrophic economic failures of the Great Depression—and shows how, through trial and error, measurement and analysis, economists such as Kuznets rose to the occasion and in the process built a discipline whose knowledge could be put to practical use in everyday decision-making. The product of a lifetime of studying the workings of economies and skillfully employing the tools of economics, __Political Arithmetic__ is simultaneously a history of a key period of economic thought and a testament to the power of applied ideas. Hoy damos por sentado que las evaluaciones, mediciones y pronósticos de los economistas son cruciales para la toma de decisiones tanto de los gobiernos como de las empresas. Pero hace menos de un siglo ese no era el caso: los economistas simplemente no tenían la información o las herramientas estadísticas necesarias para comprender la economía moderna cada vez más complicada. Con "Aritmética política", el economista ganador del Premio Nobel Robert William Fogel y sus colaboradores cuentan la historia del economista Simon Kuznets, la fundación de la Oficina Nacional de Investigación Económica y la creación del concepto de PNB, que por primera vez permitió nosotros para medir el desempeño de economías enteras. El libro entrelaza las muchas corrientes de pensamiento político y económico y las presiones históricas que juntas crearon la demanda de un pensamiento económico más detallado: las esperanzas de la era progresista para un gobierno activista, las demandas de producción de la Primera Guerra Mundial, el interés de Herbert Hoover en los ciclos económicos como presidente. El secretario de Comercio de Harding, y los catastróficos fracasos económicos de la Gran Depresión, y muestra cómo, a través de prueba y error, mediciones y análisis, economistas como Kuznets estuvieron a la altura de las circunstancias y en el proceso construyeron una disciplina cuyo conocimiento se podía poner en práctica. utilizar en la toma de decisiones diaria. Producto de toda una vida de estudio del funcionamiento de las economías y de emplear hábilmente las herramientas de la economía, la "Aritmética política" es simultáneamente una historia de un período clave del pensamiento económico y un testimonio del poder de las ideas aplicadas "We take for granted today that the assessments, measurements, and forecasts of economists are crucial to the decision-making of governments and businesses alike. But less than a century ago that wasn't the case - economists simply didn't have the necessary information or statistical tools to understand the ever more complicated modern economy. With Political Arithmetic, Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Fogel and his collaborators tell the story of economist Simon Kuznets, the founding of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the creation of the concept of GNP, which for the first time enabled us to measure the performance of entire economies. The book weaves together the many strands of political and economic thought and historical pressures that together created the demand for more detailed economic thinking - Progressive-era hopes for activist government, the production demands of World War I, Herbert Hoover's interest in business cycles as President Harding's commerce secretary, and the catastrophic economic failures of the Great Depression - and shows how, through trial and error, measurement and analysis, economists such as Kuznets rose to the occasion and in the process built a discipline whose knowledge could be put to practical use in everyday decision-making. The product of a lifetime of studying the workings of economies and skillfully employing the tools of economics, Political Arithmetic is simultaneously a history of a key period of economic thought and a testament to the power of applied ideas." -- Publisher's description. "We take for granted today that the assessments, measurements, and forecasts of economists are crucial to the decision-making of governments and businesses alike. But less than a century ago that wasn't the case -- economists simply didn't have the necessary information or statistical tools to understand the ever more complicated modern economy. With Political Arithmetic, Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Fogel and his collaborators tell the story of economist Simon Kuznets, the founding of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the creation of the concept of GNP, which for the first time enabled us to measure the performance of entire economies. The book weaves together the many strands of political and economic thought and historical pressures that together created the demand for more detailed economic thinking -- Progressive-era hopes for activist government, the production demands of World War I, Herbert Hoover's interest in business cycles as President Harding's commerce secretary, and the catastrophic economic failures of the Great Depression -- and shows how, through trial and error, measurement and analysis, economists such as Kuznets rose to the occasion and in the process built a discipline whose knowledge could be put to practical use in everyday decision-making. The product of a lifetime of studying the workings of economies and skillfully employing the tools of economics, Political Arithmetic is simultaneously a history of a key period of economic thought and a testament to the power of applied ideas."--Provided by publisher We take for granted today that the assessments, measurements, and forecasts of economists are crucial to the decision-making of governments and businesses alike. But less than a century ago that wasn’t the case—economists simply didn’t have the necessary information or statistical tools to understand the ever more complicated modern economy.
With Political Arithmetic, Nobel Prize–winning economist Robert Fogel and his collaborators tell the story of economist Simon Kuznets, the founding of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and the creation of the concept of GNP, which for the first time enabled us to measure the performance of entire economies. The book weaves together the many strands of political and economic thought and historical pressures that together created the demand for more detailed economic thinking—Progressive-era hopes for activist government, the production demands of World War I, Herbert Hoover’s interest in business cycles as President Harding’s commerce secretary, and the catastrophic economic failures of the Great Depression—and shows how, through trial and error, measurement and analysis, economists such as Kuznets rose to the occasion and in the process built a discipline whose knowledge could be put to practical use in everyday decision-making.
The product of a lifetime of studying the workings of economies and skillfully employing the tools of economics, Political Arithmetic is simultaneously a history of a key period of economic thought and a testament to the power of applied ideas.