Theory of Economic Development (Social Science Classics Series)

I found this book to be very methodical, and in my view it used more words than are necessary, at first anyways. One of the things that he took great pains in explaining is that the capitalist and the entrepreneur are two different entities, which is now part of mainstream economics. Land earns rent, labor earns wages, capital earns interest, entrepreneurs earn profit. If you set up a health shop with your own money, and the profit you make is only enough to pay yourself a small salary, than this means the money you've invested you are not getting a return. And if someone has lent you the money at interest, you would have to pay them the use for it, and what's left would be an even smaller salary. Schumpeter would say the person taking the financial risk is the capitalist, and the person setting it up is the entrepreneur, and if you are doing it with your own money, you are both the capitalist and the entrepreneur.Then I got up to the 6th chapter, about business cycles, where their are booms and busts. That when an entrepreneur sees an opportunity and invests in new capital equipment, this starts up an economic stimulation, and once the people who are supplying those capital goods get more money, they spend the money, which counts as a secondary wave of prosperity, the places they buy from have more money. But once those capital goods have been bought, and are no longer in demand, that prosperity has ended, and things go back down, until and unless, someone creates new capital goods. Their's much more to it than this, he does talk about other factors, which complicate things.So those first 5 chapters do prepare you for the 6th chapter when things get more exciting, however I personally found it a bit long, it could have been shorter, however, understanding the business cycle is plenty of value.

Schumpeter had an expression that intuitively sums up in a few choice words quite a few of the theoretical concepts of J M Keynes and the empirical/statistical breakthroughs of Benoit Mandelbrot.Unfortunately,Schumpeter lacked the technical training in mathematics,statistics and probability that he needed in order to give a rigorous exposition of his intellectual and intuitive discoveries.Those few choice words are"regular irregularity".Looking at the data available to him early in the 20th century,Schumpeter was able to categorically argue ,correctly ,that price movements over time in different markets and changes in investment over the business cycle could NOT be modeled by assuming that a normal probability distribution could be applied.Schumpeter was the first economist to make a clearcut distinction between risk(applying a normal probability distribution with a stable mean and variance(standard deviation))and uncertainty.Uncertainty would automatically arise over time due to the regular irregularity of constant(nonconstant)technological innovation,change and advance over time.It is quite easy to see that Mandelbrot's nonparametric two variable constructs, measuring discontinuity and short run/long run persistence/dependence(as opposed to the normal distributions assumptions of continuity and independence),are described by Schumpeter's"regular irregularity".Unfortunately,instead of breaking with the classical and neoclassical schools of economics,as both Keynes and Mandelbrot did,Schumpeter decided to remain a loyal soldier,downplaying his severe disagreements.This was Schumpeter's great error.He recognized the severe limitations of the standard price adjustment equilibrium demand and supply analysis,but went along anyway.The potential reader will find chapter 6 of Schumpeter's book alone to be worth the price of admission needed to obtain access to Schumpeter's brilliant breakthroughs.

This is a must for those interested in Schumpeter's work, but possibly not the best to start with this author. The book is a hard read in many parts, and wordy nuances may stay lost unless passages are read several times. Although no explicit reference is made to it, chapters two and six give the theoretical background of what is developed further and explicitly as the notorious "process of creative destruction" in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.

The contents of this book are obviously excellent but the paperback edition I received has poor print quality.

No index at the end of the book, very hard to scan through.

Adding historical perspective to today's world.

Excellent book to read and study!

Dieses Buch skizziert eine Theorie die langfristiges Wachstum und Konjunkturzyklen zu gleich erklärt. Dieses Buch fehlte mir in meinem Studium.

Um excelente livro. E ter comprado como kindle foi bom porque recebi de imediato. Já tinha referências acerca deste livro, mas ao lê-lo, considerei melhor do que esperava.

Schumpeter's classic. In his own unique way.

This book is Schumpeter's classic analysis of what might be characterized as the American road to economic development (in Lucas's classic dichotomy, the "why are we so rich?" clause, as opposed to the modern meaning of "economic development" which focuses on "why are they so poor?") Not as influential in his day as Lord Keynes, today his analytical approach, well-balanced among supply-side, demand-side, and political-economic forces is experiencing a resurgence among economists and business scientists (often not aware of the source or age of the ideas they use).Schumpeter's easy arrogance concerning the correctness of his own conclusions, including some that are entirely unsupported except by the force of his own authority, is actually charming rather than annoying. A voice from a different age, I guess, and of course in hindsight we already know the value of this work.

Very good as a E-book. It downloads it within couple second on the Ipad. Can use it on Ipad, Mobile everywher !!