Canon of Economics
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From last week’s Economist, as the American Economic Review hits its 100 year anniversary, a selection of its top 20 papers (with links to original articles attached).
The Economist article can be found here; whilst the PDF can be downloaded here.
As the article points out: “Many of these papers are more cited than read… Unsurprisingly, the list includes the 1955 paper by Simon Kuznets explaining why inequality might first rise then fall in the course of economic development. Surprisingly, nowhere in the paper did he actually draw the “Kuznets curve” that is now inseparable from his name. (He described the arc of inequality as a “long swing” instead.) Robert Mundell’s 1961 theory of “optimum currency areas”, which lays out the conditions for a workable currency union, is now often cited by the euro’s critics. Ironic, therefore, to note that Mr Mundell wrote the paper to show why flexible exchange rates were impractical because many nations are not optimal currency areas either. Should every local “pocket of unemployment” have a “separate currency”, he snorted.
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