So I recently finished an audiobook about “The German Historical School of Economics,” an important school for economic thought. They were active in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, and do not have a lot of modern counterparts. In fact, most economists today wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole.
Part of this may have been that they rejected the idea of economic theory in any form, and did not believe that there were any “timeless principles” behind the workings of markets. They were very good at gathering data from history, and had some sophisticated statistical techniques for analyzing the data that they gathered. Nonetheless, their rejection of economic theory was much more than just a mere “difference in methodology” – they were rejecting any “timeless truths” about economics at all, and were thus going against the future course of economic thought.
Gustav von Schmoller, an economist in this tradition
This may be why most economists today would not touch their work. Much of their work has never been translated into English at all. One typically has to learn German to read any substantial amount of their work today. Even in the German-speaking world, few today are reading their work – and the numbers of their readers are even smaller elsewhere, as you might imagine.
Max Weber, another economist in this tradition
I was glad that I listened to this audiobook anyway, because I'm interested in even the problematic parts of economic history (and the history of economic thought). Nonetheless, I cannot recommend much about the conclusions of this group; and would mostly limit my praise of them to their sophisticated techniques for gathering and analyzing data. They would seem to have had no theory other than the idea that they had no theory, and their work had significant methodological and other problems (including political problems, in my opinion).
See also:
Part of the audiobook series
Great Economic Thinkers
The German Historical School of Economics
See also the audiobook series
Secrets of the Great Investors
Others to be covered later
See also the audiobook series
The Giants of Political Thought
Others to be covered later
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