My Journeys in Economic Theory

Edmund Phelps

Apr 2024 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by David Colacci

About this audiobook

Edmund Phelps is among the most important economists of his generation. He developed a new understanding of unemployment and inflation and went on to rethink the roots of innovation. In this book, Phelps tells the story of his role in reshaping economic theory, offering a powerful personal account of a creative and rewarding career. My Journeys in Economic Theory charts two major phases of Phelps's work, illuminating the breadth of his contributions to the field. First, introducing the expectations of wage setters and cofounding the "equilibrium" rate of unemployment, he built the microeconomic foundations for the employment theory pioneered by Keynes and Hicks. More recently, he conceived a theory of "mass flourishing" in which individuals' creativity and society's dynamism fuel grassroots innovation and generate job satisfaction in the process. Phelps recounts his vivid experiences in the world of economics as well as his relationships with luminaries such as John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, Paul Samuelson, and Paul Volcker. At its core, this book shares the joy of intellectual achievement: the excitement of coming up with a new idea that radically departs from prevailing views and the satisfaction of exercising one's own ingenuity instead of applying or developing others' models.

About the author

Edmund Phelps, the winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2006, is the founding director of the Center on Capitalism and Society and McVickar Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Columbia University.

David Colacci has been an actor and a director for over thirty years, and has worked as a narrator for over fifteen years. He has won AudioFile Earphones Awards, earned Audie nominations, and been included in Best of the Year lists by such publications as Publishers Weekly, AudioFile magazine, and Library Journal.