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Containing important papers by various Georgist scholars, this book highlights the ideas and influence of Henry George as a political economist.Highlights the ideas and influence of Henry George Includes path-breaking work on Henry George's rent theory Features in the Studies in Economic Reform and Social Justice series

Observations on The "vanity of the philosopher" / Charles R. McCann, Jr. -- The "vanity of the philosopher": analytical egalitarianism, associationist psychology, and eugenic remaking? / Andrew Farrant -- In the shadows of vanity: religion and the debate over hierarchy / J. Daniel Hammond -- The vanity of the economist: a comment on Peart and Levy's The "vanity of the philosopher" / Kevin D. Hoover -- Classical equality: on the content on analytical egalitarianism / Joseph Persky -- Thinking about analytical egalitarianism / David M. Levy and Sandra J. Peart -- Social anthropology in economic literature at the end of the 19th century: eugenic and racial explanations of inequality / Terezio Maccabelli.

Abstract
The pantheon of classical liberal thinkers must honor the memory of one brilliant mathematician, scientist, and debunker of superstitious beliefs, the sound-money advocate Nicole Oresme. Although his opposition to the recoinage practices of the French monarchy was not unprecedented in the fourteenth century, Oresme must be credited with anticipating the "rational expectations" in economics when he distinguished quite forcefully between "preannounced debasement" and "secret debasement" and their effects on the distribution of wealth. Oresme explains that the king should not practice secret debasement, and can appear as a pioneer for modern ideas on monetary surprises.

AbstractThis chapter offers an interpretation of the Henry George Theorem (HGT) that brings it squarely into the study and analysis of entrepreneurship somewhat loosening its ties to the subfield of urban economics. I draw on the pioneering work of Spencer Heath whose insights about the viability of proprietary communities were developed further by his grandson, Spencer Heath MacCallum who, in 1970, recognized that private real estate developers sometimes make their capital gains (mostly) by creating useful public spaces that others enjoy. I also draw inspiration from Fred Foldvary's effort in 1994 to synthesize the pubic goods problem in economics with the Henry George Theorem in urban economics. While the real estate owner—developer does emerge on my pages in a somewhat more favourable light than as originally portrayed by Henry George in his Progress and Poverty in 1879, I offer a realistic appraisal of the duplicitous behaviours required of such entrepreneurs. in the context of the modern regulatory state. Real estate development remains a 'hot button' item in local politics, and real estate developers must become genuine 'political entrepreneurs' if they are to complete their projects in a timely way and capture business profits. It is a complicated story that the HGT helps make intelligible in terms of human action.

AbstractThe general equilibrium approach in orthodox economics largely abstracted from the passing of time. In a timeless world, strategy and deception are difficult to define. The mainstream analysis of the second half of the twentieth century was mostly about establishing the limits within which price ratios might profitably vary in a world where people keep promises and are honest. Curiously, another group of milestones (some of which date back to the 1920s and 1930s) exist that, when taken together, may spark a renewed interest in the economics of fraud and deception.