History of Economic Thought - What For? Empirical Observations From German Universities

Abstract

With this note I am providing a brief English summary and some extensions of an investigation (Backhaus 1983) that tried to answer two questions: a) Has the instruction in the history of economic thought vanished from the curricula of German universities, especially after the extensive reforms of the late sixties and early seventies? b) Can we identify purposes for offering courses in the history of economic thought? The survey spans the entire post WW II period until March 1980. "German" refers to the primary language of instruction. Hence, Austrian and several Swiss universities were included. The East German universities had to be excluded, for several reasons. One of them is that neither their organization nor purposes are readily comparable with Western institutions of higher learning. The study was prompted by often voiced concerns that the history of economic thought had virtually disappeared from the economics curriculum (e.g Schefold 1981; 53). We also sought to update an earlier study undertaken before the university reforms (Schultz 1960). But the scope of the survey went a bit beyond such a statistical exercise as we tried to find some hints about the uses and purposes of the history of economic thought as revealed in the practice of teaching the subject matter. In principle, there are at least four ways to answer the question "History of Economic Thought What For?" One may firstly speculate about possible purposes and applications; employ methods of literary interpretation in surveying earlier attempts along similar lines; in order to amicably urge others to follow the guidelines of a program thus derived. This is the approach characteristic of the largest part of the substantial body of literature discussing the purposes of doctrinal history. Secondly, we can consult the published record and determine what difference the use of historical analysis makes in published research. This will yield but a distorted picture. In many European universities, the emphasis on publishing research is much slighter than in their North America counterparts. Scholars like the late Piero Sraffa often command respect primarily for their contributions to the oral tradition. While the oral tradition has always remained important, publishing research may often be almost accidental in European academe. Thirdly, one could analyze survey data. While the problems associated with this method are generally recognized, this often proves to be the only feasible method. In trying to retain some comparabability with the 1960 survey, while still overcoming many of its shortcomings, we resorted to a fourth approach which combines elements of all three methods and adds a twist. Forthly, an analysis of the course titles will reveal a great deal about their contents. While in America, course titles tend to be standardized and are unlikely to vary with the instructor who happens to teach the course, this is not so in the German university. The curriculum guidelines tend to be more general, and each chair is generally responsible for the development of an area of research and instruction in a particular subdiscipline of economics. Hence, the course titles (and contents) are the work of the professor who offers the course and who tries to announce precisely what the course is going to be about.