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Edward J. Nell

American economist

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Nell's contributions are in the fields of macroeconomic theory, monetary analysis and finance, economic methodology and philosophy, and development. His articles on economic theory and methodology have appeared in leading journals like the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Economic Literature, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Eastern Economic Journal, Review of Political Economy, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Analysis, and Social Research.

Nell is known for his critical view of the methodological and philosophical foundations of neoclassical economics, examined in his best known book Rational Economic Man (Cambridge University Press, 1975) and coauthored with English rationalist philosopher Martin Hollis. Nell is also the originator of the General Theory of 'Transformational Growth'. The full development of the General Theory of Transformational Growth came in the 90s, and was published as The General Theory of Transformational Growth (Cambridge University Press, 1998). The methodology/philosophy which underlies the Theory of Transformational Growth is a form of realism, based on filling in 'conceptual truths' by doing fieldwork and then building models of solidly based institutionally grounded relationships.

Biography

Nell was born in Riverside, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, on July 16, 1935, the only son of Marcella and Edward Nell. His father was a journalist and professor of journalism at Northwestern University; he ran the Quill and Scroll foundation for high school journalism. His mother was a public school administrator and then a professor of education at Roosevelt University.

Nell attended Princeton University (1954–1957) and received his B.A magna cum laude in 1957 (in the Woodrow Wilson School). His field of study at Princeton varied a good deal. He studied mathematics, physics and philosophy, before discovering a passion for economics and politics. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1957 which took him to Oxford University. Though he had already completed a B.A from Princeton, Oxford enrolled him for another, as was the custom at the time. He obtained a First in PPE in 1959 at Magdalen College, studying with Frank Burchardt and David Worswick. Nell then stayed at Nuffield College (1959–1962), Oxford University, to do his advanced work on the foundations of economic analysis, complete his doctoral thesis and further develop his research.

He returned to the US to teach at Wesleyan University, but later went back to the UK to lecture at the University of East Anglia, also doing research at Cambridge University. On various leaves of absence from the New School for Social Research he taught at Bennington College, and at Bard College, at McGill University, the University of Siena in Italy, and the University of Bremen, and Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. He gave sets of lectures and seminars in Europe — in France, at the Universities of Paris, Orleans and Nice; in the U.K at the Universities of Oxford, and Cambridge, and at East Anglia, Warwick, Essex, and Sussex; in Italy at the Universities of Rome, Milano, Catania and Siena; in Austria at the Universities of Graz and Vienna; in Germany at the Universities of Bremen, Frankfurt, Kiel, Regensburg, and Hanover; in Canada, at Trent University, Waterloo, McGill and HEC-Montreal. And in New South Wales, Melbourne, Newcastle, Adelaide and Sydney in Australia. Many of these lectures were associated with research projects with colleagues in these universities.

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