Abstract
The origins of environmental economics are commonly traced to Arthur Cecil Pigou's work on externality theory and policy. Aired in casual remarks, conjectures, and speculations, this view seems to have produced no commensurate gains in either clarity or evidence. Recent research on the history of externalities and environmental economics draws on work customarily published in specialized scholarly journals or books regarded as original and innovative and challenges the continuity of a “Pigouvian tradition” in externality theory and policy. This article enters the conversation by shifting the vantage point of inquiry from scientific innovation to scientific reproduction, namely, to the textbook pedagogical regime of postwar economics. Because textbooks were and remain the primary media for training economics students, this question translates as the following problem: What is the evidence for the prominence of Pigou's analytical treatment of externalities in postwar textbooks in introductory, environmental, and urban economics as well as public finance? The findings support the case that Pigouvian externality analysis was a significant component of pedagogy in the period, an important piece of equipment in professional training and academic socialization, and a presumptive credential of competence in beginning a career.
Arthur Cecil Pigou, Pigouvian externality analysis, postwar economics textbooks, environmental economics, urban economics, public finance
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