Adrian C. Darnell – Författare

In 1985 I first began my research on the life and work of Harold Hotel­ ling. That year, Harold Hotelling's widow had donated the collection of his private p:;tpers, correspondence and manuscripts to the Butler Library, Columbia University. This is a most appropriate place for them to reside, in that Hotelling's most productive period as an active researcher in eco­ nomics and statistics coincides with the years when he was Professor of Mathematical Economics at Columbia (1931-1946). The Hotelling Collection comprises some 13,000 separate items and contains numerous unpublished letters and manuscripts of great importance to historians of economics and statistics. In the course of the following year I was able, with the generous financial assistance of the Nuffield Foundation, the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy and the University of Durham, to spend six weeks over the Easter period working on the collection. I returned to New York in September 1986 while on sabbatical leave from the University of Durham, and I spent most of the following eight months examining the many documents in the collection. During that academic year I was grateful to Columbia University who gave me the title of Visiting Research Professor and gave me the freedom to work in their many well-stocked libraries.

Econometric issues have provoked a lively and sometimes adversarial debate in the economics profession. The excitement and intellectual vitality of that debate is captured here for the reader in a lucid overview of econometric approaches, describing their advantages and limitations. This ambitious book focuses on the underlying methodological issues rather than concentrating upon econometric techniques. The limits of econometric investigations are identified through a critical appraisal of three different approaches associated with the work of Professors Hendry, Leamer and Sims. After explaining why the early optimism in econometrics was misplaced, it argues that rejection is not an appropriate response. It offers a rich spectrum of approaches to a problem of central importance in the development of modern economics. The book will appeal not only to all econometricians whatever their persuasion but also to all those with an interest in the methodology of economics.

The History of Econometrics is a two volume collection of major papers which have shaped the development of this subject. Part I includes articles which together provide an overview of the history of econometrics, part II addresses the relationship between econometrics and statistics, the articles in part III constitute early applied studies and part IV includes articles concerned with the role and method of econometrics.