Mathematical Investigations In The Theory Of Value And Prices. Fisher, Irving.

Second printing in book form (first 1925), presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper "To Mr. Herbert Frankel with the compliments of Irving Fisher. March, 1927". Development economist Sally Herbert Frankel (1903-1996) published various works of economics in a long career spanning 1926 to 1982, best remembered in his role as professor in the Economics of Underdeveloped Countries at Oxford University 1946-71 (and also a fellow of Nuffield College). He finished a PhD at the London School of Economics in 1927, around the time Fisher inscribed the volume. Later a member of the libertarian Mont Pelerin Society, Frankel's economic vision for development and growth, in all nations, necessitated social mobility in a free market - this put him at odds with segregationist political systems, particularly in his native South Africa. Indeed, Frankel fought to implement these views as economic advisor to South African and Southern Rhodesian governments from 1941 to 1958. This is a photo-engraved reprint of Fisher's doctoral work, first published in the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1892, a "startlingly original PhD thesis" (Blaug) which expounds the monetary theories for which Fisher became famous and established his international reputation. It was first published in the present book form in October 1925, with this second printing following in May 1926. "Fisher's aim in his Mathematical Investigations was to present a general mathematical model of the determination of value and prices. He claimed to have specified the equations of general economic equilibrium for the case of independent goods (chapter 4, sec. 10), although the only mathematical economist whose work he had consulted was Jevons. With commendable honesty he recognizes the priority of Walras's Eléments d'économie politique pure (1874) as far as the equations of the general equilibrium are concerned and likewise the priority of Edgeworth's Mathematical Psychics (1881) as regards the concept of utility surfaces. It appears that, although only a student, Fisher had independently developed a theory of general economic equilibrium that was identical to part of Walras's and included the concept of the indifference surface, one of the fundamental bases of modern economic theory" (IESS V, pp. 476-7). Batson, p. 134; Fisher E-8. Mark Blaug, Great Economists before Keynes, 1986, pp. 77-81. Octavo. Original black cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt. Housed in custom black cloth slipcase. With 2 photographic frontispieces and numerous diagrams to the text. Minor sunning to spine and peripheral rubbing; a near-fine copy.