FIRST EDITION OF THE ECONOMICS OF DICSRIMINATION, 1957

BECKER, Gary S. The Economics of Discrimination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (1957). Octavo, original green cloth, original dust jacket. $1800.

First edition of this groundbreaking study examining the intersection between racial discrimination and economics, in original dust jacket.

Based on economist Gary Becker's Ph.D. dissertation, Economics of Discrimination "contains the first systematic effort to use economic theory to analyze the effects of prejudice on the earnings, employment and occupations of minorities." According to Becker in his Nobel Prize autobiography, "it started me down the path of applying economics to social issues, a path that I have continued to follow. The book was very favorably reviewed in a few major journals, but for several years it had no visible impact on anything. Most economists did not think racial discrimination was economics, and sociologists and psychologists generally did not believe I was contributing to their fields. However, Friedman, Lewis, Schultz, and others at Chicago were confident I had written an important book. Support by the people I respected so highly was crucial to my willingness to persevere in the face of much hostility" (The Nobel Prize). Today, many of Becker's theories have gained widespread acceptance and few modern economists would argue against the idea that racial discrimination has a longstanding and important association with and effect on economics. "A 2000 paper by Stanford University's Edward P. Lazear argues that economics' use of a model based on rational, maximizing individuals; equilibrium; and efficiency has allowed the discipline to spread its intellectual reach into many areas previously thought to be beyond its realm. That imperialistic march began in earnest with The Economics of Discrimination. It is still going on" (Chicago Booth Review). Some faint penciled underlining and marginalia.

Book about-fine, dust jacket clean and with a few rubs to extremities, near-fine.