Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish Kautilya as a genuine contender to be a forerunner of the neoclassical price theory. Design/methodology/approach – Rational reconstruction approach is used to present Kautilya's understanding of several most basic concepts in economics. Findings – Kautilya's understanding of the law of diminishing returns is at par with the classicists. His applications of concepts like opportunity cost, and of demand and supply framework, are closer to those of the neoclassicals. His understanding of the rules (axioms) of comparison and consistency and the exploration of substitution possibilities is way ahead of the classicists. Research limitations/implications – The current research in the history of economic thought concentrates too heavily on the exploration of Western history of economic thought. Practical implications – Kautilya's Arthashastra is a new source of knowledge and the profession should encourage the exploration of other ancient contributions outside of Europe. Originality/value – The paper revises the history of economic thought.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Volume (Year): 25 (2009) Issue (Month): 1 (February) Pages: 37-54 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF