The Evolution of Economic Knowledge Through Textbooks: Measuring Economic Approaches in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Economics textbooks play a central role in the transmission and stabilization of economic knowledge, yet their long-term evolution remains understudied. This paper examines how economic approaches shape academic textbooks and how they evolve, reproduce, and consolidate over time. Using a newly constructed corpus of approximately 440 economics textbooks published in Great Britain, the United States, France, and Italy during the twentieth century, the study reconstructs patterns of change beyond individual texts. Economic approaches are first conceptually defined and operationalized in quantifiable terms, enabling systematic measurement and comparison over time and between countries. The analysis combines textual analysis, multivariate statistical techniques, and measures of directional dependence and impact. By focusing on textbooks adopted in the early years of academic training, the paper shows how shifts in economic approaches are reflected, delayed, or stabilized within pedagogical materials. The results highlight the importance of textbooks as structured and measurable repositories of economic knowledge, offering new tools for the history and methodology of economic thought.