Donald W. Katzner

Professor

Faculty
Donald W. Katzner Photo
Contact
Email
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Location
303 Crotty Hall

Education

  • Ph.D. Economics - University of Minnesota, June 1965
  • M.A. Mathematics - University of Minnesota, July 1962
  • B.A. Mathematics - Oberlin College, June 1959

Professional Experience

  • Fellow, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences, Fall, 1995
  • Invited Professor, University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne), February--March, 1989
  • Visiting Scholar, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981-1982
  • Chairman, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, 1976-1981
  • Professor, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, 1975-present
  • Lecturer, University of California/San Diego, 1973-75
  • Professor, University of Waterloo, 1971-73
  • Associate Professor, University of Waterloo, 1970-71
  • Visiting Professor, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, 1967-68, May-July, 1993
  • Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania, 1965-71
  • Summer Intern, Council of Economic Advisers, Summer 1962

Research Interests

  • Microeconomic Theory
  • Methodology
  • Culture and Economic Behavior
  • Japan and the Japanese Economy
  • Organization Theory

Honors and Awards

  • Recognition for distinguished academic outreach, University of Massachusetts, 2002.
  • The Order of Merit, Poznan University of Economics, Poznan, 2000.
  • University Medal, Mongolian National University, Ulaan Baatar, 1994.
  • Inducted into Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society (University of Massachusetts Chapter), 1992.

Grants

  • Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 1964-65.
  • "The Economic Costs of the Composition of Unemployment," with L. R. Klein, 1965-66 (Department of Health, Education and Welfare).
  • "Demand, Adjustment Processes and Economic Growth," with E. Burmeister and R. A. Pollack, 1967-69 (National Science Foundation).
  • Faculty Research Grant, Social Science Research Council, 1967-68.
  • Summer Research Fellowship, University of Waterloo, 1971.
  • Research Grant, Academic Senate, University of California/San Diego, 1974-75.
  • Faculty Research Grants for Conference Travel, Research Council, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, 1987 and 1989.
  • USIA grants for lecturing on microeconomic theory to college professors and teachers: Poland (Summer, 1992), Mongolia (Summer, 1994).
  • Five College grant for 3-semester seminar to study comparative economic behaviors across cultural boundaries (1996-97).
  • Fulbright Senior Specialist grant to give a series of lectures in Mongolia (Summer, 2002).
  • Fulbright Senior Specialist grant to give lectures and consult in Taiwan (Summer, 2007).

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Books

  • Static Demand Theory (New York: Macmillan, 1970).
  • Choice and the Quality of Life (Beverly Hills: SAGE, 1979).
  • Analysis Without Measurement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
  • Walrasian Microeconomics: An Introduction to the Economic Theory of Market Behavior (Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1988).
  • The Walrasian Vision of the Microeconomy: An Elementary Exposition of the Structure of Modern General Equilibrium Theory (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1989). Mongolian edition, R. Enkhbat trans. (Ulaanbaatar: JICOM, 2002).
  • Time, Ignorance, and Uncertainty in Economic Models (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998).
  • Unmeasured Information and the Methodology of Social Scientific Inquiry (Boston: Kluwer, 2001).
  • An Introduction to the Economic Theory of Market Behavior: Microeconomics from a Walrasian Perspective (Cheltenham: Elgar, 2006). (A considerably revised and expanded version of Walrasian Microeconomics.
  • Culture and Economic Explanation: Economics in the US and Japan (London: Routledge, 2008).
  • At the Edge of Camelot: Debating Economics in Turbulent Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011). (Also published on line: Oxford Scholarship Online, Oxford University Press, September 2011.)
  • Models, Mathematics, and Methodology in Economic Explanation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018).
  • Organization in the Economic Firm (Cheltenham: Elgar, 2021).

Articles

  • "A Note on the Constancy of the Marginal Utility of Income," International Economic Review 8 (1967), pp. 128-130.
  • "A Note on the Differentiability of Consumer Demand Functions," Econometrica 36 (1968), pp. 415-418.
  • "A General Approach to the Theory of Supply," Economic Studies Quarterly 19 (1968), pp. 32-45.
  • "On the Possibility of the General Linear Economic Model," with L. R. Klein, Economic Models, Estimation and Risk Programming, K. Fox et al eds. (Berlin: Springer, 1969), pp. 343-364.
  • "Political Structure and System and the Notion of Logical Completeness, " General Systems 14 (1969), pp. 169-171.
  • "Demand and Exchange Analysis in the Absence of Integrability Conditions," Preferences, Utility and Demand, J. S. Chipman, et al eds. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971), pp. 254-270.
  • "A Simple Approach to Existence and Uniqueness of Competitive Equilibria," American Economic Review 57 (1972), pp. 432-437.
  • "On the Analysis of Systems Containing Non-Quantifiable Elements," Kybernetes 2 (1973), pp. 147-155.
  • "An Approach to a Unified Micro-Macro Economic Model," with S. Weintraub, Kyklos 27 (1974), pp. 482-510.
  • "Occupational Preferences and the Quality of Life," with J. E. Russo, Social Science Research 6 (1977), pp. 363-378.
  • "On Not Quantifying the Non-Quantifiable," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 1, no. 2 (Winter 1978-79), pp. 113-128.
  • "Reply to Brennan," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 2 no. 2 (Winter 1979-80), pp. 270-273.
  • "Profits, Optimality, and the Social Division of Labor in the Firm," with H. Gintis, Sociological Economics, L. Levy-Garboua, ed. (London: SAGE Publications, 1979), pp. 269-297.
  • "The Formal Structure of Argument in Professor Apter's Choice and the Politics of Allocation," Political Methodology 6 no. 2 (1979), pp. 217-235.
  • "Capital and Walrasian Equilibrium," Demand, Equilibrium and Trade, A. Ingham and A. M. Ulph eds. (London: Macmillan, 1984), pp. 123-148.
  • "Alternatives to Equilibrium Analysis," Eastern Economic Journal 11 (1985), pp. 404-421.
  • "The Role of Formalism in Economic Thought, with Illustration Drawn From the Analysis of Social Interaction in the Firm," The Reconstruction of Economic Theory, P. Mirowski ed. (Boston: Kluwer-Nijhoff, 1986), pp. 137-177.
  • "Potential Surprise, Potential Confirmation and Probability," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 9 no. 1 (Fall, 1986), pp. 58-78.
  • "More on the Distinction between Potential Confirmation and Probability," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 10 no. 1 (Fall, 1987), pp. 65-83.
  • "The Efficiency of Organizational Forms," Economie Appliquee 40 (1987), pp. 539-564.
  • "Integrability of Demand," The New Palgrave v. 2, J. Eatwell et al eds. (London: Macmillan, 1987), pp. 872-873. Rewritten for The New Palgrave (revised ed.), S. Durlauf and L. Blume eds. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming).
  • "Supply Functions," The New Palgrave v. 4, J. Eatwell et al eds. (London: Macmillan, 1987), pp. 554-556.
  • "Notions of Closeness in a Nonquantifiable Setting," Social Science Research 17 (1988), pp. 1-28.
  • "The 'Comparative Statics' of the Shackle-Vickers Approach to Decision-Making in Ignorance," Studies in the Economics of Uncertainty, T. B. Fomby and T. K. Seo, eds. (New York: Springer, 1989), pp. 21-43.
  • "Attitudes, Rationality and Consumer Demand," Inflation and Income Distribution in Capitalist Crisis, J. A. Kregel, ed. (London: Macmillan, 1989), pp. 133-153.
  • "The Shackle-Vickers Approach to Decision-Making in Ignorance," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 12 no. 2 (Winter, 1989-90), pp. 237-259.
  • Editor's "Introduction" to a symposium in honor of Douglas Vickers, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 12 no. 2 (Winter, 1989-90), pp. 201-202.
  • "The Firm under Conditions of Ignorance and Historical Time," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 13 no. 1 (Fall, 1990), pp. 125-145.
  • "Institutionally Determined Parameters in Economic Equations," Économie Appliquée 43 (1990), pp. 35-52.
  • "Unity of Subject-Matter in the Teaching of Intermediate Microeconomic Theory," Journal of Economic Education 22 (1991), pp. 154-163.
  • "Aggregation and the Analysis of Markets," Review of Political Economy 3 (1991), pp. 220-231.
  • "In Defense of Formalization in Economics," Methodus 3 no. 1 (June, 1991), pp. 17-24. Reprinted in Tales of Narcissus: The Looking Glass of Economic Science, C. Freedman and R. Szostak, eds. (New York: Nova Science: 2003), pp. 85-91.
  • "The Role of Empirical Analysis in the Investigation of Situations Involving Ignorance and Historical Time," Eastern Economic Journal 17 (1991), pp. 297-303.
  • "Our Mad Rush to Measure: How Did We Get into This Mess?" Methodus 3 no. 2 (December, 1991), pp. 18-26.
  • "The Structure of Authority in the Firm," Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 19 (1992), pp. 41-67.
  • Letter to the Editor, Methodus 4 no. 2 (December, 1992), p. 141.
  • "Operationality in the Shackle-Vickers Approach to Decision-Making in Ignorance," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 15 no. 2 (Winter, 1992-93), pp. 229-254.
  • "Some Notes on the Role of History and the Definition of Hysteresis and Related Concepts in Economic Analysis," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 15 no. 3 (Spring, 1993), pp. 323-345.
  • "Effort and Efficiency in the Neoclassical Firm," Review of Political Economy 6 (1994), pp. 62-71.
  • "Simultaneous Economic Behavior under Conditions of Ignorance and Historical Time," Measurement, Quantification and Economic Analysis: Numeracy in Economics, I. Rima, ed. (London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 379-395.
  • "Participatory Decision-Making in the Firm," Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 26 (1995), pp. 221-236.
  • "Analysis with Ordinal Measurement," Employment, Economic Growth and the Tyranny of the Market: Essays in Honour of Paul Davidson, v. 2, P. Arestis, ed. (Cheltenham: Elgar, 1996), pp. 37-54.
  • "The Misuse of Measurement in Economics," Metroeconomica 49 (1998), pp. 1-22.
  • "Participation and the Location of Decision-Making in the Firm," Journal of Comparative Economics 27 (1999), pp. 150-167.
  • "Hysteresis and the Modeling of Economic Phenomena," Review of Political Economy 11 (1999), pp. 171-181.
  • "Western Economics and the Economy of Japan," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics v. 21, no. 3 (Spring, 1999), pp. 503-521.
  • "Reply to Thiruvadanthai," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics v. 22, n. 4 (Summer, 2000), pp. 653-658.
  • "Profit Maximization and the Japanese Firm: A Reply to Coffey and Tomlinson," Journal of Post Keysesian Economics 26, no. 4 (Summer, 2004), pp. 745-750.
  • "Methodological Individualism and the Walrasian Tatonnement," Journal of Economic and Social Research 1 (1999), pp. 5-33.
  • "The Demand for Money in an Uncertain World," Economics as an Art of Thought, P.E. Earl and S.F. Frowen, eds. (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 269-298.
  • "Economics and the Principle of Uniformity," Economia Politica 17 (2000), pp. 237-252. Reprinted in Time in Economic Theory, v. II, S. Zamagni and E. Agliardi, eds. (Cheltenham: Elgar, 2004), pp. 132- 147.
  • "Culture and the Explanation of Choice Behavior," Theory and Decision 48 (2000), pp. 241-262.
  • "Explaining the Japanese Economic Miracle," Japan and the World Economy 13 (2001), pp. 303-319.
  • "The Significance, Success, and Failure of Microeconomic Theory," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 24, no. 1 (Fall, 2001), pp. 41-58.
  • "'What Are the Questions?'" Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 25, no. 1 (Fall 2002), pp. 51-68.
  • "Why Mathematics in Economics?" Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 25, no. 4 (Summer, 2003), pp. 561-574.
  • "Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium," Elgar Companion to Post Keynesian Economics, J. E. King, ed. (Cheltenham: Elgar, 2003), pp. 126-131.  
  • Revised for 2nd edition (Cheltenham: Elgar, 2012), pp. 180-185.
  • "The Role of Optimization in Economics," Optimization and Optimal Control, P.M. Pardalos, I. Tseveedorj, and R. Enkhbat, eds. (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2003), pp. 141-153.
  • "Economic Explanation, Ordinality, and the Adequacy of Analytic Specification," with P. Skott, Journal of Economic Methodology, 11(2004), pp. 437-453.
  • "Cultural Variation in the Theory of the Firm," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 28, no. 2 (Winter, 2005-06), pp. 277-293.
  • "The Workings of the Japanese Economy," Crisis or Recovery in Japan: State and Industrial Economy, D. Bailey, D. Coffey, and P. Tomlinson, eds. (Cheltenham: Elgar, 2007), pp. 9-30.
  • "Exercises in Futility: Post-War Auto-Trade Negotiations between the United states and Japan," with M.J. Nikomarov, The Japanese Economy, 35 (2008), pp. 29-58.
  • "On the Analytical and Methodological Significance of Microeconomic Theory," Review of Radical Political Economics 40 (2008), pp. 324-330.
  • "The Current Non-Status of General Equilibrium Theory," Review of Economic Design 14 (2010), pp. 203-219.
  • "Ordinal Utility and the Traditional Theory of Consumer Demand," Real-World Economics Review, Issue #67 (May, 2014), pp. 130-136.
  • "A Neoclassical Curmudgeon Looks at Heterodox Criticisms of Microeconomics," World Economic Review 4 (2015), pp. 63-75.
  • "The Stages of Model Building in Economics," Studies in Microeconomics 4 (2016), pp. 79-99.
  • "Time and the Analysis of Economic Decision Making," Real-World Economics Review, Issue 77 (December 2016), pp. 64-72.
  • "Uncertainty and Overdetermination," Knowledge, Class and Economics: Marxism without Guarantees, T. Burczak, et al eds. (London: Routledge, 2018), pp. 89-98.
  • "Measurement Scales and Optimization in Economics,” Journal of  Business and Innovation 8, no. 1 (2022), pp. 109-123. 
  • "The Problem with Probability,” Journal of Post Keynesian Economics  46 (2023), pp. 379-399. 
  • "The Past Is Only Prologue – Not the Future: Response to My Critics,”  Journal of Post Keynesian Economics (forthcoming).