ABSTRACT
Most economists see themselves, and wish to be seen by others, as professionals, although if pressed many would find it difficult to say precisely what that designation means. This is understandable, for the terms ‘profession’ and ‘professionalization’ have long been the subject of dispute among specialists, most of whom are sociologists and therefore not taken seriously by economists. Moreover, as noted later, there are specific reasons why the economics profession is difficult to define and identify. What is less understandable, indeed inexcusable, is the dearth of serious research on the nature, historical evolution and significance of the professionalization of economics, whether by economists or by other scholars. Of course, there has been considerable discussion of the profession’s problems, especially during and since the so-called ‘crisis’ of the late 1960s and early 1970s (e.g. Heller 1975; Coats 1977; Bell and Kristol 1981 among others), but most of this has been either occasional, personal partisan or mainly methodological. There is no full-scale published study of the growth of the economics profession in the UK or the USA, the two leading countries in the development of modern economics; and comparative work on the subject is still in its infancy1-although there has been some promising, but essentially preliminary, research on the role of economists in government that is referred to below. Consequently, given the current state of our knowledge, the following account must perforce be sketchy and impressionistic.
