ABSTRACT
Irving Fisher and John R.Commons brought distinctly different perspectives to their treatments of economic issues. Fisher took pride in his pioneering work in mathematical economics, in his contributions to formal theorizing (especially in his formulation of the theory of capital and interest), and in his efforts to promote econometrics. By contrast, Commons’s brand of institutionalism was dedicated to hands-on investigations into components of the economic universe set within a particular social and legal context. He eschewed higher mathematics and was more than a little suspicious of the claims advanced by practitioners of abstract theorizing. And yet-despite profound differences in their respective approaches to the discipline-Fisher and Commons were to form a working partnership as advocates of monetary reforms. This chapter is concerned with the conditions permitting that convergence to come about and with what this story tells us about the state of the profession in America in the interwar years.
