Alex Field - Some Links

Alexander J. Field is the Michel and Mary Orradre Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University. A member of Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Gamma Sigma, his research and teaching interests include American and European economic history, macroeconomics, and the economics of technological and institutional change. His latest article, “The Most Technologically Progressive Decade of the Century,” appeared in the September 2003 American Economic Review. Professor Field’s administrative positions at Santa Clara University have included chair of the economics department, associate dean and acting dean of the Business School, acting Academic Vice President, and member of the school’s Board of Trustees. Professor Field received his A.B. from Harvard University (1970), his Master of Science from the London School of Economics (1971) and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (1974). He taught previously at Stanford University. Link to really nice article where this came from



Leaders in their field

Economics professors Alex Field, Kris Mitchener, and Bill Sundstrom have brought recognition to SCU for their outstanding scholarship. "Their work, especially in examining economic history as applied to issues of today, has put us on the map as one of the best economic history departments in the country," says Dean Barry Z. Posner.

Field specializes in lessons about technology and progress, Mitchner focuses on financial and economic fragility, and Sundstrom shows us what gender and race mean for our working lives. Collectively, their work assesses changes in productivity resulting from uses of technology. Santa Clara University President's report 2002-2003

Altruistically Inclined?: The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, and the Origins of Reciprocity (Hardcover)
by Alexander J. Field -

Editorial Reviews
Robert Sugden, Journal of Economic Literature
"A work of scholarship and mature reflection, based on a wide reading across economics, biology, and psychology"

Craig T. Palmer, The Human Nature Review
"a very engaging work that should be read by anyone interested in explaining human altruism"

Thomas P. Hahn, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
"a provocative, integrative, impressively scholarly work that will stimulate a wide range of readers."

Book Description - From the Inside Flap
"Should economists keep on trying to force everything into a Prudence Only model, or should they admit that evolved human nature has room for Love and Justice, too? Alexander Field--an economist and historian, a reader of biology and of literature--brings an extraordinarily wide range of thought to bear on the issue. He is a public intellectual to rank with Robert Frank or Robert Putnam, though he disagrees sharply with the fashionable pessimism of these two. Passions stay well within reason and we do not usually, after all, bowl alone. Why? Because we have evolved for good reasons as ethical beings, who try to be harmless when we can. All manner of social cooperation, from negotiating the Santa Monica Freeway to ordinary commerce, depends on the Niceness Instinct that Field celebrates and explains. Field has written a great book, readable and important, a reply to the boys playing in a Hobbesian sandbox, who dominate our social sciences but cannot imagine why societies cohere." --Deirdre McCloskey, UIC Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, and English, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Tinbergen Professor of Economics, Philosophy, and Art and Cultural Studies, Erasmusuniversiteit Rotterdam

"In this remarkable book, Alex Field casts his net across disciplines to confront the question that economists prefer to avoid: Why are human beings altruistic? His powerful argument deserves the attention of all social scientists." --Gavin Wright, Department of Economics, Stanford University

"This book presents a bold and fascinating conjecture pertaining to the interface of several disciplines: economics, sociology, evolutionary psychology, and ethics. It will force practitioners in each of these disciplines to look at familiar problems in a new way." --Melvin Reder, Isidore Brown and Gladys J. Brown Professor Emeritus of Urban and Labor Economics, University of Chicago

About the Author
Alexander J. Field is the Michel and Mary Orradre Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University.

Source: Amazon Page

Alex Field, even while on sabbatical, brings credit to the School through hosting a national Economic History Conference on campus. Harvard Professor David Landes writes: "...this brought me to Santa Clara for the first time and sent me away with the most agreeable and satisfying memories of beautiful site, superb hospitality, and an environment that promised a marriage of excited scholarship and warm friendship. Much of this, of course, was the work of Alex Field and company. In a long experience of these matters--some fifty years--I have never seen such eagerness of participation and intellectual exchange. I'm sure everyone, like me, went home invigorated....So I just want to thank you and all those at Santa Clara who made this encounter possible." Dean's Log April 20, 1998