Lonergan's Early Economic Research delves into the origins of Bernard Lonergan's economic theory through his own writing on the subject. Michael Shute provides transcriptions of many of Lonergan's private files on economics for a deeper understanding of his groundbreaking macroeconomic theory. An introduction by the editor contextualizes the works, which also serve as archival materials relevant to the companion volume Lonergan's Discovery of the Science of Economics.
Organized around specific themes such as dialectic of history, methodology, economic history, and price equilibrium, the book makes available a substantial amount of previously unpublished texts. Materials include Lonergan's earliest notes on economics prior to his move to Rome in 1933, the complete surviving portion of 'An Essay in Fundamental Sociology,' and notes on economists Heinrich Pesch and Lionel Robbins, among others. These early works show that Lonergan built his economic discoveries on the methodological developments that he founded in his writings on the philosophy of history.