The Theorist's Tools

It is very pleasing to see this festschrift in honour of Anjan Mukherji, one of India’s most distinguished economic theorists. Mukherji, alongside his prolific contributions at the frontier of the subject, has been a wonderful teacher of economic theory as his ­students would testify. With his commitment to research and teaching, collegia­lity, ­humility and genuine respect for alternative traditions and paradigms, Mukherji has been an outstanding role model for young academics.

The volume, edited by three prominent economists and ex-students of Mukherji, contains 19 papers and an introduction by the editors. The introduction describes the range of Mukherji’s research work and provides an overview of the chapters. A foreword to the volume has been written by the late Lionel McKenzie, one of the builders of modern general equilibrium theory and Mukherji’s graduate super­visor. It is fascinating to read McKenzie’s appreciation of his favourite student’s work. Contributors to the volume – eminent scholars in diffe­rent areas of theory – are Mukherji’s ­ex-students or colleagues with common research interests. The diverse topics of these papers reflect the breadth of Mukherji’s own interests. Some of the papers address classical issues of theory while others address problems that have arisen in the last few decades.