Risk, Uncertainty and Profit.

Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company,, 1921. The first work of any importance that deals explicitly with decision-making under conditions of uncertainty First edition, presentation copy, boldly inscribed in ink to the front free endpaper: "To my Chief, Dr. C. A. Phillips, With sincere regards. Frank H. Knight." C. A. Phillips was the first dean of the College of Commerce at Iowa State University, where Knight taught between 1919 and 1927 Risk, Uncertainty and Profit was Knight's first major work, originally written as a doctoral dissertation at Cornell in 1916, under the title "A Theory of Business Profit". After significant revision, it was published in 1921 as "Risk, Uncertaintly and Profit", by which time Knight was associate professor of economics in the State University of Iowa. It is "the first work of any importance, and in any field of study, that deals explicitly with decision-making under conditions of uncertainty" (Bernstein, p. 219). It is in the present work that "the famous Knightian curves of diminishing returns... made their first appearance, and the essence of the theory of the dominant firm was now mentioned" (Stigler). Published as volume XXXI of the series of Hart, Schaffner & Marx prize essays (Knight's came second), Knight here "attempts to analyse 'the problem of the contrast between perfect competition and actual competition' and finds it necessary in the pursuit of this aim to cover a far wider field than is suggested by the title or preface. It would, in fact, be difficult to discover a better short statement of pure economic theory" (Batson). A scarce title, especially inscribed. Octavo. Original red pebbled cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Spine ends and corners lightly rubbed, small indentation to spine, boards splash marked in places. Endpapers a little browned, as usual, short tear to foot of front free endpaper in the gutter; a very good copy with an excellent association Batson, p. 27; Sraffa 3064.