History and refractions of the past: from Harold Hotelling’s Economics of Exhaustible Resources to the “Hotelling rule”
Marion Gaspard
Published online: 25 Sep 2026
The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
https://doi.org/10.1080/09672567.2026.2698455
摘要
本文追溯哈罗德・霍特林关于可耗尽资源的论文的历史。
通过结合历史探究（historical inquiry） —— 聚焦霍特林原始著作的内容与议题 —— 与记忆史（mnemo-history） —— 考察相继的解读，以及该论文经典化的语境（the context of the canonization）
—— 本文表明，霍特林的成功并非源自逐步的认可（gradual recognition），而是源于罗伯特・索洛在 20 世纪 70 年代中期精心策划（orchestrated）的一场对过往的折射。
索洛对霍特林的致敬持久地扭曲了（enduringly distorted）关于霍特林贡献性质的集体记忆。
该研究邀请历史学家与经济学家重建一种与历史研究更为契合的共享记忆（a shared memory）。
This article traces the history of Harold Hotelling’s paper on exhaustible resources. By combining historical inquiry – focusing on the content and issues of Hotelling’s original work – and mnemo-history – examining the successive readings, then the context of the canonization of the article – it shows that Hotelling’s success did not stem from gradual recognition but from a refraction of the past orchestrated by Robert Solow in the mid 1970s. Solow’s tribute to Hotelling enduringly distorted the collective memory about the nature of Hotelling’s contribution. The study invites historians and economists to rebuild a shared memory that aligns more closely with historical research.