Bucknell's Vernengo Defining Economic Vocabulary as Dictionary Editor

As headlines cycle through terms like "inflation," "recession," "affordability" and "economic growth," the language of economics has become part of everyday conversation. Now, a Bucknell University economics professor is taking a lead role in helping to define today's economic terms.

Professor Matías Vernengo, economics, and director of the Bucknell Institute for Public Policy, is co-editor-in-chief of the forthcoming edition of the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. He serves as one of three editors leading the internationally recognized publication, which is scheduled for release in 2027. They began their editing work in 2017.

Often referred to as a dictionary, the book is in fact a comprehensive encyclopedia of economic thought. First published in 1894 as Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy, the reference work has evolved through multiple editions over the past century. The most recent edition, released in 2018, features approximately 3,000 chapters covering centuries of scholarship.

"It's really closer to an encyclopedia," Vernengo says. "But economists have never been particularly careful about language, so we call it a dictionary."

Vernengo's appointment as an editor-in-chief reflects both his scholarly standing and a broader effort to expand the field's global perspectives.

"My name was suggested to the publisher, and they interviewed me. I sold them on the concept of decolonization within the dictionary," Vernengo says. "It's a dictionary with many names, and not enough voices from Latin America, so they needed more editors from that region, and they liked my background, including work with United Nations organizations and the Central Bank of Argentina."

Vernengo identified Esteban Pérez Caldentey — another Latin American economic scholar with whom he previously worked and has co-authored numerous journal articles — as another editor. The dictionary publishers have since identified a third economist, Jayati Ghosh, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from India, to complete the editorial team for the latest edition.

"We are hoping to make this edition more of a global dictionary," Vernengo says. "We are getting into some topics for developing countries, which are not necessarily connected to the American economy or Europe."

The new edition will be published in 2027.

Pérez Caldentey is the chief of the Financing for Development Unit at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile. He will be at Bucknell on Tuesday, March 3, to give a 5:15 p.m. free, public presentation entitled "Economic Stagnation and the Right-Wing Tide in Latin America" as part of the BIPP Policy Parlor series in Vaughn Literature Building's Willard Smith Library. Bucknell Professor Manuel Larrabure, international relations, will provide commentary following the talk.

The evolution of economic language mirrors the discipline’s intellectual history. In the 18th century, Adam Smith, widely considered the father of modern economics, drew on Isaac Newton's physics, describing market prices as "gravitating" toward "natural" prices. Terms such as "natural interest rates" can be traced back to those early metaphors.

Economic vocabulary continues to evolve alongside global events, producing phrases such as "soft landing" and "disinflation."

"One of the things we're trying to do is respond to a push within the profession to broaden perspectives — to truly decolonize the dictionary and bring in voices and experiences from other parts of the world to add new perspective," Vernengo says.

As economic uncertainty fuels public debate, Vernengo's leadership of The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics aims to clarify not only what today's most talked-about terms mean but also to broaden understanding of them within the context of a global economy.