Hoselitz addressed topics in economic policy and intellectual history including the economics of war and military occupation, urbanization, stage theories of economic growth, and the entrepreneur. With
James Dingwall, Hoselitz translated and edited the first English edition of
Carl Menger's
Principles of Economics' (1950), an important text in
Austrian economics. In the early 1950s, Hoselitz's work began to focus on the contrasts in social organization between economically advanced and economically backward countries. He wanted to develop a social science framework for examining the determinants of economic growth. The framework he developed drew heavily on the sociologist
Talcott Parsons's theory of social structure, especially what Parsons called "pattern variables of role-definition". Hoselitz made several distinctions between developed and underdeveloped countries based on these pattern variables: a) developed countries tend to be achievement-oriented, based on objective measures such as educational attainment, while developing countries have used
ascribed status factors such as kinship and religion for assigning status and rewards; b) developed countries tend to use universalistic standards, for example in use of the rule of law, whereas developing countries tend more to act more on particularistic, personalized relationships such as caste systems or kinship networks; c) developed economies are characterized by extensive division of labor while developing economies tend to have a less-specialized workforce. In linking together the two topics of economic development and cultural change, the founders and staff of the Center took the view that cooperative, interdisciplinary research would be required to address the relevant issues. To facilitate "exploratory discussion of the problems of economic and cultural change", the Center sponsored publication of the journal
Economic Development and Cultural Change. Its first issue appeared in March, 1952. Initially established as essentially a newsletter for the Center for Research on Economic Development and Cultural Change, it went on under Hoselitz's 33-year editorship to become one of the leading journals in the field of economic development. The journal focused on developing countries in the midst of on-going economic concerns with postwar reconstruction and emerging
Cold War tensions. It was also distinctive among development journals in emphasizing application of social science and interdisciplinary perspectives rather than simple advocacy or ad hoc generalizations. Hoselitz can be seen as a maverick and intellectual outsider to the Chicago Economics department, home of the "
Chicago School" of thought. His employment of Parson's pattern variables and his focus on cultural change contrasted to the Chicago department's emphasis on universal maximizing behavior. Hoselitz's writings acknowledge the likely possibility that top-down planners will be required to direct the course of economic development for under-developed economies, in contrast to the Chicago department's usual preference for
laissez faire policies. Hoselitz worked effectively with "mainstream" members of the Economics department.
D. Gale Johnson was one of the founding participants in the Center for Research on Economic Development and Cultural Change, and Johnson succeeded Hoselitz as editor of
Economic Development and Cultural Change. == Publications ==