The Economics of Alfred Marshall : Revisiting Marshall's Legacy

The Economics of Alfred Marshall brings together a number of leading international scholars for a timely reappraisal of Marshall's contribution to the development of economics. The aims of the contributors are firstly to revisit the work of Alfred Marshall and to investigate the unity of his projects, which contemporary authors often tend to underestimate; and secondly to show how Marshall's approach is not only a subject for historians of economic thought, but may also provide a message that is relevant for the progress of economics. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introductory Remarks....Pages 1-10 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 The Return of the ‘White Elephant’....Pages 13-31 Dealing with Complexity: Marshall and Keynes on the Nature of Economic Thinking....Pages 32-52 Alfred Marshall on Social Capital....Pages 53-66 Marshall’s Objective: Making Orthodox Economics Intelligible to Business Leaders....Pages 67-83 Alfred Marshall’s Partial Equilibrium: Dynamics in Disguise....Pages 84-112 Competition and Evolution: The Marshallian Conciliation Enterprise....Pages 113-133 Front Matter....Pages 135-135 Alfred Marshall’s Principles and Industry and Trade: Two Books or One? Marshall and the Joint Stock Company....Pages 137-157 From the Representative to the Equilibrium Firm: Why Marshall was not a Marshallian....Pages 158-181 Increasing Returns and Competition: Learning from a Marshallian Perspective....Pages 182-201 Efficiency and Time....Pages 202-220 Organization and Knowledge in Alfred Marshall’s Economics....Pages 221-239 Some Remarks on Marshallian External Economies and Industrial Tendencies....Pages 240-253 Requirements and Patterns of Marshallian Evolution: Their Impact on the Notion of Industrial District....Pages 254-268 Back Matter....Pages 269-281 Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) was one of the economists of the Cambridge school, whose thinking evolved into a mixture of utilitarianism, evolutionism and German idealism. He is equal in influence to other evolutionary economists such as Pigou and Jevons, and also addressed issues such as demand theory and welfare economics. The Economics of Alfred Marshall brings together a number of leading international scholars for a timely reappraisal of Marshall's contribution to the development of the field of economics. The aims of the contributors are firstly to revisit the work of Alfred Marshall and to investigate the unity of his projects which contemporary authors often tend to underestimate; and secondly to show how Marshall's approach is not only a subject for historians of economic thought, but may also provide a message which is still relevant for the progress of economics today