Principles of Economics

by Alfred Marshall

Overview

Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) was one of the most influential English economists of his time. Known as one of the founders of neoclassical economics, Marshall desired to improve the mathematical rigor of economics and transform it into a more scientific profession. Although he took economics to a more mathematically meticulous level, he did not want mathematics to overshadow economics. Marshall began his significant work, the "Principles of Economics," in 1881 and spent much of the next decade at work on this discourse. "Principles" achieved worldwide reputation, becoming the most dominant economic textbook in England for many years. It positively shaped the teaching of economics in English-speaking countries. The main technical contribution was the masterful analysis of the issues of consumer surplus, increasing and diminishing returns, short and long terms, and elasticity. It brings the ideas of supply and demand, costs of production, and marginal utility into a coherent whole. In a broader sense, Marshall hoped to reconcile the classical and modern theories of value.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781420944440
Publisher:	Digireads.com
Publication date:	01/01/2012
Pages:	532
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

ALFRED MARSHALL, distinguished British economist, was born in London on July 26, 1842. His interest in economics arose out of his earlier studies of philosophy and mathematics. Following his tenure as first principal of University College, Bristol (1877-1881), Marshall taught at Cambridge University from 1885 to 1908, and lived in Cambridge for the remainder of his life.

Marshall's chief work is the Principles of Economics (1890; eighth edition 1920). One of the founders of the so-called neo-classical school, Marshall argued that the economy would run best if left on its own, and that the normal functioning of a market econ-omy leads to full employment. Though influenced by the ideas of John Stuart Mill, Marshall substantially altered Mill's frame of ref-erence: instead of analyzing how the production of goods and the distribution of income among different social classes affected, often dramatically, economic well-being, he studied price setting in a static context, focusing on small, gradual changes and the complex interrelations by which market balance, or "equilibrium," is achieved. And while the earlier political economists Adam Smith and David Ricardo had identified labor as the force deter-mining the exchange value of goods, Marshall identified it as sat-isfaction of consumers' desires, or utility.

Marshall's orderly Victorian picture of supply, demand, and price, particularly at a time when contemporary socialists and trade unions were challenging the status quo, came under attack by later economists, including John Maynard Keynes, who demon-strated that market forces can be ineffective in promoting full employment and who advocated enlightened government inter-vention over laissez-faire policies. Nonetheless, Marshall's work continues to influence orthodox economics. Alfred Marshall died in Cambridge on July 13, 1924.

Marshall's other published works include Industry and Trade (1919) and Money, Credit, and Commerce (1923).

Table of Contents

BOOK I: PRELIMINARY SURVEY 1. Introduction 2. The Substance of Economics 3. Economic Generalizations or Laws 4. The Order and Aims of Economic Studies BOOK II: SOME FUNDAMENTAL NOTIONS 1. Introductory 2. Wealth 3. Production, Consumption, Labour, Necessaries 4. Income. Capital. BOOK III: ON WANTS AND THEIR SATISFACTION 1. Introductory 2. Wants in Relation to Activities 3. Gradations of consumers' demand 4. The elasticity of wants 5. Choice between different uses of the same thing. Immediate and deferred uses. 6. Value and utility BOOK IV: THE AGENTS OF PRODUCTION. LAND, LABOUR, CAPITAL AND ORGANIZATION T 1. Introductory 2. The Fertility of Land 3. The Fertility of Land, continued. The Tendency to Diminishing Return. 4. The Growth of Population 5. The Health and Strength of the Population 6. Industrial Training. 7. The Growth of Wealth 8. Industrial Organization 9. Industrial Organization, continued. Division of Labour. The Influence of Machinery 10. Industrial Organization, continued. The Concentration of the Specialized Industries in Particular Localities. 11. Industrial Organization, continued. Production on a Large Scale 12. Industrial Organization, continued. Business Management. 13. Conclusion. Correlation of the Tendencies to Increasing and to Diminishing Return BOOK V: GENERAL RELATIONS OF DEMAND, SUPPLY, AND VALUE 1. Introductory. On Markets. 2. Temporary Equilibrium of Demand and Supply 3. Equilibrium of Normal Demand and Supply 4. The Investment and Distribution of Resources 5. Equilibrium of Normal Demand and Supply, continued, with reference to long and short periods 6. Joint and Composite Demand. Joint and Composite Supply 7. Prime and total cost in relation to joint products. Cost of marketing. Insurance against risk. Cost of Reproduction. 8. Marginal costs in relation to values. General Principles. 9. Marginal costs in relation to values. General Principles, continued 10. Marginal costs in relation to agricultural values 11. Marginal costs in relation to urban values 12. Equilibrium of normal demand and supply, continued, with reference to the law of increasing return 13. Theory of changes of normal demand and supply, in relation to the doctrine of maximum satisfaction 14. The theory of monopolies 15. Summary of the general theory of equilibrium of demand and supply BOOK VI: THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE NATIONAL INCOME 1. Preliminary survey of distribution 2. Preliminary survey of distribution, continued 3. Earnings of labour 4. Earnings of labour, continued 5. Earnings of labour, continued 6. Interest of capital 7. Profits of capital and business power 8. Profits of capital and business power, continued 9. Rent of land 10. Land tenure 11. General view of distribution 12. General influences of progress on value 13. Progress in relation to standards of life

Editorial Reviews

"It is impossible to understand economics in the twentieth century without knowing about Marshall's Principles. The simplicity of his presentation conceals complexities that were not apparent to later generations who picked up on the mathematics whilst ignoring many of the evolutionary ideas that fascinate modern scholars."

Roger E. Backhouse, Professor of the History and Philosophy of Economics, University of Birmingham, UK

"Alfred Marshall's Principles of Economics is an outstanding contribution, one of the foundations of neoclassical economics, and shaped the thought of economists from John Maynard Keynes to Milton Friedman. Every modern economist should make its acquaintaince and should look in admiration at that seminal diagram in which Marshall drew a supply curve intersecting a demand curve. Peter Groenewegen, Marshall's biographer and the greatest living Marshall scholar, has written a new introduction for this edition, drawing on a lifetime of insightful scholarship."

Robert W. Dimand, Professor of Economics, Brock University, Canada

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