Profile Major Works Resources

Lord Lionel C. Robbins, 1898-1984.


Lionel Charles Robbins was a peculiar Englishman in the economics world of the 1920s for a very simple reason: he was not a Marshallian but rather a follower of Jevons and Wicksteed. However odd,  what really made him downwright unique in Britain was that he had actually read the Continental European economists - Walras, Pareto, Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser and Wicksell.  As a result of his Jevonian-Lausanne-Austrian- Swedish infections, Lord Robbins was instrumental in shifting the train of English economics off its Marshallian rails and onto Continental ones.

Robbins's tools were the London School of Economics and a famous1932 Essay on economic methodology.  Succeeding at a young age to the unfortunate Allyn Young to the chair of the L.S.E. in 1929, the thirty-year old Robbins proceeded quickly. Among his first appointments was Friedrich A. von Hayek.  Robbins and Hayek presided over the "golden age" of the L.S.E. in the 1930s, breeding a new generation of "English-speaking continentals" such as Hicks, Lerner,  Kaldor, and Scitovsky.  

Robbins's early essays were very combative in spirit, stressing the subjectivist theory of value beyond what Anglo-Saxon economics had been used to. Robbins's famous work on costs (1930, 1934) helped bring Wieser's "alternative cost" theorem of supply to England (which was opposed to Marshall's "real cost" theory of supply). His critique of the Marshallian theory of the representative firm (1928), and his critique of the Pigouvian Welfare Economics (1932, 1938), helped put an end to the Marshallian empire -- aided and abetted (and occasionally thwarted) every step of the way by his kindred spirit across the pond, Frank Knight.

It was his 1932 Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science where Robbins made his Continental credentials clear. Redefining the scope of economics to be "the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between scarce means which have alternative uses" (Robbins, 1932). His defense of a priori theory and attack on Marshallian intuitionism is reminiscent of von Mises's essay.

Robbins was initially opposed to Keynes's General Theory. Robbins's 1934 treatise on the Great Depression is an exemplary Neoclassical analysis of that period. Indeed, Robbins always saw his L.S.E. as a bulwark against Cambridge, whether it was populated by Marshallians or Keynesians. However, Robbins was eventually to recant and reconcile with the Keynesian Revolution (1947). 

In the latter part of his life, Robbins turned to the history of economic thought and policy, publishing various classic studies on English doctrinal history (1952, 1958, 1968, 1970, 1976).  Although the ascendancy of the L.S.E. is foremost among his legacies, Robbins is also greatly responsible for the modern British university system - having advocated its massive expansion in the 1960s.

 

  

top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Major works of Lionel Robbins

  • "Review of T.E. Gregory, Present Position of Banking in America", 1925, Economica
  • "Dynamics of Capitalism", 1926, Economica.
  • "Mr Hawtrey on the Scope of Econmics", 1927, Economica
  • "Review of M.J. Bonn, Das Schicksal des Deutschen Kaptialismus", 1927, EJ
  • "The Optimum Theory of Population", 1927, in Gregory and Dalton, editors, London Essays in Economics.
  • "The Representative Firm", 1928, EJ.
  • "The Economic Effects of Variations of Hours of Labour", 1929, EJ
  • "Review of J. Stamp, Some Economic Factors", 1929, EJ
  • "Review of E. Cannan, Review of Economic Theory", 1929, EJ
  • "On a Certain Ambiguity in the Conception of Stationary Equilibrium", 1930, EJ.
  • "The Present Position of Economic Science", 1930, Economica
  • "On the Elasticity of Demand for Income in Terms of Effort", 1930, Economica
  • "Economic Notes on Some Arguments for Protection", 1931, Economica
  • "A Reply to Mr. Keynes", 1931, New Statesman
  • "Review of M.S. Braun, Theorie der Stattlichen Wirtschaftspolitik", 1931, Economica
  • "Review of F. Machlup, Borsenkredit", 1931, Economica
  • Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, 1932. [mis] [1935 2nd. edition, [mis]; 3rd edition, 1984] [French trans. copp]
  • "Consumption ant the Trade Cycle", 1932, Economica
  • "Tariffs for Revenue", 1932, in Beveridge, editor, Tariffs: The case examined.
  • "The Ottawa Resolutions on Finance and the Future of Monetary Policy", 1932, Lloyds BR
  • "Introduction", 1933, in P.H. Wicksteed, Common Sense of Political Economy.
  • "Introduction", 1933, in F.A. v. Hayek, Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle.
  • "Introduction", 1934, in L. v. Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit.
  • "Remarks on the Relationship between Economics and Psychology", 1934, Manchester School.
  • "Remarks upon Certain Aspects of the Theory of Costs", 1934, EJ. [lib]
  • The Great Depression, 1934 [mis]
  • "Production" 1934, in Seligman, editor, Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences
  • "Introduction", 1935, in K. Wicksell, Lectures on Political Economy.
  • "The Problem of Stabilisation", 1935, Lloyds BR
  • "The Consequences of Economic Nationalism", 1936, Lloyds BR
  • "Economic Nationalism and Monetary Policy", 1936, Banker
  • "The Place of Jevons in the History of Economic Thought", 1936, Manchester School.
  • "Review of Nurkse, Internationale Kapitalbewegungen", 1936, Economica
  • "Foreword", 1937, in Bresciani-Turoni, Economics of Inflation
  • "How to Mitigate the Next Slump", 1937, Lloyds BR
  • "Review of Haberler, International Trade", 1937, Economica
  • Economic Planning and International Order, 1937
  • "Live and Dead Issues in the Methodology of Economics", 1i938, Economica
  • "Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility: A Comment", 1938, EJ
  • "Les méthodes d'observation économique et le problèmes de la prévision en matière économique", 1938, in Robbins, editor, Cinq conferences sur la méthode dans les recherches économiques
  • "The Long-Term Budget Problem", 1938, Lloyds BR
  • "The Export Problem", 1939, Lloyds BR
  • The Economics Basis of Class Conflict.  1939
  • The Economics Causes of the War, 1939 [1968 ed] [mis]
  • "Review of B. Souvarine's Stalin", 1940, Economica
  • Economic Aspects of Federation, 1941
  • The Economic Problem in Peace and War, 1947
  • "The Sterling Problem", 1949, Lloyds BR
  • "Review of Harrod's Life of J.M. Keynes", 1951, Times
  • The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy, 1952. [1965 ed] [mis]
  • "Robertson on Utility and Scope", 1953, Economica
  • The Economist in the Twentieth Century and other lectures in political economy, 1954
  • Robert Torrens and the Evolution of Classical Economics, 1958.
  • "Thoughts on the Crisis", 1958, Lloyds BR
  • The Aims of Monetary Policy and the Means of Achieving Them. 1958, memorandum to the Radcliffe Committee
  • "The Present Position of Economics", 1959, in Rivista di politica economica
  • Politics and Economics, 1963.
  • "An Economist Looks at Business", 1966, in Economics, Business and Government
  • The University in the Modern World, 1966.
  • The Theory of Economic Development in the History of Economic Thought, 1968 [mis]
  • Jacob Viner: A tribute, 1970.
  • The Evolution of Modern Economic Theory, 1970.
  • Autobiography of an Economist, 1971.
  • Money, Trade and International Relations, 1971
  • "Inflation: An international problem", 1972, in Hinshaw, editor, Inflation as a Global Problem.
  • Political Economy, Past and Present, 1976.
  • "Economists and Trade Unions, 1776-1977", 1978, in Trade Unions: public goods or public "bads"?
  • Against Inflation, 1979.
  • Higher Education Revisited, 1980.
  • "Economics and Political Economy", 1981, AER.
  • A History of Economic Thought: The LSE lectures, 1998 [pdf]

 
HET

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Resources on Lord Robbins

  • "Lionel Robbins: the economist and the wider world" exhibition at LSE
  • Lionel Robbins’s essay on the nature and significance of economic science: 75th anniversary conference proceedings, ed. Frank Cowell and Amos Witztum, 2008 [pdf]
  • "Robbins on Economic Generalizations and Reality in the Light of Modern Econometrics", by R.E> Backhouse and S.N. Durlauf, 2009, Economica [pdf]
  • Lionel Robbins by Susan Howson, 2012
  • "Review of Howson's Robbins" by Wade Hands at eh.net
  • "Scarce Means with Alternative Uses: Robbins’ Definition of Economics and Its Extension to the Behavioral and Neurobiological Study of Animal Decision Making" by Petere Shizgal, 2011, Frontiers in Neuroscience [online]
  • "Robbins as innovator: the contribution of the Essay" by R.F. Mulligan [online]
  • "Lionel Robbins: A methodological reappraisal", by Marcelo Resende and Rodrigo M. Zeidan, 2007 [pdf]
  • "Hayek and Robbins on the Great Depression" by Brad de Long, 2009 blog
  • "The Old Superstition" by Paul Krugman, 2011 blog
  • "Robbins 50 Years Later" 2013 at Times Higher Ed [online]
  • Lionel Robbins Memorial Lectures at LSE [online]
  • Lionel Robbins profile at Mises Institute
  • Lionel Robbins profile at LibertyFund
  • Lionel Robbins entry at Concise Encycl of Economics, LibertyFund
  • Robbins entry at Britannica
  • Robbins page at eumed
  • Wikipedia

 

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All rights reserved, Gonçalo L. Fonseca