The Anglo-American Marginalists
By "Anglo-American marginalists" we are referring to early English and
American writers between the 1870s and the 1930s who strayed from the Marshallian and Institutionalist schools
which were then dominant in the UK and the US respectively. Many of those on this
list could thus be deemed "followers" of W.S. Jevons
in that they adopted the "mathematical" method of reasoning and/or the radical
"subjectivism" inherent in Jevons's revolutionary marginalism - thus bringing them closer to the
"Continental" traditions of the Lausanne and Austrian schools than any of their homegrown varieties. See also
the British Anti-Classicals for a review of some English
proto-marginalists and our discussion of the 1930s L.S.E., the
Paretians and the early Chicago
School for the continuation of this line in Britain and America.
- Rev. Dionysus Lardner, 1793-1859.
- Charles Ellet, Jr., 1810-1862. -(1)
- An Essay on the Laws of Trade: in reference to the works of
internal improvement in the United States, 1839
- "A Popular Exposition of the Incorrectness of the Tariffs of
Tolls in Use on the Public Improvements of the United States",
1840, J of Franklin Institute
- "The Laws of Trade Applied to the Determination of the Most
Advantageous Fare for Passengers on Railroads", 1840, J of
- "Cost of Transportation on Railroads", Parts I - IV (1842),
Parts V-VI (1843), Parts VII-VIII (1844), J of Franklin Institute
- Prominent American civil engineer. Of modest Pennsylvania
background, the largely self-educated Ellet attended the ENPC in Paris
during 1830-2, where he was trained in the French engineering
tradition. His most famous building structures are the suspension bridges in
Philadelphia over the Schuylkill River and in Wheeling over the the Ohio
River. He died from wounds received at the naval battle of Memphis
(commanding ramming ships of his design) during the American Civil War.
The Radical English Marginalists ("Jevonians")
- William Stanley Jevons,
- William Ernest Johnson, 1859-1931.
- "On Certain Questions Concerned with Demand" with C.P. Sanger, 1894 Cambridge
- "The Pure Theory of Utility Curves", 1913, EJ
- Logic, 1921-4.
- Oft-neglected Cambridge logician who independently derived demand functions from
indifference curves (and placed them in the form we use today). Showed "paradox"
that convex indifference curves could yield upward-sloping demand. Defined substitutes and
complements in terms of rates of change of marginal rates of substitution. Also quite
presciently described a non-tatonnement
The "Homegrown" American Marginalists
- Francis Amasa Walker,
- John Bates Clark,
- Stuart Wood, 1853-1914.
- "A View on the Theory of Wages", 1888, QJE
- "The Theory of Wages", 1889, Publications of AEA
- "A Critique of Wages Theories", 1890, AAPSS
- First American to receive a Ph.D. in economics. Often credited for independently
discovering the theory of marginal productivity and marginal rates of substitution between
factors in his two famous 1888 and 1889 essays.
The "American Walrasians"
- Henry Ludwell Moore,
- Charles F. Roos, 1901-1958.
The American Psychological School ("American Austrians")
The Early Chicago School
Resources on Anglo-American Marginalism
- HET Pages: Marginalist Revolution,
Neoclassical Theory of Distribution,
the Opportunity Cost Doctrine, Edgeworthian
- "The Meaning and Causes of
Value", by Albert S. Bolles, 1873, North American Review
- "A New
Standard of Value", by Walter Bagehot,
1875, The Economist
New Political Economy", 1886, The Century
- "The Political Economy of Seventy-Three Million
Dollars", by Henry D. Lloyd, 1883, Atlantic Monthly
Price Concept in Relation to Value", 1912 AER Discussion
of Distribution", 1913, AER Discussion
- "The Psychological Basis for the Economic Interpretation of History"
by William F. Ogburn, 1919, AER
- "The Psychological Basis for the Economic Interpretation of History:
Comment" by Frank A. Fetter,
- "Price Economics Versus Welfare Economics",
by Frank A. Fetter,1920, AER
- "Price Economics Versus Welfare Economics: Contemporary Opinion",
by Frank A. Fetter, 1920, AER
- "Generalized Increasing Returns, Euler's Theorem, and Competitive
Equilibrium" by James M. Buchanan
and Yong J. Yoon (1999), HOPE