An Essay on Marxian Economics
An Essay on Marxian Economics (1942)[1] is an analytical essay written by Joan G. Robinson who was a British Economist in the mid 20th century. Her essay deals with the orthodox teachings of capital accumulation, the essential demand crisis and real wages by comparing it to Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. It is a wide-ranging critique on Marx and Orthodox economics while also arguing for a long-term economic view that builds on the problems that Marx first identified in the exploitative nature of Capitalism.
 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Joan Robinson |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Karl Marx |
| Published | 1942 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| ISBN | 0333058003 |
History
Robinson was writing in a time where academic economics was beginning to revisit questions of macroeconomics and long terms systems of capitalism. English economists such as Alfred Marshall had concentrated on ideas of cost production, supply and demand and the marginal utility of money in his famous textbook Principles of Economics. This encouraged a mathematical modelling of economics throughout British academia that transformed the discipline throughout the interwar years.[1]
In this context, Robinson drew on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and the branch of economics called Keynesian economics which broadly focused on aggregate government spending, taxation, the rate of unemployment and average levels of inflation[2]. Robinson herself considered Keynes' The General Theory too narrow in its focus[3], and attempted to synthesise her own dynamic analysis of economics through a post-Keynesian lens in her essay.
Reception
An Essay on Marxian Economics received a positive review from the economist Eric Roll in The Yale Law Journal. Roll considered the book important. He maintained that its appearance alongside the Marxian economist Paul Sweezy's The Theory of Capitalist Development (1942) represented "a significant landmark in the development of economic thinking."[2] Sweezy described the book as the first work by a major British economist to show interest in Marx since the 19th century, calling it "very interesting".[3] The political scientist David McLellan described the book as "an impressive attempt to revitalise Marx's main economic doctrines."[4]
The Marxian economist Ernest Mandel accused Robinson of misinterpretations of Marx similar to those of the socialist economist Rosa Luxemburg. He rejected Robinson's view that the first and third volumes of Marx's Das Kapital make contradictory assumptions about real wages. He argued that Robinson fails to understand that the first and third volumes are at different levels of abstraction, deal with different questions, and make different assumptions in order to clarify the specific dynamics which allow answers to them.[5]
See also
References
- Robinson, Joan (1966). An Essay on marxian Economics. London: The Macmillan Press LTD. ISBN 978-0-333-05800-8.
- Roll 1943, pp. 687–690.
- Sweezy 1984, p. xi.
- McLellan 1995, p. 445.
- Mandel 1991, pp. 29–30.
Bibliography
- Books
- Mandel, Ernest (1991). "Introduction by Ernest Mandel". Capital, Volume 1. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-044570-6.
- McLellan, David (1995). Karl Marx: A Biography. London: Papermac. ISBN 0-333-63947-2.
- Sweezy, Paul M. (1984). "Editor's Introduction". In Sweezy, Paul M. (ed.). Karl Marx and the Close of His System and Böhm-Bawerk's Criticism of Marx. New York: Orion Editions. ISBN 0-87991-250-2.
- Journals
- Roll, Eric (1943). "Reviewed Works: The Theory of Capitalist Development by Paul M. Sweezy; An Essay on Marxian Economics by Joan Robinson". The Yale Law Journal. 52 (3). doi:10.2307/792264.