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Arthur C. Pigou
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1877-1959


As the prize student and successor of Alfred Marshall, Arthur Cecil Pigou personified the "Cambridge Neoclassicals" -- the heart of the Marshallian orthodoxy in the first third of the century. As a result he was made the main target of his colleague, J.M. Keynes in the latter's General Theory -- Pigou's Theory of Unemployment (1933) being held up by Keynes as the example of everything that was wrong with Neoclassical macroeconomics. The rest of Pigou's life was spent occassionally counterattacking (e.g. with the "Pigou Effect" (1943 1947)) or submitting (e.g. 1945, 1951) to the Keynesian Revolution.

Pigou's only other claim to fame is his creation of the field of "Welfare Economics" (1912, 1920). In particular, he is responsible for the distinction between private and social marginal products and costs and the idea that governments can, via a mixture of taxes and subsidies, correct such market failures -- or "internalize the externalities". This contribution, however, also came under severe attack - this time from the Chicago School - particularly Knight and Coase.

Major Works of Arthur C. Pigou

  • Robert Browning as a Religious Teacher, 1901.
  • Tariffs, 1903.
  • "Monopoly and Consumers' Surplus", 1904, EJ
  • Industrial Peace, 1905.
  • Import Duties, 1906.
  • "Producers' and Consumers' Surplus", 1910, EJ.
  • Wealth and Welfare, 1912.
  • Unemployment, 1914.
  • "The Value of Money", 1917, QJE.
  • The Economics of Welfare, 1920.
  • "Empty Economic Boxes: A reply", 1922, EJ.
  • "Exchange Value of Legal Tender Money", 1922, Essays in Applied Economics
  • Essays in Applied Economics, 1923.
  • Industrial Fluctations, 1927.
  • "The Law of Diminishing and Increasing Cost", 1927, EJ.
  • A Study in Public Finance, 1928
  • "An Analysis of Supply", 1928, EJ.
  • The Theory of Unemployment, 1933.
  • The Economics of Stationary States, 1935.
  • "Mr. J.M. Keynes's General Theory", 1936, Economica
  • "Real and Money Wage Rates in Relation to Unemployment", 1937, EJ.
  • "money Wages in Relation to Unemployment, 1938, EJ
  • Employment and Equilibrium, 1941.
  • "The Classical Stationary State", 1943, EJ.
  • Lapses from Full Employment, 1944.
  • "Economic Progress in a Stable Environment", 1947, Economica
  • The Veil of Money, 1949.
  • Keynes's General Theory: A retrospective view, 1951.
  • Essays in Economics, 1952.