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Joan Robinson
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1903-1983

One of the most prominent economists of the century, Joan Violet Robinson (née Maurice) incarnated the "Cambridge School" in most of its guises in the 20th century: as a cutting-edge Marshallian before and after 1936; as one of the earliest and most ardent Keynesians and finally as one of the leaders of the Neo-Ricardian and Post Keynesian schools.

Robinson's contributions to economics are far too numerous to elucidate fairly. Unlike most economists, she was not a "one idea" person, but rather made many many fundamental contributions to very different areas of economics.

Some of Robinson's contributions were fundamental defenses of Marshallian theory: her 1941 paper on the theory of cost was actually, and paradoxically, a critique of Sraffa (1926)! (which is why it elicited so much praise from Viner). Her article on the Neoclassical theory of distribution (1934) was an equally remarakable contribution to the Marshallian economics.

Joan Robinson introduced the theory of imperfect competition to economics in her famous 1933 book, following this up with an explanatory article (1934). Gary Chamberlin, who idependently discovered a similar theory, itched for a fight, but never got one. Robinson was quick to disown her theory of imperfect competition - in spite of the fact that it is still taught in microeconomic textbooks today.

As a member of Keynes's "circus" at Cambridge, she produced one of the first and perhaps most faithful expositions Keynes's theory (1937) - after having "prematurely" announced to the world that Keynes was onto something "big" with her 1933 article on output and money. She wrote several more essays on the topic (1936, 1937), before turning her attention onto a new issue.

Prompted by Kalecki, Robinson set out to tackle the work of Karl Marx. Although not exactly entranced by the labor theory of value, Robinson's 1942 Essay on Marxian Economics proved ground-breaking, fresh, insightful, critical and, above all, was among the first studies to take Marx seriously as an economist. It effectively dragged Marxian economics from its moribund and half-chewed existence in political debate.

In 1956, Robinson published her magnum opus, The Accumulation of Capital, which sought to extend Keynes's theory to the long-run issues of growth and capital accumulation. This was followed up by a more lucid exposition of growth theory (1962), whereupon the concept of the "Golden Rule" growth was independently discovered. Her work on growth paralleled and complemented that of fellow Cantabrigian, Nicholas Kaldor. Together, they developed what became known as "Cambridge growth theory"

Her work on capital had been initiated with an investigation of the problems arising from capital aggregation (1954), which was followed up with the exposition of the "Ruth Cohen Curiosum" in her Accumulation of Capital (1956). Drawing upon Sraffa and Robinson, the Neo-Ricardian "classical revival" began with a storm - the Cambridge Capital Controversy - which pitted them against the American Neo-Keynesians.

Towards the end of her life, Robinson's work concentrated mostly on methodological problems in economics (notably, stressing her dissatisfaction with "equilibrium" theories) and trying to revive the original message of Keynes's General Theory. Her many popular writings (1962, 1966, 1970, 1971, 1978, 1979, 1980) brought her an even greater pominence with a wider public. An attempt to bring the Cambridge approach to a wider audience culminated in the publication of a rather unique "principles" textbook with John Eatwell in 1973, but it failed to make a substantial headway.

Robinson was also intensely interested in problems in underdeveloped and developing countries - a natural outgrowth of her work on growth - and made substantial contributions in that direction as well. However, in later years, Robinson embarassed many foes and friends alike with her far-too-laudatory comments of the Chinese cultural revolution.

Although she taught at Cambridge since 1931, she was only made professor in 1965. Her lack of a Nobel prize has been considered one of the saddest "oversights" of the modern economics profession - or one of the most outrageous cases of deliberate negelect.

Nonetheless, the real "prize" is better than any Nobel: while other prominent economists drop into obscurity, her legendary works have maintained their analytical and inspirational hold on economics. A mere glance at her eclectic and voluminous collection of works remains perhaps among the better testaments to both the depth and breadth of the impact Joan Robinson had on economic theory as a whole. Major Works of Joan Robinson

  • Economics is a Serious Subject: The apologies of an economist to the mathematician, the scientist and the plain man, 1932.
  • The Economics of Imperfect Competition , 1933
  • "Theory of Money and Analysis of Output", 1933, RES.
  • "A Parable on Savings and Investment", 1933, Economica.
  • "What is Perfect Competition?", 1934, QJE.
  • "Euler's Theorem and the Problem of Distribution", 1934, EJ.
  • "Disguised Unemployment", 1936, EJ.
  • "The Long Period Theory of Employment", 1936, ZfN.
  • "Some Reflections on Marxist Economics", 19??, EJ.
  • Introduction to the Theory of Employment, 1937
  • Essays on the the Theory of Employment, 1937.
  • "The Concept of Hoarding", 1938, EJ.
  • "Rising Supply Price", 1941, Economica.
  • Essay on Marxian Economics , 1942
  • "The Economics of Full Employment", 1945, EJ.
  • "Obstacles to Full Employment", 1946, Nationalokonomisk Tidskrift.
  • "The Pure Theory of International Trade", 1946, RES.
  • "Marx and Keynes", 1948, Critica Economica.
  • "Mr. Harrod's Dynamics", 1949, EJ.
  • "Exchange Equilibrium", 1950, Economia Internazionale.
  • "The Rate of Interest", 1951, Econometrica.
  • Collected Economic Papers, Vol. I, 1951.
  • "The Model of an Expanding Economy", 1952, EJ.
  • The Rate of Interest and other essays , 1952.
  • "The Generalization of the General Theory", 1952, ???
  • "The Production Function and the Theory of Capital", 1953-4, RES.
  • The Accumulation of Capital , 1956.
  • "Notes on the Theory of Economic Development", 1956, Annales de la Faculte de Liege.
  • "India, 1955: Unemployment and planning", 1957, Capital.
  • "The Philosophy of Prices", 1958, Manchester School.
  • "The Real Wicksell Effect", 1958, EJ.
  • "Some Problems of Definition and Measurement of Capital", Oxford EP.
  • "Accumulation and the Production Function", 1959, EJ.
  • Exercises in Economic Analysis, 1960.
  • Collected Economic Papers, Volume II, 1960.
  • "General Liquidity", 1960, The Banker.
  • "Own Rates of Interest", 1961, EJ.
  • "Equilibrium Growth Models", 1961, AER.
  • "Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory", 1961, Oxford EP.
  • Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth , 1962.
  • "A Neo-Classical Theorem", 1962, RES.
  • Economic Philosophy: An essay on the progress of economic thought, 1962.
  • "The Basic Theory of Normal Price", 1962, QJE.
  • "Solow on the Rate of Return", 1964, EJ.
  • "Factor Prices Note Equalized", 1964, QJE.
  • "The Final End of Laissez-Faire", 1964, ???
  • "Consumer's Sovereignty in a Planned Economy", 1964, Essays in Honor of Oskar Lange.
  • "China, 1963: The Communes", 1964, Political Quarterly.
  • "Pre-Keynesian Theory After Keynes", 1964, Australian EP.
  • Collected Economic Papers, Volume III, 1965.
  • "Korea, 1964: Economic miracle", 1965, MLR.
  • "Piero Sraffa and the Rate of Exploitation", 1965, New Left Review.
  • Economics: An awkward corner, 1966.
  • "Comment on Samuelson and Modigliani", 1966, RES.
  • "The Badly Behaved Production Function", with K.A. Naqvi, 1967 QJE.
  • "Growth and the Theory of Distribution", 1967, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economy.
  • "Marginal Productivity", 1967, Indian Economic Review.
  • "The Poverty of Nations", 1968, Cambridge Quarterly.
  • "The Theory of Value Reconsidered", 1969, Australian EP.
  • "A Further Note", 1969, RES.
  • "Capital Theory Up to Date", 1970, Canadian JE.
  • Freedom and Necessity, 1970.
  • "Harrod After 21 Years", 1970, EJ.
  • Economic Heresies: Some old-fashioned questions in economic theory, 1971.
  • "The Second Crisis of Economic Theory", 1972, AER.
  • An Introduction to Modern Economics, with John Eatwell, 1973.
  • "Formalistic Marxism and Ecology without Classes", 1973, Journal of Contemporary Asia.
  • Sozialismus, Geschichte und Wirtschaft.
  • Collected Economic Papers, Vol. IV, 1973.
  • "History versus Equilibrium", 1974, Thames Papers in PE.
  • "The Unimportance of Reswitching", 1975, QJE.
  • "What Are the Questions?", 1977, JEL.
  • "Employment and the Choice of Technique", 1977, Society and Change.
  • "The Labour Theory of Value", 1977, MLR.
  • Contributions to Modern Economics, 1978.
  • "Keynes and Ricardo", 1978, JPKE.
  • "Morality and Economics", 1978, Challenge.
  • The Generalization of the General Theory and Other Essays, 1979.
  • "Kalecki and the Economics of Capitalism", 1977, Oxford Bulletin of Statistics.
  • "Thinking About Thinking", 1979,
  • "Keynes Today", with F. Cripps, 1979, JPKE.
  • Aspects of Development and Underdevelopment, 1979.
  • "Garegnani on Effective Demand", 1979, Cambridge JE.
  • What Are the Questions? And other essays, 1980.
  • Collected Economic Papers, six volumes, 1951-1980.
  • "Misunderstandings in the Theory of Production", 1982, in Feiwel, editor, Samuelson and Modern Economics.
  • "The Arms Race", 1982, in McMurrin, editor, Tanner Lectures on Human Values.
  • "The Economics of Destruction", 1983, MLR.
  • "The Theory of Normal Prices and Reconstruction of Price Theory", 1985, in Feiwel, editor, Issues in Contemporary Macroeconomics.
  • "Ideology and Logic", with F. Wilkinson, 1985, in Vicarelli, editor, Keynes's Relevance Today.

Resources on Joan Robinson.