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[Posted on behalf of David Dequech. -- RBE] 
 
From: "David Dequech" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: HES: QUERY -- neoclassical knowledge 
 
Lawrence Boland has quoted Marshall on perfect competition  
requiring perfect knowledge.   
 
Even if the assumption of perfect knowledge was not explicitly  
adopted by the earlier neoclassical economists (Shackle argued it  
was often a tacit assumption), it became, as we know, a standard  
feature of the neoclassical theory of perfect competition. This  
perhaps began in the thirties in response to the debate on  
imperfect and monopolistic competition. If I'm not mistaken,  
Chamberlain distinguished between perfect and pure competition  
by associating the former and not the latter with the assumption of  
perfect knowledge of the relevant variables. I remember reading a  
1992 paper by Claudio Sardoni in which he says that Kahn and  
Robinson, on the other hand, insisted on using the term perfect.    
 
Cheers, 
David Dequech 
 
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