------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------
Published by EH.NET (September 2007)
Tiziano Raffaelli, Giacomo Becattini and Marco Dardi, editors, _The
Elgar Companion to Alfred Marshall_. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar,
2006. xxv + 727 pp. $300 (cloth), ISBN: 1-84376-072-X.
Reviewed for EH.NET by David Andrews, Department of Economics, State
University of New York at Oswego.
There are few more important figures in the development of modern
Anglophone economics than Alfred Marshall. Although his partial
equilibrium supply and demand approach was largely abandoned by
economists in favor of general equilibrium, it still dominates the
introductory microeconomics course and thus popular notions of what
economics is all about. Marshall's importance has been widely
recognized for over one hundred years and there is a vast quantity of
research and writing on his work. Tiziano Raffaelli, Giacomo
Becattini, and Marco Dardi have made an impressive and useful
contribution to that literature as the editors of _The Elgar
Companion to Marshall_.
This reference book has ninety-nine short and self-standing entries
(averaging about seven pages each) grouped into eight sections. With
the exception of a previously published essay by Ronald Coase on
"Marshall and Method," the entries appear to have been written
specifically for this book. Many of the entries were written by
well-known Marshall scholars and overall the quality of the entries
is very high. The authors have interpreted the length constraint in
various ways. Some entries try to summarize what is known or agreed
on the topic as it relates to Marshall; other authors focus on
guiding the reader through the secondary literature; still others
make original arguments. Many involve some combination of these three.
This structure does not allow for a continuous argument, but two
related themes tie the sections together. First, the Marshall we
encounter in these pages is not a narrow economist, but a broad
social thinker. We find here the Marshall of Keynes's famous 1924
obituary. After his undergraduate training in mathematics was over,
but before he began to work seriously on economics, Marshall
experienced a mental crisis the result of which was that he abandoned
his plan to study physics and instead devoted himself to a study of
philosophy. He began with metaphysics, specifically "the
philosophical foundation of knowledge, especially in relation to
theology" (cited in Keynes, 1924). This study led Marshall to ethics,
specifically a Sidgwickian utilitarianism, and ethics, in turn, led
him to economics, because economics played an essential role in
providing the preconditions for the improvement of the working class.
Even as he turned to economics, his ethical views continued to be a
dominant force in his thinking.
Corresponding to this broad social philosophy, Marshall had a
comparably broad approach to social science in which economics plays
an important but limited role. He recognized that in reality,
economic life is tightly bound up with ethical, social and political
currents, currents economists cannot ignore. The second distinctive
feature of the portrayal of Marshall is the related and more original
claim that the brilliance of Marshall's intuition that economics
should be broad, interdisciplinary and inclusive is only now apparent
because the analytical tools that were necessary to follow up the
directions he wished to go were not yet available at the time that he
wrote, but are available now.
The entries serve to illustrate the two major themes. The first
section, Life and Work (thirteen entries) addresses a broad range of
Marshall's concerns, including his role at the University of
Cambridge and his major books, but the emphasis is on Marshall's
early writings on philosophy, history and economics. It is here that
the basic picture emerges of Marshall as being driven into economics
by his underlying religious attitude. The second section, Background
and Influences (seven entries) emphasizes the context of Marshall's
early life. The piece by Christopher Stray on "The Young Marshall's
University" is remarkable for the richness of the picture that it
paints in a very small space. Unfortunately, Marshall's intellectual
crisis and the influence on Marshall of the circle around Henry
Sidgwick receive very little attention.
The third section, labeled somewhat obscurely, "Scope and Method,"
includes the essay by Coase but generally addresses Marshall's
inclusive view of social science. Entries address Marshall's
definition of economics and the relationship between economics and
such fields as statistics, sociology, economic history, psychology
and biology.
The fourth section, on Economic Analysis (thirty-four entries),
further subdivided into equilibrium and dynamics (six entries), the
theory of value (six entries), the theory of distribution (seven
entries), industrial analysis (seven entries) and money and commerce
(eight entries), focuses on the "richness and versatility of
Marshall's theoretical tools." This section contains a number of
interesting entries, for example, one by Michael De Vroey defending
Marshall's commitment to partial equilibrium over general equilibrium
on the grounds that the inherently dynamical nature of economics made
the former more practically useful. Ian Steedman's entry on the
theory of capital and interest is perhaps the most critical in the
volume. Nevertheless, this section does not directly develop the
claims that dominate most of the rest of the book.
The fifth section, Social and Political Issues (fourteen entries),
attempts to show that social and political problems are not "added
superstructure" with respect to Marshall's economic analysis, but are
integrally connected. Marshall envisioned dramatic social change
involving the elimination of poverty and a sharp reduction of
inequality. The purpose of economics was to improve material
conditions, but such improvement would occur, Marshall believed, only
in connection with social and political forces. The entries on
liberalism, socialism, trade unions, women's education, poverty and
progress reflect the influence of his early social philosophy to his
later activities and writings.
The sixth section, Marshall and his Contemporaries (eleven entries),
is concerned with Marshall's personal interactions with his
contemporaries, including friends, philosophers, economists,
colleagues and students, including Henry Sidgwick, W.K. Clifford,
Benjamin Jowett, William Stanley Jevons, Francis Ysidro Edgworth,
John Neville Keynes and John Maynard Keynes. Some of these entries
are very good, notably the entry on Sidgwick by Bart Schultz.
The seventh section, Marshall's Legacy (four entries), considers
debates that followed Marshall's death. This section, like the
fourth, is focused on topics conventionally associated with Marshall
and the Cambridge school, e.g., increasing returns, the theory of the
firm, and welfare economics. The entries in this section are
generally strong but are somewhat outside of the main current of the
book.
The eighth section, Marshall and Present-Day Economics (seven
entries), examines research areas that have experienced recent
revivals of interest in Marshall's ideas. A number of entries
throughout the book hint at the second major claim, that of the
rediscovery of Marshall's insights in a world in which the tools are
available to pursue them, but it is only in this final section that
this insight moves to center stage. Entries explore Marshall's
connections with recent developments in evolutionary, industrial,
cognitive and institutional economics.
One might quibble about the coverage and arrangement, but overall the
editors have done a good job in this respect. I have some
reservations about the claims made in the section on Marshall and
modern economics and it strikes me as unhelpful to associate him with
ideas and approaches of which he was unaware and to which he has no
opportunity to respond. The space constraints are inconvenient for
some entries that attempt to cover broad topics the richness of which
is difficult to convey without a large canvas. For example, I would
put the entries on "The Victorian Cultural Context," "Early
Influences," and several in the section on "Marshall's Legacy" in
this category.
Generally the entries serve as good introductions to the subjects
they address and will be particularly useful to students, researchers
and non-specialists. While the volume makes no pretense of being
comprehensive or encyclopedic, it surveys Marshall's thought broadly.
It makes a definite contribution in highlighting the breadth and
complexity of Marshall's thought without underplaying his
contributions to economics. _The Elgar Companion to Alfred Marshall_
makes a fine addition to any economics reference collection.
Reference:
John Maynard Keynes, "Alfred Marshall, 1842-1924," _The Economic
Journal_, Volume 34, Number 135, September, 1924
David Andrews (State University of New York at Oswego) is working on
a book on Keynes and philosophy.
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