Mainstream Consumer Theory: Delay, Acceptance and History Texts

Drakopoulos, Stavros A. and Karayiannis, Anastassios (1999): Mainstream Consumer Theory: Delay, Acceptance and History Texts. Published in: History of Economics Review , Vol. 30, No. Summer (1999): pp. 68-71.

Abstract

Consumer theory is considered to be the hard core of the neoclassical canon. The present work traces the various historical stages which led to the acceptance of the theory, and attempts to offer some possible explanations for its eventual establishment. The paper starts with a brief historical discussion of the establishment of the canon of the marginalist consumer theory. Subsequently, it discusses the main points of attack by alternative schools of thought. Finally, as part of the assessment, the paper will utilize period and phenomenological histories of thought in appraising the fashionable or non-fashionable way that this theory found a permanent place in the general texts of the history of economics. The discussion might contribute to the understanding of the dominance of mainstream consumer theory and the way that it took its paramount place in modern economics.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: History of Consumer Theory; History of Mainstream Economics
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B4 - Economic Methodology > B40 - General; D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D11 - Consumer Economics: Theory; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B0 - General > B00 - General

References

Allen,C.L. [1968] The Framework of Price Theory, Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc.

Apgar,W & Brown,H.J. [1987] Microeconomics and Public Policy, Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company.

Asley, W. [1907] "A Survey of the Past History and Present Position of Political Economy", in R. Smyth Essays in Economic Method, London: Gerald Duckworth & Co, Ltd, 1962. Bachkouse,R. [1985] A History of Modern Economic Analysis, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Bagehot, W. [1879] Economic Studies, London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1895.

Baumol,W. [1961] Economic Theory and Operation Analysis, 3rd ed. 1972, London: Prentice/Hall.

Blaug,M. [1962] Economic Theory in Retrospect, 2nd ed. 1968, London:Heimaan, 1970.

Blaug,M. [1973] "Was There a Marginal Revolution?" in R.D. Collison Black, A.W. Coats, C. Goodwin (eds) The Marginal Revolution in Economics, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press,1973.

Bonar,J. [1893] Philosophy and Political Economy in some of their Hstorical Relations, New York: A.M.Kelley.

Bradley,M. [1980] Microeconomics, Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company.

Brems.H. [1986] Pioneering Economic Theory, 1630-1980: A Mathematical Restatement Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Bronfenbrenner,M. [1966] "Trends, Cycles, and Fads in Economic Writing", American Economic Review, vol. LVI, No 2, May, pp. 538-552.

Browning,E. & Browning,J. [1986] Microeconomic Theory and Applications, Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company.

Cairnes,J.E. [1875] The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy, London: Macmillan, 1965.

Cannan,E. [1929] A Review of Economic Theory, 1st ed. 1929, 2nd. 1964, London: Frand Cass and Co Ltd.

Corry,B. [1964] "Introduction" to E. Cannan A Review of Economic Theory, London: Frand Cass and Co Ltd.

Crozier,J.B. [1906] The Wheel of Wealth being a reconstruction of the Science and Art of Political Economy on the lines of Modern Evolution, London: Longmans, Green, and Co.

Deaton,A. & Muellbauer,J. [1980] Economics and consumer behavior, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Edgeworth,F.Y. [1881] Mathematical Psychics, New York: A.M.Kelley, 1967.

Ekelund,R. & Hebert,R. [1975] A History of Economic Theory and Method, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Fisher,I. [1892] Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices, New Have: Yale University Press, 1965.

Gide,C. & Rist,C. [1909] A History of Economic Doctrines from the time of the Physiocrats to the Present Day [1st French 1909] Engl. trans from the second edition 1913 by R. Richards, london: George Harrap & Company, 1917.

Haney,L. History of Economic Thought: A Critical Account of the Origin and Development of the Economic Theories of the Leading Thinkers in the Leading Nations, 1st ed. 1911, 3rd and enlarged 1936, New York: The Macmillan Company.

Hicks,J & R. Allen [1934] "A Reconsideration of the Theory of Value", Economica February, pp. 52-76, May 196-219, repr. in J. Hicks Wealth and Welfare: Collected Essays on Economic Theory, Volume I, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1981.

Hicks,J. [1939] Value and Capital, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press.

Howey,R. [1973] "The Origins of Marginalism" in R.D. Collison Black, A.W. Coats, C. Goodwin (eds) The Marginal Revolution in Economics, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1973.

Howey,R. [1982] A Bibliography of General Histories of Economics 1692-1975, The Regents Press of Kansas, Lawrence.

Houmanidis,L. [1954] The Subjective Theory of Value from Classissists until Today Ph.D. Dissertation, Athens (in Greek).

Hutchison,T.W. [1953] A Review of Economic Doctrines 1870-1929, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1975.

Jevons,W.S. [1871] The Theory of Political Economy 4th ed. London: Macmillan and Co, Ltd, 1911.

Johnson,W.E. [1913] "The Pure Theory of Utility Curves", The Economic Journal,vol. XXIII, No 92, December, pp. 483-513 reprinted in W. Baumol & S. Goldfeld (eds) Presursors in Mathematical Economics: An Anthology, London: The London School of Economics and Political Science, 1968, pp. 971-24.

Ingram,J.K. [1888] A History of Political Economy, new and enlarged edition 1915 with a supplementary chapter by W.Scott and an introduction by R. Elly, New York: A.M.Kelley, 1967.

Karayiannis,A.D. [1995] History of Economic Methodology, ed. Interbooks, Athens, (in Greek).

Knight,F. "Marginal Utility Economics", The Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, reprinted in F. Knight The Etchics of Competition and other Essays, London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. 1935.

Kogiku,K. [1971] Microeconomic Models, New York: Harper & Row, Publishers.

Kohler,H. [1982] Intermediate Microeconomics: Theory and Applications, Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company.

Koutsoyiannis,A. [1975] Modern Microeconomics, 2nd ed. 1979, London: Macmillan.

Laird,J. [1929] The Idea of Value, New York: A.M.Kelley, 1969.

Landreth,H. [1976] History of Economic Theory: Scope, Method, and Content, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Lekachman,R. [1959] A History of Economic Ideas, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Malinvaud,E. [1972] Lectures on Microeconomic Theory, Amsterdam: Noth-Holland Publishing Company.

Marshall,A. [1890] Principles of Economics, 8th ed. London: Macmillan & Co Ltd. 1959.

Myrdal,G. [1930] The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory Engl. ed. 1953, Greek transl. K. Sofoulis, Athens; Papazisis 1971.

Newman,P [1965] The Theory of Exchange, New Jersey: PrenticeHall, Inc.

Pareto,V. [1927] Manual of Political Economy, Engl. trns. A. Schwier by 1927 French edition, New York: A.M.Kelley, 1971.

Price,L. [1891] A Short History of Political Economy in England from Adam Smith to Arnold Toynbee, London: Methuen and Co.

Rima,I.H. [1967] Development of Economic Analysis revised edition 1972, Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin, Inc. 1977.

Robbins,L. [1970] The Evolution of Modern Economic Theory, London: The Macmillan Press.

Roll,E. [1938] A History of Economic Thought, 1st 1938, 4rth revised and enlarged in 1973, Faber and Faber, London.

Ryan,W. [1967] Price Theory, New York: St.Martin's Press, 1967.

Ruffin,R. & Gregory,P. [1983] Principles of Microeconomics, 2nd ed. 1986, Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company.

Samuelson,P. [1947] Foundations of Economic Analysis, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1948.

Schumpeter,J. [1952] Ten Great Economists from Marx to Keynes, London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd.

Shackle,G.L.S. [1972] Epistemics & Economics: A critique of economic doctrines, Cambridge: At the University Press.

Sloman,J. [1991] Economics, 2nd ed. 1995, London: Prentice Hall.

Smart,W. [1891] An Introduction of the Theory of Value: on the lines of Menger, Wieser, and Bohm-Bawerk, 1st ed. 1981, 2nd ed. 1910, repr. New York: A.M.Kelley, 1966.

Stigler,G [1950] "The Development of Utility Theory", The Journal of Political Economy, LVIII (August-October) reprinted in G. stigler Essays in the History of Economics, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, pp. 66-155.

Stigler,G. [1973] "The Adoption of the Marginal Utility Theory" in R.D. Collison Black, A.W. Coats, C. Goodwin (eds) The Marginal Revolution in Economics, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1973.

Veblen,T. [1908] "Professor Clark's Economics", Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 22, pp. 147-95; reprinted in E.K.Hunt & G. Schwartz (eds) A Critique of Economic Theory: Selected Readings, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Peguin Books, 1972, pp. 172-185.

Veblen,T. [1909] "The Limitations of Marginal Utility" originaly published in The Journal of Political Economy, XVII, November, and reprinted in What Veblen Taught; Selected Writings of Thorstein Veblen, edited with an introduction by Wesley C. Mitchell, 1936, repr. New York: A.M.Kelley, 1964.

Viner,J. [1957] "Fashion in Economic Thought", in Jacob Viner Essays on the Intellectual History of Economics, edited by Douglas A. Irwin, ed. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1991.

Walras,L. [1874] Elements of Pure Economics, Engl. trans. W. Jaffe, 1st engl ed. 1954, repr. Philadelphia: Orion Editions, 1984.

Walsh,V.C. [1970] Introduction to Contemporary Microeconomics New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Wicksell,K. [1911] Lectures on Political Economy, vol. I, Engl trns. E. Classen, edited with introduction by L. Robbins, by 2nd ed. of 1911, 1sr might be in 1901, London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd, 1934.

Wicksell,K. [1893] Value Capital and rent Engl. trns. S. Frowein, London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. 1954.

Wicksteed,P. [1888] The Alphabet of Economic Science, New York: A.M.Kelley, 1970.

Whitaker,A. [1904] History and Criticism of the Labor Theory of Value in English Political Economy, 1st ed. 1904, ed. A.M.Kelley, New York, 1968.

Whittaker,E. [1960] Schools and Streams of Economic Thought Chicago: Rand McNally & Company.