Linear Theory

Abstract

The subject which I shall be discussing in this survey concerns the group of techniques—Linear Programming, Activity Analysis, Input—Output and Theory of Games²—which have come to us, chiefly from America, during the last fifteen years. It is apparent, from the most casual inspection of these topics, that they are very closely related. Further examination shows that they can be set around a recognisable core, which may be regarded as a restatement of a central part of conventional economic theory. It will be my object, in what follows, to isolate this core; and to consider what there is that the economist, who has no intention of becoming a practitioner of the techniques, may yet have to learn from it.³

The author is Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford; when he wrote this Survey, he was Drummond Professor of Political Economy in the University of Oxford.