Abstract
This chapter briefly discusses Young’s life and times, his personality and the scheme of the book. Young emerges as the central figure of American economics in the early decades of the twentieth century. His fingerprints are everywhere—as an inspiring teacher, institution builder and a devoted public servant—but modern interest in him is more due to his contribution to economic thought than to the economics profession. Young was a profound thinker, had a wide range and had mastered the whole literature of economics. He appreciated opposed schools of thought for economic truth for him was not the monopoly of a single school. For him economics had an instrumental value which helped solve communal problems of economic life.
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Notes
- 1.
This paper was first delivered as a Presidential address to Section F of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at the University of Glasgow on 10 September 1928, and later appeared in the December issue of the Economic Journal along with a graphical appendix.
- 2.
For example, Adam Smith dealt with the relationship between the division of labour and market size and criticised mercantilist restrictions for hampering this relationship and hence prosperity. David Ricardo dealt with the problems arising in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars. He clearly saw that the Corn Laws (protectionism) would raise food prices, raise rents, reduce profits and therefore growth.
- 3.
G.T. Jones was one of Young’s research students who was killed in a car accident in 1928, and the job of editing his manuscripts fell on Colin Clark, Young’s research assistant at the LSE. Clark, in a letter to Blitch dated 7 December 1972, stated that “Jones’s methods were greatly in advance of his time, and I think clearly show Young’s influence .” Schumpeter (1951/2003, p. 108) also stated that the Marshallian long-run industrial supply curves, although untidy to a theorist, open up statistical possibilities which were partially exploited by Jones (1933).
- 4.
In this regard Robbins (1971, p. 119) stated: “At the time of Cannan’s retirement it had been felt that the whole organization of teaching of economics was in need of substantial overhaul… It was therefore decided that the appointment to the new chair should be so eminent as to be the basis of a major expansion; and after a prolonged search of the English-speaking world, the choice fell on the American economist, Allyn Young, already a name to conjure with on account of his standing at Harvard.”
- 5.
Regarding Young’s interest in sports, Blitch (1995) points out that in his initial years Young was inclined towards athletics and tennis, but in the later years took to golf.
- 6.
“Not least, he had a deep warm interest in music, was no mean performer on the organ, and at one stage in his career supplemented a slender income by playing that instrument. He knew all the great composers and their works, enjoyed and judged a great interpretation. Here, as in intellectual outlook, he valued the old without belittling the new” (Taussig et al. 1930, p. 551).
- 7.
On behalf of the League, Young assisted in working out a reconstruction plan for Hungary. The League also asked him to plan a world economic conference to be held in Geneva in 1927. As President of the American Economic Association, his address in 1925 ‘Economics and War’ argued for international institutional arrangements for world economic cooperation for the restoration of world trade and growth after the disruption caused by WWI. See also Emmett (1999).
- 8.
‘Inquiry’ was an organisation created under Colonel Edward M. House to study the post-WWI problems and to prepare the groundwork for the peace negotiations at Paris. See also Chap. 6.
- 9.
‘Brown study’ refers to lapsing into intense thought with the mind going into some other time and place including ‘carving a turkey or a roast beef for his family’.
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Chandra, R. (2020). Introduction. In: Allyn Abbott Young. Great Thinkers in Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31981-6_1
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