Abstract
Joan Robinson was a remarkable figure shaping some of the major debates in twentieth-century economic theory. Driven by the inability of Marshallian-based theory to deliver its promised prosperity, she embraced Keynes’s radical new theory explaining unemployment and became a leading exponent of its implications for existing theory and policy. Adopting Kalecki’s version of the parallel theory, notably its Marxist framework, and Keynes’s ‘uncertainty’, she developed her enthusiasm for socialist planning, for both developed and developing economies, China in particular. Her post-war focus on generalising Keynes to a long-run theory of growth led her into a divisive critique of the neoclassical aggregate production function. Frustrated by the limited vision of the theoretical responses to her logical critique, she shifted her argument to its relevance and to developing an alternative and dynamic approach to accumulation and distribution based on capitalist institutions and practices.
I am much indebted to Geoff Harcourt and have drawn extensively from our joint biography of Joan Robinson (Harcourt and Kerr 2009), and to David Kelly, both of whom made this chapter possible. I am also grateful to the Economics Department of the University of Adelaide, South Australia, for very generously providing me access to all their facilities, a space to work, and some colleagues to confront. I have also drawn on earlier research carried out in the Modern Archives Centre of King’s College, Cambridge, and thank the staff for their guidance through the extensive collection.
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Notes
- 1.
The apparent trade-off reappears as, or was suggestive of, a later decision, post-war, between having the status of science and having a relevant theory when Robinson was coming round more to the view of an inseparability of values from ‘scientific’ endeavours.
- 2.
In his Memorandum, Keynes (1945) [1980] revised his idea of a ‘semi-independent statutory authority’, an NIB, instead retaining the authority for these decisions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Treasury. He reasoned that ‘with modern developments of policy, decisions on such matters [related to the Public Capital Budget overall] have become so much a part of the Government’s economic programme as a whole that they should not be dissociated from the Chancellor of the Exchequer as the responsible Minister’ (ibid.: 408).
- 3.
In her 1975 article for the Quarterly Journal of Economics entitled ‘The Unimportance of Reswitching’, Robinson states that ‘The story of what is known as the debate over the reswitching of techniques is a sad example of how controversies arise between contestants who confront the conclusions of their arguments without first examining their respective assumptions. How is it possible to have a controversy over a purely logical point?’ (ibid.: 32).
- 4.
A comprehensive and pellucid account of the many associated issues and proposed solutions and analyses, of the participating authors’ ingenuity and resilience in response to criticisms of logic, up to the early 1970s, is to be found in Harcourt (1972) and more recently discussed in a symposium in the journal of the Union of Radical Political Economy (2014).
- 5.
Sraffa’s work has generated many lines of research. One important direction in Cambridge growth theory looks at the process of structural transformation in response to productivity growth and changing consumer tastes. Luigi Pasinetti (1993) developed a pure production model of structural change based around Sraffa’s (1960) scheme. His pioneering work has generated its own questions and lines of development, sometimes referred to as the Anglo-Italian School.
References
Main and Cited Works by Joan Robinson
Bhaduri, A. and Robinson, J.V. (1980). ‘Accumulation and Exploitation: An Analysis in the Tradition of Marx, Sraffa and Kalecki’. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 4(2): 103–115.
Robinson, J.V. (1932). Economics is a Serious Subject: The Apologia of an Economist to the Mathematician, the Scientist and the Plain Man. Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons.
Robinson, J.V. (1933a). The Economics of Imperfect Competition. London: Macmillan.
Robinson, J.V. (1933b). ‘The Theory of Money and the Analysis of Output’. Review of Economic Studies, 1(1): 22–26. Reprinted in C.E.P., volume 1 (1951): 52–58.
Robinson, J.V. (1933c). ‘A Parable on Savings and Investment’. Economica, 39(February): 75–84.
Robinson, J.V. (1936). ‘Disguised Unemployment’. Economic Journal, 46(182): 225–237. Reprinted in J.V. Robinson (1937b): 60–74, and C.E.P., volume IV (1973): 109–211.
Robinson, J.V. (1937a). Introduction to the Theory of Employment. London: Macmillan. Second edition, 1969.
Robinson, J.V. (1937b). Essays in the Theory of Employment. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Second edition, 1947.
Robinson, J.V. (1937c). ‘The Foreign Exchanges’. Part III in J.V. Robinson (1937b): 134–155. Reprinted in C.E.P., volume IV (1973): 212–228.
Robinson, J.V. (1942). An Essay on Marxian Economics. London: Macmillan. Second edition, 1966.
Robinson, J.V. (1943). ‘Planning Full Employment II. Alternative Solutions to the Dilemma’. The Times, 23 January. Reprinted in C.E.P., volume I (1951): 81–88.
Robinson, J.V. (1944). ‘A Review of The United States in the World Economy. Prepared in the International Economics and Statistics Unit of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, US Department of Commerce’. Economic Journal, 54(215/216): 430–437. Reprinted in C.E.P., volume I (1951): 206–213.
Robinson, J.V. (1949). ‘Mr. Harrod’s Dynamics’. Economic Journal, 59(233): 68–85.
Robinson, J.V. (1951–1980). Collected Economic Papers (C.E.P.). Six volumes (including General Index). London: Macmillan; Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Robinson, J.V. (1952). ‘The Model of an Expanding Economy’. Economic Journal, 62(245): 42–53. Reprinted in C.E.P., volume II (1960): 74–87.
Robinson, J.V. (1953–1954). ‘The Production Function and the Theory of Capital’. Review of Economic Studies, 21(2): 81–106. Reprinted in C.E.P., volume II (1960): 114–131.
Robinson, J.V. (1956). The Accumulation of Capital. London: Macmillan.
Robinson, J.V. (1962a.). Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth. London: Macmillan. Second edition, 1963.
Robinson, J.V. (1962b). Economic Philosophy. London: Watts and Co.
Robinson, J.V. (1966a). Economics: An Awkward Corner. London: Allen and Unwin.
Robinson, J.V. (1966b). The New Mercantilism: An Inaugural Lecture by Joan Robinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Reprinted in C.E.P., volume IV (1973): 1–13.
Robinson, J.V. (1970). Freedom and Necessity: An Introduction to the Study of Society. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Robinson, J.V. (1971). Economic Heresies: Some Old-fashioned Questions in Economic Theory. London: Macmillan.
Robinson, J.V. (1972). ‘The Second Crisis of Economic Theory’. American Economic Review, 62(1/2): 1–9. Reprinted in C.E.P., volume IV (1973): 92–105.
Robinson, J.V. (1973). ‘The Need for a Reconsideration of the Theory of International Trade’. C.E.P., volume IV: 14–24.
Robinson, J.V. (1974). ‘Reflections on the Theory of International Trade’. Lectures given at the University of Manchester. Manchester: University of Manchester Press. Reprinted in C.E.P., volume V (1979a): 130–145.
Robinson, J.V. (1977). ‘The Labour Theory of Value. A Review of Studies in the Labour Theory of Value, by Ronald Meek, Second edition, 1976’. Monthly Review, 29(7): 50–59. Reprinted in C.E.P., volume V (1979a): 280–288.
Robinson, J.V. (1979a). Collected Economic Papers. Volume V. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Robinson, J.V. (1979b). Aspects of Development and Underdevelopment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Robinson, J.V. and J. Eatwell (1973). Introduction to Modern Economics. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.
Other Cited Works
Chamberlin, E.H. (1933). The Theory of Monopolistic Competition: A Reorientation of the Theory of Value. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Domar, E.D. (1944). ‘The “Burden of the Debt” and the National Income’. American Economic Review, 34(4): 798–827. Reprinted (with some ‘Afterthoughts’) in E.D. Domar (1957) Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth. New York: Oxford University Press: 35–69.
Goodwin, R.M. (1953). ‘The Problem of Trend and Cycle’. Yorkshire Bulletin of Economic and Social Research, 5(2): 89–97. Reprinted in R. Goodwin (1982): 112–121.
Goodwin, R.M. (1982). Essays in Economic Dynamics. London: Macmillan.
Harcourt, G.C. (1972). Some Cambridge Controversies in the Theory of Capital. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harcourt, G.C. (2006). The Structure of Post-Keynesian Economics: The Core Contributions of the Pioneers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Harcourt, G.C. and P. Kerr (2009). Joan Robinson. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Harris, D. (1975). ‘The Theory of Economic Growth: A Critique and Reformulation’. American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 65(2): 329–337.
Harris, D. (1978). Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Harrod, R.F. (1948). Towards a Dynamic Economics: Some Recent Developments of Economic Theory and their Application to Policy. London: Macmillan.
Kaldor, N. (1934). ‘Mrs. Robinson’s “Economics of Imperfect Competition”’. Economica, New Series, 1(3): 335–341. Reprinted in P. Kerr in collaboration with G.C. Harcourt (eds) (2002) Joan Robinson: Critical Assessments of Leading Economists. Five volumes. London and New York: Routledge. Volume 1: 152–159.
Kalecki, M. (1936). ‘Pare Uwag o Teorii Keynesa’ [Some Remarks on Keynes’s Theory]. Ekonomista, 3: 18–26. Reprinted in J. Osiatynski (ed.) (1990) Collected Works of Michał Kalecki, volume 1: Capitalism, Business Cycles and Full Employment. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Also translated and edited by Targetti and Kinder-Hass (1982).)
Kalecki, M. (1939). Essays in the Theory of Economic Fluctuations. London: Allen and Unwin.
Kalecki, M. (1943). ‘Political Aspects of Full Employment’. Political Quarterly, 14(4): 322–330.
Kalecki, M. (1968). ‘Trend and Business Cycles Reconsidered’. Economic Journal, 78(310): 263–276. Reprinted as chapter 15 in M. Kalecki (1971) Selected Essays on the Dynamics of the Capitalist Economy, 1933–1970. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 165–183.
Keynes, J.M. (1930) [1971]. A Treatise on Money. Two volumes. Volume V of The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan.
Keynes, J.M. (1933) [1972]. ‘The Means to Prosperity’. Volume IX of The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan: 335–367.
Keynes, J.M. (1936) [1973]. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Volume VII of The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan.
Keynes, J.M. (1945) [1980]. ‘National Debt Enquiry: The Concept of a Capital Budget (Memorandum by Lord Keynes)’. Volume XXVII of The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan: 405–411.
Marshall, A. (1890) [1920]. Principles of Economics. London: Macmillan. Eight editions, 1890–1920. Ninth (variorum) edition, 1961.
Pasinetti, L.L. (1993). Structural Economic Dynamics: A Theory of the Economic Consequences of Human Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Salter, W.E.G. (1960). Productivity and Technical Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Solow, R.M. (2010). ‘Not Growth, Not Cycles, but Something in Between’. Chapter 4 in S. Zambelli (ed.) Computable, Constructive and Behavioural Economic Dynamics. Essays in Honour of Kumaraswamy (Vela) Vellupillai. London: Routledge: 55–61.
Sraffa, P. (1925). ‘Sulle Relazioni fra Costo e Quantità Prodotta’. Annali di Economia, 2(1): 277–328. English translation (by J. Eatwell and A. Roncaglia): ‘On the Relations between Cost and Quantity Produced’. In L.L. Pasinetti (ed.) (1998) Italian Economic Papers. Volume 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 323–363.
Sraffa, P. (1926). ‘The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions’. Economic Journal, 36(144): 535–550.
Sraffa, P. (1930). ‘A Criticism’ and ‘A Rejoinder’. In Symposium on Increasing Returns and the Representative Firm. Economic Journal, 40(157): 89–92 and 93.
Sraffa, P. (1960). Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities: Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sraffa, P. (with the collaboration of M.H. Dobb) (eds) (1951). ‘Introduction’ to The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo. Volume I: xiii-lxii. Published for the Royal Economic Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tahir, P. (1990). ‘Making Sense of Joan Robinson on China’. Mimeo, Cambridge.
Targetti, F. and B. Kinda-Hass (1982). ‘Kalecki’s Review of Keynes’ General Theory’. Australian Economic Papers, 21(39): 244–260.
Turner, M. (1989). Joan Robinson and the Americans. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe.
Whitaker, J. (1987). ‘Alfred Marshall’. In J. Eatwell, M. Milgate and P. Newman (eds) The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. Volume 3. London: Macmillan: 350–363.
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Kerr, P. (2017). Joan Violet Robinson (1903–1983). In: Cord, R. (eds) The Palgrave Companion to Cambridge Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41233-1_30
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