Robin Matthews: A Tribute (2010)

Abstract

Robin Matthews held the two most senior chairs of economics in the UK – the Drummond Chair at Oxford (1965–75, succeeding John Hicks) and the Chair of Political Economy at Cambridge, ‘Marshall’s Chair’, (1980–91, succeeding Brian Reddaway). His many contributions to the discipline, the profession and the community make it abundantly clear why. He described his empirical work as economic history written in the style of an economist. His teaching, research and administrative duties over the years made him more and more aware of the inadequacies of ‘the conventional model of rational individualistic utility maximisation,so that increasingly his] interests moved toward the institutional and psychological underpinnings of economic behaviour’.

Originally published in Royal Economic Society Newsletter, Issue No. 151, Octoter 2010, pp. 17–18.