Introduction: History and Vision in Economics

In a famous essay a few years ago, at a time when her admirers had perhaps hoped for answers, Joan Robinson asked instead, ‘What Are the Questions?’ Her list provided a catalogue of the ills of economics: unsatisfactory definitions at the heart of the subject — in regard to equilibrium, production, and the firm; inappropriate methodology for considering time and history; confused and unsatisfactory theories of capital, distribution, prices, growth and trade; ideology rather than analysis guiding policy; and, above all, no clear idea of what it is all about — no adequate answer to the question, what is more wealth for?