The Economic Principles of Joan Robinson

The fundamental nature of the underlying economic problem, i.e. economics in the abstract, has never really been fathomed because in the 200 or more years since Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations we have had a continuous outpouring of fresh textbooks on ‘Principles’ without ever finding the definitive statement. True enough, Alfred Marshall and Paul Samuelson both survived many editions, but there are always new statements forthcoming, attempting to displace the masterful renditions. Many of these new attempts succeed. There seems to be an ever ready market for a new packaging of the fundamentals of our subject.