Event overview
Is there a Cambridge approach to economics?
Abstract:
In this paper I argue that "the Cambridge approach to economics" is not as cohesive and a fully-fledged system of thought, but rather a legacy with many threads. Several aspects of method, "style" and content of the economics associated with the Cambridge tradition, whose imprinting is to be traced to Marshall, make it well recognizable, when compared with the so called "mainstream" economics and other schools of thought.
The "style" aspect of the Cambridge economists as a group lies in the particular type of communication - written and oral - that led to very close forms of interaction, not devoid of diversity and dissent; in the physical and temporal closeness, helped in part by relatively unconventional lifestyles upon which profound personal ties were threaded and woven. I will investigate the features of this approach under the headings of divergences, differences and communalities.
The Cambridge tradition has handed down to us a legacy resting on two pillars. The first is rejection of the "classical" conclusion that market forces are always at work to bring the economic system to full employment of resources, implicated by the belief that there is no discontinuity between individual and aggregate behaviour, so that what is good for a single player in the market is good for the whole. The second is the Sraffian theme that the market, taken as synonymous with supply and demand, is a misleading arena for representation of the rules of production and distribution. Both pillars are needed to travel the road towards an alternative economic theory and economic policy.
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Maria Cristina Marcuzzo is Professor of political economy at the University of Rome, "La Sapienza", Italy. She is Past President of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, member of the Executive Committee of the Italian Society of Economists, and of the History of Political Economy Society. She has published several books and articles in leading journals on history of economic thought.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Feb 2018 | 4:30pm - 6:00pm |
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