What Was “It” that Robbins Was Defining?

David Colander

Middlebury College Working Paper Series from Middlebury College, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper argues that Robbins’ famous definition of economics was of “economic science” which he saw as only a narrow branch of the field of economics. Moreover, it was descriptive, not prescriptive, and was simply a statement that that was what economists were then doing in the science of economics. His prescriptive message was that policy belonged in the “political economy” branch of economics, and that the science of economics should avoid value judgments, but that political economy should include value judgments. That prescriptive message has been lost.

Pages: 10 pages
Date: 2007-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe, nep-pke and nep-sog
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Journal Article: WHAT WAS “IT” THAT ROBBINS WAS DEFINING? (2009)
Working Paper: What Was “It” that Robbins Was Defining? (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mdl:mdlpap:0706

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