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. The field of economics included both economic science—which his definition dealt with, and political economy--which his essay did not deal with. His prescriptive message was that policy belonged in the “political economy” branch of economics. He believed that while the science of economics should avoid value judgments as much as possible, the political economy (applied policy) branch of economics should, and must, include value judgments. That prescriptive message has been lost.

Keywords: : definition of economics; political economy; science of economics; Robbins; value judgments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2009-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Journal Article: WHAT WAS “IT” THAT ROBBINS WAS DEFINING? (2009)
Working Paper: What Was “It” that Robbins Was Defining? (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mdl:mdlpap:0914

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