Retrospectives: W. E. B. Du Bois, Harvard Economics, and Marginalist Wage Theory

Daniel Kuehn

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2025, vol. 39, issue 4, 221-36

Abstract: W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) is best known as a sociologist, historian, and civil rights leader, but he is also increasingly appreciated as an economist. Du Bois's work in economics was primarily empirical, drawing heavily on the German Historical School of Economics and later on Karl Marx. However, during his early economic studies at Harvard University, Du Bois was interested in marginalism as a theoretical solution to the problem of wage determination. In this paper, I explore the marginalist wage theory developed by Du Bois in his unpublished 158-page 1891 manuscript, A Constructive Critique of Wage Theory. I show that Du Bois developed a wage theory that was at the frontier of marginalist analysis in 1891 and that anticipated important developments in marginal productivity theory and the theory of labor supply. While he did not reengage marginalism after his time in Berlin, Du Bois's work on wage theory reinforces recent recognition of his contributions to economics.

JEL-codes: B13 B21 B31 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1257/jep.20241417

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