The economic surplus: A history of an eventually problematic idea

Evan W Osborne

Economic Affairs, 2025, vol. 45, issue 1, 45-61

Abstract: The economy‐wide economic surplus, defined as output beyond what is needed to sustain the labouring workforce, is one of the oldest ideas in Western political economy. Marx permanently changed economic thinking by characterising it as exploitation. As confidence in government management of economic affairs grew in the twentieth century, how to spend the surplus better than free individuals would spend it themselves became a growing theme among economists and among the broader public. While the role of the surplus in economic theory today is modest, its vibrancy in the public conversation remains.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecaf.12691

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ecaffa:v:45:y:2025:i:1:p:45-61

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0265-0665

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Affairs is currently edited by Philip Booth

More articles in Economic Affairs from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().