Industry and Trade reconsidered

Tiziano Raffaelli ()
Additional contact information
Tiziano Raffaelli: University of Pisa - Department of Philosophy

History of Economic Ideas, 2009, vol. 17, issue 3, 59-74

Abstract: This paper aims to bring to light the explanatory model that is hidden beneath the wealth of detail of Industry and Trade. Based on the pair innovation-routine, which is itself a variation of the Darwinian pair variation-selection, the model acts as a guide to Marshall’s investigation of firm boundaries and size, industrial organization and economic policy, providing a coherent, yet flexible, explanatory scheme. Since the model is never openly presented, it is too easy for readers to miss its purport. The paper begins with a brief survey of the reception of the book and the disappointment consequent upon the high expectations that its long haul had generated. Section 2 highlights the key role of Marshall’s model in his interpretation of industrial development. It also emphasizes that the model has no pretension to predetermine the outcome of the process. Section 3 is devoted to the related but separate issue of the contingent reasons for Marshall’s choice of nation-States as the main units of analysis. His policy proposals, less heterogeneous and fragmentary than appears at first sight, are the subject of section 4, which is followed by a few summarizing conclusions.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.libraweb.net/articoli.php?chiave=200906103&rivista=61
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:hid:journl:v:17:y:2009:3:3:p:59-74

Access Statistics for this article

History of Economic Ideas is currently edited by Riccardo Faucci, Nicola Giocoli, Roberto Marchionatti

More articles in History of Economic Ideas from Fabrizio Serra Editore, Pisa - Roma
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mario Aldo Cedrini ().