Captive of One's Own Theory: Joan Robinson and Maoist China

Evan W. Osborne

Econ Journal Watch, 2020, vol. 17, issue 1, 191–227

Abstract: Joan Robinson was one of the most renowned leftist economists of the 20th century. She wrote for almost 30 years, until her death, about Mao Zedong’s China. While her admirers argue that her support of the Cultural Revolution in particular was an eccentric detour she later renounced, and that overall her writings on China have held up well, this paper documents that she had a long history of supporting disastrous Chinese policies because they were consistent with how she saw the world, and that her later reconsideration of these views was modest at best. Because of her overall scholarly accomplishments, much has been and will continue to be written about her. Since 1978, China has moved in a direction very different than that she recommended.

Keywords: A11; A14; B24; B31; B51; 053; P2; P3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 A14 B24 B31 B51 P2 P3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://econjwatch.org/File+download/1138/OsborneMar2020.pdf?mimetype=pdf (application/pdf)
https://econjwatch.org/1193 (text/html)

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:ejw:journl:v:17:y:2020:i:1:p:191-227

Access Statistics for this article

Econ Journal Watch is currently edited by Daniel Klein

More articles in Econ Journal Watch from Econ Journal Watch Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jason Briggeman ().