The Offer-Curve Approach to Labor Market Analysis: From Marshall-Pigou over Robbins and Buchanan into Oblivion?

Gerhard Michael Ambrosi

History of Political Economy, 2011, vol. 43, issue 3, 537-551

Abstract: In the pure theory of foreign trade, offer curves are still a well-known textbook device for analyzing conflicting interests between countries engaged in foreign trade. In his early days Alfred Marshall suggested that this analytical device be used also for industrial disputes between workers' trade unions and employers within a specific country. Marshall's successor as Cambridge professor of political economy, A. C. Pigou, elaborated this suggestion. With express reference to Marshall, and mentioning the assistance of J. M. Keynes, Pigou used the offer-curve approach for analyzing the interaction between workers and employers as negotiators in wage bargains. But the next step along this line of analysis strangely did not occur in “Marshallian†Cambridge but in the rival LSE. Lionel Robbins used the offer-curve approach and criticized Pigou (and, incidentally, Frank Knight as well) for deficiencies in “backbending†labor supply analysis. After a very long silence over this matter in the economic literature, James Buchanan, in 1971, unsuccessfully tried to propagate Lionel Robbins's use of the offer-curve approach for labor supply analysis. He praised its general equilibrium aspects as being superior to conventional approaches. The present contribution traces these episodes and investigates why there is continuing reluctance in labor market analysis to employ an otherwise well-established analytical instrument.

Keywords: offer curves; labor market; Alfred Marshall; A. C. Pigou; Lionel Robbins; James Buchanan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hope.dukejournals.org/content/43/3/537.full.pdf+html link to full text (text/html)
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:hop:hopeec:v:43:y:2011:i:3:p:537-551

Access Statistics for this article

History of Political Economy is currently edited by Kevin D. Hoover

More articles in History of Political Economy from Duke University Press Duke University Press 905 W. Main Street, Suite 18B Durham, NC 27701.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Center for the History of Political Economy Webmaster ().