Why William Paley Was 'the First of the Cambridge Economists.'

A M C Waterman

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1996, vol. 20, issue 6, 673-86

Abstract: Keynes suggested that William Paley was 'the first of the Cambridge economists' because of chapter XI in Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785), which contains an analysis of the general interdependence of 'provisions' and 'luxury' goods. After describing the ineffectual content of Paley's political economy, the article presents a two-sector, macroeconomic model which captures the analytical content of chapter XI. The model is then used to explain why Paley's work was so important for Malthus and so interesting to Keynes; and why it should have been ignored by all writers in the 'classical' tradition ever since. (c) 1996 Academic Press Limited Copyright 1996 by Oxford University Press.

Date: 1996
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