Rationalising the supply-and-demand cross, 1838–1890

Tony Aspromourgos

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2020, vol. 27, issue 2, 194-208

Abstract: This study takes its bearings from the proposition that the supply-and-demand apparatus of what came to be called the “Marshallian cross” is an unsatisfactory representation of actual supply and demand forces, which are better characterised in the manner of the classical economists. From that point of departure it then enquires into how that representation nevertheless arose in the period from 1838 to 1890, notwithstanding its lack of robustness as economic theory – via consideration of the economics of five key contributors prior to Marshall. The investigation confirms that there is no plausible basis for a general presumption in favour of the conventional rising supply function – other than the marginal productivity theory of factor pricing, which is itself unsatisfactory.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09672567.2020.1720766 (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:taf:eujhet:v:27:y:2020:i:2:p:194-208

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/REJH20

DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2020.1720766

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought is currently edited by José Luís Cardoso

More articles in The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().