Marshall's Concern about Poverty

A Hundredth Anniversary Retrospective

Bibliographic Data

ID9255599
AuthorsIngrid H Rima (Temple University, corresponding author)
Year1990
Volume48
Issue4
Pages415-435
Publication date1990-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueReview of Social Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-6764 • E-ISSN: 1470-1162
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00346769000000038
OpenAlexW2161037545
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited11

What new insights remain to be gleaned from Marshall's work now that his magnum opus, The Principles of Economics, has reached its one hundredth anniversary? Beauty is surely in eye of beholder, and to this beholder a reexamination of Marshall's work with special reference to power of his analytical tools for addressing problem of poverty seems an appropriate hundredth anniversary undertaking. The postindustrial economies of United States and England are showing themselves to be no less subject to problem that attracted Marshall to study economics than was early industrial economy of one hundred or more years ago. From an analytical perspective, poverty problem is inseparable from larger question of explaining distribution of income. More specifically, it is an aspect of question of explaining adverse circumstances of those whom Mrashall identified as the working class, i.e. persons who did not own property and who earned their income as wages. Since this remains context of poverty problem to this day, Marshall's insights into analytical and practical difficulties of addressing it have ongoing relevance for contemporary economists. These Marshallian insights are product of an intellectual lifetime that spans even more years than those which he devoted to writing Principles. There is, of course, no dispute that problem of poverty ranked high among his concerns from beginning to end of his long professional life. However, a dispute has arisen about changes in nature of his concern and intellectual context in which he

Context (archaeology) · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Hundredth · Political science · Poverty · Power (physics) · Sociology · Underclass · Unemployment · Economic theories and models · Economic Theory and Institutions · Economic Theory and Policy · History · Law

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