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Complementarity and Demand Theory: From the 1920s to the 1940s

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  • Jean-Sébastien Lenfant

Abstract

Some light may be shed on the transformations of demand analysis in the 1930s by telling the story of one of the period's most debated con- cepts: complementarity. What is the meaning of such sentences as "x and y are substitutes," "y and z are complementary goods," or "x and z are independent"? If x is a substitute for y, will y necessarily be a substi- tute for x? Is it supposed to have any empirical counterpart? What kind of meaning does it have in the rst place?1 All those questions emerged soon after the marginalist revolution and were given prominence in the 1930s. They were at the center of the reshaping of demand theory, toward the now-classic Hicks-Slutsky presentation of demand theory.
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  • Jean-Sébastien Lenfant, 2006. "Complementarity and Demand Theory: From the 1920s to the 1940s," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 38(5), pages 48-85, Supplemen.
    • Handle: RePEc:hop:hopeec:v:38:y:2006:i:5:p:48-85
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    1. Peter C. Dooley, 1983. "Slutsky's Equation is Pareto's Solution," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 15(4), pages 513-517, Winter.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ivan Moscati, 2012. "How cardinal utility entered economic analysis during the Ordinal RevolutionLength: 31 pages," Economics and Quantitative Methods qf1205, Department of Economics, University of Insubria.
    3. M. Ali Khan & Edward E. Schlee, 2016. "On Lionel McKenzie's 1957 intrusion into 20th-century demand theory," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 49(2), pages 589-636, May.
    4. Kris De Jaegher, 2009. "Asymmetric Substitutability: Theory And Some Applications," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 838-855, October.

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