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Economics: The Dismal Science?

In: Towards an Integrated Paradigm in Heterodox Economics

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  • Stephen A. Marglin

Abstract

What is economics?1 A mainstream economist would say that economics is the study of the allocation of scarce means to unlimited ends, the standard definition of economics since Lionel Robbins’s Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science, first published in 1932. This definition leads to an economics which emphasizes opportunity costs, trade-offs, the idea that there is no gain without pain, that something must be given up to get something else. In short, an economics geared to efficiency, to identifying and eliminating waste. All good and useful things to know — within limits. My purpose here, as in The Dismal Science (2008), from which much of the argument is taken, is to explore some of those limits, now with the benefit of two years of economic crisis to provide additional illustrations.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen A. Marglin, 2012. "Economics: The Dismal Science?," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Julien-François Gerber & Rolf Steppacher (ed.), Towards an Integrated Paradigm in Heterodox Economics, chapter 8, pages 164-175, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-36185-0_9
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230361850_9
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    Cited by:

    1. Røpke, Inge, 2020. "Econ 101—In need of a sustainability transition," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).

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