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In Search of Dennis Robertson: Through the Looking Glass and What I Found There

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  • Gordon Fletcher

    (Management School, University of Liverpool, UK)

Abstract

Explain title: Robertson not lost but misrepresented by the established view. My project to examine the evidence and to discover the truth about this important Cambridge economist. Much known when I began my search: the facts. The orthodox view, ‘Received Opinion’, which claimed that there was a simple divide in Robertson’s life (happiness/growth-unhappiness/decline) with the Keynesian Revolution marking and causing the change. I question this. The role of biography in relation to economics is examined and the importance of temperament and life-view in relation to economics is stressed. The ‘Alice’ quotations and the philosophical significance of Lewis Carroll’s books: ‘nonsense’ tales, with a message about the reality of life and how to cope with it and with parallels in economic theory. The importance of the books for Robertson and his personal conflict - between the desire for escape versus the demands of duty and of intellectual advance versus emotional retreat – which is reflected in his approach to economics. As a corrective, I review Robertson’s professional achievement, which is considerable: his minor works and his main field of interest, cycles and growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Gordon Fletcher, 2006. "In Search of Dennis Robertson: Through the Looking Glass and What I Found There," Working Papers 200621, University of Liverpool, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:liv:livedp:200621
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    File URL: http://www.liv.ac.uk/managementschool/research/working%20papers/wp200621.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    7. Paul Mizen & John R. Presley, 1994. "Buffer Stock Ideas in the Monetary Economics of Keynes and Robertson," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 193-202, Summer.
    8. Gordon A. Fletcher, 1987. "The Keynesian Revolution and its Critics," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-08736-5.
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