This article, presented to the Annual Conference of the History of Economics Society, Vancouver July 1996, gives a historical analysis of the origins of the general equilibrium or comparative static approach and demonstrates that economic thought as a whole is divided, in each of its schools of thought, between the equilibrium paradigm and its alternative, the temporal paradigm. This applies across the board with, for example, the divergence between Post-Keynesian or Kaleckian economics, between Austrian economics and Walrasian general equilibrium, and in many other contexts. The article demonstrates the difference between the equilibrium and temporal approach using a demonstration of ‘adjustment’ effects in a simple corn-cycle model. It goes on to analyse the reasons why, in the history of thought, adjustment or dynamic effects have been considered as ignorable when in fact they are not. It suggests that the traditional division of the succession of ideas in economic thought – physiocracy, the classics, Marx, marginalism – needs to be reviewed in this light, and argues for a reconsideration of the contribution of Marx to economics, placing him as the first and in many ways the most consistent in a suppressed non-equilibrium tradition in economic thought. It suggests that in this light, Marx has more in common with Austrian and Post-Keynesian thinking than with Ricardo and Smith, among whose ranks he is normally and commonly grouped.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number
1291.
Find related papers by JEL classification: B00 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General - - - General B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology B24 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist; Scraffian B16 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Quantitative and Mathematical B14 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith) B50 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - General
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: