IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecorec/v66y1990i1p1-11.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Invention in the Face of Necessity: Marshallian Rhetoric and the Giffen Good(s)

Author

Listed:
  • MICHAEL V. WHITE

Abstract

Alfred Marshall's introduction of the ‘Giffen Good’ case appears puzzling, if only because it was not discussed by Robert Giffen. This article suggests that the analytical framework which Marshall used to discuss the case owed a good deal to the work of W.S. Jevons. The precise argument, however, was introduced as a rhetorical device to defend the notion of consumer surplus (against J.S. Nicholson) and to criticize the advocacy of tariff reform (by W.A.S. Hewins).

Suggested Citation

  • Michael V. White, 1990. "Invention in the Face of Necessity: Marshallian Rhetoric and the Giffen Good(s)," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 66(1), pages 1-11, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:66:y:1990:i:1:p:1-11
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1990.tb02080.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.1990.tb02080.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1475-4932.1990.tb02080.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Salim Rashid, 1979. "The Beeke good: A Note on the Origins of the “Giffen Good”," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 11(4), pages 606-607, Winter.
    2. Masuda, Etsusuke & Newman, Peter, 1981. "Gray and Giffen Goods," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 91(364), pages 1011-1014, December.
    3. Donald A. Walker, 1982. "A Defense of Marshall on Substitutes and Complements in Consumption," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 67-78, Jan-Mar.
    4. Berg, Morten, 1987. "Giffen's Paradox Revisited," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 79-89, January.
    5. Milton Friedman, 1949. "The Marshallian Demand Curve," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(6), pages 463-463.
    6. Claude W. Guillebaud, 1971. "Some Personal Reminiscences of Alfred Marshall," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 1-8, Spring.
    7. Peter C. Dooley, 1983. "Consumer's Surplus: Marshall and His Critics," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 16(1), pages 26-38, February.
    8. Henderson, James P, 1973. "William Whewell's Mathematical Statements of Price Flexibility, Demand Elasticity and the Giffen Paradox," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 41(3), pages 329-342, September.
    9. Wood, John C, 1980. "Alfred Marshall and the Tariff-Reform Campaign of 1903," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(2), pages 481-495, October.
    10. John Maloney, 1976. "Marshall, Cunningham, and the Emerging Economics Profession," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 29(3), pages 440-451, August.
    11. Jones, Trevor W, 1978. "The Appointment of Pigou as Marshall's Successor: The Other Side of the Coin," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 235-243, April.
    12. H. W. McCready, 1955. "Alfred Marshall and Tariff Reform, 1903: Some Unpublished Letters," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(3), pages 259-259.
    13. Scott Gordon, 1982. "Why Did Marshall Transpose the Axes?," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 31-45, Jan-Mar.
    14. George J. Stigler, 1947. "Notes on the History of the Giffen Paradox," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(2), pages 152-152.
    15. Michael V. White, 1989. "Why are there no Supply and Demand Curves in Jevons?," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 21(3), pages 425-456, Fall.
    16. Dougan, William R, 1982. "Giffen Goods and the Law of Demand," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(4), pages 809-815, August.
    17. Gramm, William P, 1970. "Giffen's Paradox And The Marshallian Demand Curve," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 38(1), pages 65-71, March.
    18. Mirowski, Philip, 1989. "The Probabilistic Counter-Revolution, or How Stochastic Concepts Came to Neoclassical Economic Theory," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(1), pages 217-235, January.
    19. Coase, Ronald H, 1972. "The Appointment of Pigou as Marshall's Successor," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(2), pages 473-485, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Di Vita, Giuseppe, 2001. "Are the outputs derived from secondary materials giffen goods?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 255-260, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael V. White, 2012. "A peculiar Archaeology: Searching for Mr. Giffen’s Behaviour," Monash Economics Working Papers 39-12, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    2. Davies, John E, 1994. "Giffen Goods, the Survival Imperative, and the Irish Potato Culture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(3), pages 547-565, June.
    3. Robert Sproule & Ambrose Leung, 2007. "Using the compensating and equivalent variations to define the Slutsky Equation under a discrete price change," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(11), pages 1-9.
    4. Graham,Errol George & Tchale,Hardwick & Ndione,Mamadou, 2020. "An Optimal Rice Policy for Sierra Leone : Balancing Consumer and Producer Welfare," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9369, The World Bank.
    5. Miller, Anne, 2023. "Demand Theory for Poverty and Affluence: A Contribution to Utility Theory," MPRA Paper 117618, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 13 Jun 2023.
    6. John H. Nachbar, 1998. "The last word on Giffen goods?," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 11(2), pages 403-412.
    7. Larson, Douglas M. & Johnston, Richard S., 1992. "Is Outdoor Recreation a Giffen Good?," 1992 Annual Meeting, August 9-12, Baltimore, Maryland 271390, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    8. Larson, Douglas M. & Johnston, Richard S., 1992. "Are Giffen Goods Really So Rare?," Working Papers 225871, University of California, Davis, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    9. Yochanan Shachmurove & Janusz Szyrmer, 2011. "Sir Robert Giffen Meets Russia in Early 1990s," PIER Working Paper Archive 11-020, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    10. Miller, Anne, 2024. "The Concept of Separate needs in Cardinal Utility Theory: A Functional Form for Added Leaning-S-shaped Utlities," MPRA Paper 121455, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Miller, Anne, 2022. "Demand theory for poverty and affluence," MPRA Paper 116144, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Robert T. Jensen & Nolan H. Miller, 2007. "Giffen Behavior: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 13243, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Olli Salmensuu, 2021. "Potato Importance for Development Focusing on Prices," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-14, March.
    14. Di Vita, Giuseppe, 2001. "Are the outputs derived from secondary materials giffen goods?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 255-260, December.
    15. Matthias Klaes, 2014. "Ronald Harry Coase, 1910-2013," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 520-525, June.
    16. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:4:y:2007:i:11:p:1-9 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Théret, Bruno, 2011. "Du keynésianisme au libertarianisme.La place de la monnaie dans les transformations du savoir économique autorisé," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 10.
    18. Anastasios Petridis, 1984. "Trade Unions and the Theory of Competition," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 295-314, Jul-Sep.
    19. Franks, Edwin & Bryant, William D.A., 2017. "The Uncompensated Law of Demand: A ‘Revealed Preference’ approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 105-111.
    20. William Coleman, 2017. "Paul Samuelson on the History of Economic Analysis. Selected Essays , by Steven G. Medema and Antony M. C. Waterman ( Cambridge University Press , New York , 2015 ), pp. x + 466 ," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(301), pages 340-341, June.
    21. Miroslav Svoboda, 2008. "History and troubles of consumer surplus," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2008(3), pages 230-242.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:66:y:1990:i:1:p:1-11. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.