John Bates Clark

American neo-classical economist and one of the leading figures of the Marginalist Revolution. After graduating from Amherst College in 1875, John Bates Clark traveled to Germany, where he studied under Karl Knies in Heidelberg. Upon his return to the United States, Clark taught economics, history and a whole series of other subjects at Carleton,

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John Dewey

Ideas – Pragmatism emphasizes the pervasive but often-overlooked role of practical activity in inquiry and experience. – The history of philosophy is a misguided quest for certain knowledge of an unchanging reality. – Scientific method, as a method linking the acquisition of knowledge to practical activity, is to be generalized and adopted as the

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John Hicks

One of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century, the trail of the eternally eclectic John Hicks is found all over economic theory. Although trained at Oxford, his ‘real’ education began when he was appointed to the London School of Economics in the late 1920s, where under the encouragement of Lionel

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John Locke

Ideas – There are no innate ideas. – Human knowledge is derived either from sense experience or from introspection (reflection). – Ideas are signs that represent physical and mental things. – Things ahave primary qualities (solidity, extension, figure, motion or rest, and number) and secondary qualities (all others, including color, sounds, smells, flavors, and

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John Maurice Clark

American economist whose work on trusts brought him world renown and whose ideas anticipated those of John Maynard Keynes. Clark graduated from Amherst College in 1905 and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1910. Major works of John Maurice Clark – Standards and Reasonableness in Local Freight Discriminations, 1910 – Rates for Public Utilities,

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John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes is doubtlessly one the most important figures in the entire history of economics. He revolutionized economics with his classic book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936). This is generally regarded as probably the most influential social science treatise of the 20th Century, in that it quickly and permanently changed the

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John F. Muth (1930- )

American economist. He formulated the rational expectations theory. Major Works of John Muth – Planning Production, Inventories and Work Force, with C.C. Holt et al, 1960 – Optimal Properties of Exponentially Weighted Forecasts, 1960, JASA – Rational Expectations and the Theory of Price Movements, 1961, Econometrica – Operations Managment: Analysis for decisions with G.K. Groff,

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John Rawls

Modern Harvard philosopher. In his most famous book, Theory of Justice (1971), John Rawls proposed the idea of ‘original position’, a mental exercise whereby a group of rational people must establish a principle of fairness (such as distribution of income) without knowing beforehand where on the resulting pecking order they will end up themselves.

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John Stuart Mill

Ideas – All knowledge is derived originally from sense perception. – Matter, or the external world, can be defined as the permanent possibility of sensation. – Mind is reducible to successive conscious states. – True inference is always accomplished through induction rather than deduction. – Pleasure alone is intrinsically good and pain alone is

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John von Neumann

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1903. After simultaneously earning a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Budapest and a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Zurich, John von Neumann joined the faculty of the University of Berlin in 1927. He moved to Princeton in 1932 where he became the youngest member of

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Joseph Louis Francois Bertrand

A prominent French mathematician, Joseph Bertrand studied and taught at the École Polytéchnique in Paris. From 1862 to 1900, he held a chair at the prestigious Collège de France. He was also a member of the influential Académie des Sciences. For philosophical reasons, Joseph Bertrand was generally opposed to the application of mathematical reasoning

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Arsene Jules Etienne Dupuit

He was born in Fossano, Italy then under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. At the age of ten he emigrated to France with his family where he studied in Versailles – winning a Physics prize at graduation. He then studied in the Ecole Polytechnic as a civil engineer. He gradually took on more responsibility

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Just price (13TH-15TH CENTURY)

Associated with medieval schoolmen, particularly St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), just price concept has no allocative role but is rather a moral concept based on natural justice: the just price depends on moral judgment of a good or service. Source: V A Demant, ed., The Just Price, An Outline of the Medieval Doctrine and Examination

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Karl Marx

Ideas – The whole of what is called world history is the creation of human labor. – Capitalist development prevents human beings from reaching their full potential asself-determining beings. – Only when capitalists are overthrown, private property is abolished, and communal ownership of the means of production is established by ab initial dictatorship of

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Kenneth Arrow

One of the most prominent economic theorists of the twentieth century, Kenneth J. Arrow has made fundamental contributions to numerous fields, most of then concentrated around Neo-Walrasian general equlibrium theory and welfare economics, of which he can be considered one of the primary architects. Kenneth Arrow was a thorough New York City product: born and raised

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Keynesian economics

Named after the English economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), Keynesian economics has influenced post-1945 economic management, particularly in its advocacy of government management of the economy. Adherents believe that the macro-economy tends towards extended business cycles, with high levels of unemployed factors. They assert that government management or stimulation of the economy to influence demand (through

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Knut Wicksell

Knut Wicksell taught at the University of Lund until his retirement in 1916. He was a Swedish economist whose work led to the widespread use of the word “natural” to explain the long-run equilibrium rate of interest. Wicksell had a tremendous influence on economist James M. Buchanan. According to Buchanan, his theory of public choice

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Kondratieff cycles

Named after Russian-born economist NIKOLAI KONDRATIEFF (1892-1938), Kondratieff cycles refers to trade cycle of long duration. KONDRATIEFF studied American, British and French wholesale prices and interest rates from the 18th century, and found that the peaks and troughs in economic activity fell at regular intervals. Joseph Schumpeter applied the term ‘Kondriatieff cycles’ to cycles of 50-60 years

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Labor force participation

The ratio of the population in the labor force (employed, self-employed or unemployed and normally above 16 years of age) to total population. This is an important area of study as it may be possible to explain why certain groups are employed in specific sectors. One of the most significant changes has been the

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Labor market discrimination

Labor market discrimination may take the form of different wage rates for equally productive workers with different personal characteristics (such as race, sex, age, religion, nationality, or education). Labor market discrimination may also take the form of exclusion from jobs on the grounds of social class, union membership, or political beliefs. American economist Gary Becker (1930-)

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