История экономических учений. Альфред Маршалл (конспект лекций)

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История экономических учений. Альфред Маршалл (конспект лекций)

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Table of contents (expand)

The emergence of economic thought in the ancient world (Backgrounds of economic thought in the Ancient East. Ancient Egypt and Babylonia. Ancient Egypt. Babylonia. Economic thought in Ancient India. Economic thought in Ancient China. Economic thought in Ancient Rome. The teachings of Cato. The teachings of Xenophon. The teachings of Plato. The teachings of Aristotle)
Economic thought in the Middle Ages (Medieval teachings of Western Europe. "Salic truth". Socio-economic views of Ibn Khaldun. Teachings of Thomas Aquinas. Social utopia of Thomas More. "Russian Truth")
Mercantilism (Mercantilism. Economic prerequisites of mercantilism. Features of mercantilism as an economic idea. French and English mercantilism. Features of Russian mercantilism. Late mercantilism)
Physiocracy (General characteristics of the physiocrats. The teachings of François Quesnay. The activities of Jacques Turgot)
Classical school of political economy (Classical school. Economic views of William Petty. Teachings of Adam Smith. Teachings of David Ricardo)
Classical school after Smith and Ricciardo (The teachings of Jean-Baptiste Say. The economic views of John Stuart Mill. The economic views of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. The teachings of Thomas Malthus)
historical school (Contribution of the historical school to the development of economic theory. Historical school of Germany. New historical school of Germany)
Utopian socialists (Western European utopian socialism. Economic views of Simon de Sismondi. Utopian dreams of Robert Owen)
Marxism (The emergence of Marxism as an economic doctrine. “Capital” by Karl Marx. Karl Marx on the commodity and its properties. Money and its functions. Karl Marx on constant and variable capital and surplus value. Karl Marx’s views on land rent)
Austrian school (Austrian school: the theory of marginal utility as a theory of pricing. The economic views of Eugen Böhm-Bawerk. The teachings of Carl Menger. The economic views of Friedrich von Wieser)
Marginalism (The theory of marginalism. Methodological principles of marginalism. The marginalist theory of value and its advantages. The marginalist revolution. The causes and consequences of the marginalist revolution. The theory of utility of William Stanley Jevons. The theory of exchange of William Stanley Jevons. The theory of labor supply of William Stanley Jevons. The theory of exchange of Francis Isidro Edgeworth)
General economic equilibrium theory (General equilibrium model including production; the problem of the existence of a solution and the process of "tatonnement". General equilibrium theory in the 20th century: contributions of A. Wald, J. von Neumann, J. Hicks, C. Arrow and J. Debreu)
Alfred Marshall (A. Marshall - leader of the Cambridge school of marginalists. Alfred Marshall's partial equilibrium method. Alfred Marshall's analysis of utility and demand. Alfred Marshall's analysis of costs and supply. Alfred Marshall's equilibrium price and the influence of the time factor)
The beginning of the economic development of Rus' (Eastern Slavs in the pre-state period. Prerequisites for the formation of the Old Russian state. General characteristics of the socio-economic development of Kievan Rus. Features of early feudalization. Social division of labor among the Eastern Slavs. The emergence of cities, the development of trade in Ancient Rus'. Internal development of Rus'. The adoption of Christianity and the baptism of Rus' . Money and its role in Kievan Rus)
Economic development of Rus' in the Middle Ages (Causes and consequences of feudal fragmentation. The growth of feudal land ownership. Rus' under Mongol-Tatar rule. Socio-economic and political consequences of the Mongol-Tatar yoke. The main conditions and stages of the unification of Russian lands into a centralized state. Economic policy of Russia in the second half of the 15th-17th centuries . Formation of the all-Russian market. Socio-economic development of Russia after the Time of Troubles)
Economic development under Peter I and Catherine II (The essence of the reforms of Peter I. The results of the reforms of Peter I. The peasant question. Agriculture and land use under Catherine II. Industry, trade and finance under Catherine II. The socio-economic policy of Catherine II. The nobility and the system of local government in the second half of the 18th century. Social -economic development of Russia in the first half of the 19th century)
Economic development of Russia in the 19th century. (The Crimean War and its impact on the economic situation in the country. General characteristics of the economic development of Russia in the first half of the 1860th century. Economic prerequisites for the elimination of serfdom. Abolition of serfdom. Stratification of the Russian village. Main types of agricultural farms and their characteristics. Bourgeois reforms of Alexander II and their consequences. Zemstvo reform Urban reform Judicial reform Military reform Educational reforms Financial reform Basic provisions of the legislation on peasants The situation of agriculture in the 1870-XNUMXs Agrarian reform of P. A. Stolypin)
Economic thought in Russia (second half of the 1917th - beginning of the 1921th centuries) (The place of N. G. Chernyshevsky in the history of Russian and world economic thought. Economic views of V. I. Lenin. The first socialist transformations. War communism as a stage in the formation of the command-administrative system (XNUMX-XNUMX ). Increasing crisis phenomena in the economy and the beginning of the New Economic Policy. Changes in the monetary and financial spheres)
Economic development of the USSR (The economy of the USSR on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet economy during the war. Post-war development of the national economy. The country on the eve of reforms. Reform of the Soviet economic system. Transformations in the social sphere. The economy of developed socialism. The search for new forms and methods of management. Reforms of the 1960-1970s years: essence, goals, methods and results)
Economic development of Russia during the period of perestroika (Background of perestroika. Preconditions for its emergence. Reform of the political system. Reform of the electoral system. Analysis of liberal and other movements. Economic reforms. Economic reform of 1987. The “500 days” program. The dialectic of “new thinking”. The beginning of disarmament. Unblocking regional conflicts. Collapse socialist system)
Economic development of Russia since the early 1990s. (Russia in the first half of the 1990s. Continuation of the course of reforms, shock therapy. Issues of maintaining the unity of Russia. New Constitution. Privatization)

LECTURE 13 Alfred Marshall

1. A. Marshall - leader of the Cambridge school of marginalists

Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) - one of the largest representatives of the neoclassical movement, as well as the leader of the marginalists in the Cambridge school. He is the author of the theory of market pricing and a six-volume work entitled "Principles of Economic Science" (1890), which he constantly supplemented and revised over the course of twenty years. This book can be recommended to readers today, especially to those who study microeconomics. This book became practically a “bible” for economists of that time. Alfred Marshall also wrote other works, such as Industry and Commerce (1919), Money, Credit and Commerce (1923). He also co-authored with Mary Paley (his wife) the book “Industrial Economics” (1923). Over the course of his entire career, Marshall wrote about 80 papers, which, in fact, made a huge contribution to the development of economic theory, although “Principles of Economic Science” remains his greatest contribution.

Since his grandfather was a priest, the parents would have preferred to see their son first as an Oxford student and then as a successor to the family tradition, but Alfred Marshall himself did not share these beliefs. Young Alfred had other passions: mathematics and chess. So, as soon as possible, he immediately borrowed money from his uncle and went to Cambridge, where he entered the mathematics department and graduated with honors. At the university, he became interested in philosophy and social sciences, after which he was offered to stay to teach at Cambridge. Alfred Marshall taught political economy for forty years, though not only at Cambridge, but also at Oxford and Bristol Universities. Already in 1902, he re-stated the textbook "Economics", while practically replacing the teachings of John Stuart Mill.

After reading the works of David Riccardo and John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshall tried to make diagrams from these data, after which his graphical method of analysis arose, which he managed to consolidate in science. Among his students were such famous scientists as A. S. Pigou, John Maynard Keynes, J. Robinson, and others. Alfred Marshall had an exceptional talent that allowed him to develop and systematize the concepts put forward by other economists. The favorite motto of all his publications is the Latin expression "Natura non facit saltum", which translates as "nature does not make leaps."

Unlike many English economists, Marshall highly appreciated the work of representatives of the German historical school, headed by Wilhelm Roscher. He also believed that the most important work in the field of economics was done in Germany.

Alfred Marshall was often reproached for eclecticism. He took these remarks very painfully.

Marshall was a supporter of marginalism, although he reworked many of his ideas. He proposed to abandon the definition that the only factors that affect the price are costs or the subjective assessment of a person. Alfred Marshall theorized that each of these statements affects the price of a good.

Alfred Marshall is considered the last representative of the marginalist revolution.

2. Method of partial equilibrium of Alfred Marshall

If we study the research methods used by Marshall, then we should stop at the method of partial equilibrium. Alfred Marshall examined the market for a particular good in isolation, in order to investigate equilibrium, not all interrelated markets. In order to determine the factors that can influence the amount of supply and demand in the market for a particular good, in addition to price, Marshall suggested that other indicators be included in this analysis. He included the following indicators:

1) the prices of resources that will be required for production;

2) prices for goods that can replace this product;

3) prices for additional goods;

4) income of consumers;

5) tastes, desires, needs of buyers, both current and future.

Although there are other indirect factors that can affect the price of a product, Marshall considered it possible to take them for the same. According to him, this is the most optimal approach for practice. But he also believed that there was a general interdependence of markets. In his work, Marshall, in one of his remarks, analyzes the problem of the price of factors of production, which he explores with the help of a general equilibrium system. Since this system is rather abstract, Marshall did not leave it in the work itself. The method of partial equilibrium made it possible to solve many of the economic problems of that time, which concerned completely different parts of economic theory as a whole.

The heart of his work "Principles of Economic Science" is the fifth volume. It is called "General Relations of Demand, Supply and Value" ("General Relations of Demand, Supply and Value"). In this volume, Marshall describes what he considers to be the foundations of the theoretical analysis of market equilibrium. The third and fourth volumes describe the theory of supply and demand. The sixth and final volume is a treatise on the functional distribution of income. It also touches on issues that relate to interest, rent, wages, profits. The first and second volumes and Appendixes A - D are, in fact, an introduction to his work.

3. Alfred Marshall's Utility and Demand Analysis

In the third volume of his work, Marshall writes for the most part about the field in which the economic theory of demand is applied. In his opinion, human needs stem from the activities of the person himself. Since economic science at this stage studies only human needs, it will not be able to give society a final theory of consumption.

The main achievements of Alfred Marshall, which he made in the field of demand research, include works related to the elasticity of demand, the demand curve, and consumer surplus.

The very concept of "demand curve" was introduced into the theory of economic theory by O. Cournot. Before Alfred Marshall, no one associated the term with marginal utility theory or Gossen's first law. He was the first to link diminishing marginal utility and the law of demand. According to Marshall, the utility of goods can only be measured indirectly. This can be achieved by the prices that the buyer is able to pay for this or that product. This also requires that the currency always have the same price for the buyer.

According to Alfred Marshall, it is possible to derive a demand curve for large markets. Actually, for large markets, he deduced the "general law of demand." Its essence is as follows: the more goods the manufacturer wants to sell in a short period of time, the more he must reduce the price in order to thereby interest a larger number of buyers.

The very idea of elasticity of demand is also not the merit of Marshall. This idea has already been met in the works of O. Cournot and F. Jenkin. But the fact that this concept began to relate to the categories of economic analysis is entirely the merit of Alfred Marshall. He was the first to apply this concept to both the demand for goods and the demand for factors of production. Another idea was to apply this concept to a sentence. The quantitative expression of the elasticity of demand is how a change in the quantity demanded relates to a change in price as a percentage. Regarding the elasticity of demand, Alfred Marshall said: "The elasticity of demand is great at high prices, great or at least significant at average prices, but as prices fall, the elasticity of demand also decreases, and it gradually disappears altogether if the price fall is so strong that it is achieved saturation level of demand. He also believed that attention should be paid to the fact that the elasticity of demand is different for representatives of different social strata.

According to Marshall, there are some patterns that subjugate the elasticity of demand. For goods that have the following properties, demand is always more elastic than for other goods. He referred to these features as:

1) these goods are always vital;

2) these goods always account for a large part of the budget;

3) prices change for these goods for a very long period;

4) such goods always have a huge number of substitute goods;

5) such goods can always be used in a large number of ways.

4. Cost analysis and proposals by Alfred Marshall

With regard to costs and supply, then, analyzing this area, Alfred Marshall most of all turned his attention to the trend of increasing or decreasing growth in output.

He devoted the fourth volume to these studies. On this occasion, Marshall made a certain conclusion that the use of drive resources leads to a decrease in the growth of production, but the use of improvements created by man leads to an increase in the growth of production. This comes at the cost of savings. Marshall believed that there are two types of such economy: internal and external. Internal savings are technological improvements and organizational skills within the firm itself. External economy is a dependence on the general growth of production in a given industry (perhaps, we are talking about the fact that an enterprise should concentrate its funds in one well-established industry, and not disperse them). In industries that specialize in raw materials (like agriculture, for example), the law of diminishing returns applies for the most part, Marshall said. In other production areas, in which raw materials practically do not play a role, the law of increasing profits or decreasing costs operates.

5. Equilibrium price and the influence of the time factor Alfred Marshall

In his work, Marshall does not deal with exclusive transactions, but pays attention to the everyday and quite ordinary transactions of modern life. He refers to exclusive transactions as the sale or purchase of antiques or rarities, as well as isolated transactions that are out of competition.

According to Marshall, price equilibrium can be applied to a certain period of time. One of the most important contributions of Alfred Marshall to the development of economic theory is considered to be the way of accounting for factors of time, which he used in his economic analysis. In the fifth volume of his work, which describes the theory of supply and demand, Marshall says that this only makes sense for a certain period of time (for example, a meat market in which stocks cannot exist for a long time).

Alfred Marshall proposed not to argue over the issue of the cost of goods, but to observe how supply and demand interact with each other and how they affect market processes. Up to this point, representatives of the Austrian school proceeded only from the value of a product, which was determined by its costs, and also denied the influence of demand factors on the price of a product. Based on such studies, Marshall proposed to use the concept of "elasticity of demand" and his theory of the price market.

Alfred Marshall showed the possibility of a "compromise" option: price is marginal cost plus marginal utility. Thus, the equilibrium (compromise) price is the maximum price that the future consumer is willing to pay, based on his tastes and needs, and the minimum price for which the entrepreneur is ready to sell based on his costs and desired profit. Marshall and his supporters came to the conclusion that each of these items equally affects the price of goods, any change in one of the factors leads to a change in the price of goods.

Graphs and formulas by Alfred Marshall help to understand how supply and demand interact.

Alfred Marshall continued his research to understand what would happen to demand if tastes, income, number of consumers, prices of similar and complementary goods changed, and what would happen to supply if resource prices, taxes, subsidies, etc., changed. Based on all this, Alfred Marshall concluded that the curves on the chart will shift, so the equilibrium price level will change.

Authors: Eliseeva E.L., Ronshina N.I.

<< Back: General economic equilibrium theory (General equilibrium model including production; the problem of the existence of a solution and the process of "tatonnement". General equilibrium theory in the 20th century: contributions of A. Wald, J. von Neumann, J. Hicks, C. Arrow and J. Debreu)

>> Forward: The beginning of the economic development of Rus' (Eastern Slavs in the pre-state period. Prerequisites for the formation of the Old Russian state. General characteristics of the socio-economic development of Kievan Rus. Features of early feudalization. Social division of labor among the Eastern Slavs. The emergence of cities, the development of trade in Ancient Rus'. Internal development of Rus'. The adoption of Christianity and the baptism of Rus' . Money and its role in Kievan Rus)

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