Alfred Marshall by

Influence On Field Of Economics

esther_han — 2018-09-11 12:15:06 UTC

I am known for being one of the most influential English economists of all time. Although my work covered a wide range of fields in economics, I was specialized mostly in microeconomics. My most major contribution is being the founder of neoclassical economics. People also credit me for introducing concepts such as supply and demand, price-elasticity of demand, marginal utility, and costs of production in my famous book Principles of Economics. I played an important role in the marginal revolution (the development of an economic theory which explained economic behavior in terms of marginal utility) by presenting the price elasticity in demand and economic welfare. Moreover economists started using supply and demand functions as tools of price determination after I introduced it. I was also the first person to develop a standard supply and demand graph that demonstrated the fundamentals, such as market equilibrium, the relationship between quantity and price and so on. My models are critical since it allowed economists to use visual representations to explain complex economic principles, where before ideas and theories were only described through words. I also made economics more mathematical, but at the same time i didn't want the subject to be irrelevant to the layman. Therefore I tailored books so that anyone could understand my ideas and the mathematics involved. Many of my concepts have endured and modern economist still utilizes my notions.

Four Major Points of Economics

yan_zhou — 2018-09-11 13:24:09 UTC

My four major points of economics is mainly about the goal of economics is to observe human behaviors that connects with human welfare and how they choose to spend their money.

The four major points:

1. Study of an Ordinary Man

Economics is the study of an average man in society. Economics is concerned about every human being not just the ones that are rich. It focuses on human behavior dealing with earning and spending of incomes on everyday materials needed for human beings.

2. Economics is not a Useless Study of Wealth

Wealth is not the main objective for economics. Economics is instead studied to analyze and observe the causes of material prosperity in people and in nations.

3. Economics is a Social Science

Economics studies the actions of people living in society. Specifically, when people work and live together. When working together they will have to interact and cooperate in firms, offices, factories, and shops. Places that produce and exchange goods or services. Economics studies the issues in the activities in these work places.

4. Study of Material Welfare

Usually economics studies only the materialistic aspect and ignores the non-materialistic aspect. I emphasize that a human’s behavior and consumption of goods and services should be a key of study. Wealth is not the final goal, but only a mean in achieving a higher objective of welfare.

Personal Life & Influences

yan_zhou — 2018-09-12 02:36:53 UTC

PERSONAL LIFE
I, Alfred Marshall, was born in London, England on the 26th of July of 1842 and died in Cambridge, England on the 13th of July 1924, and now revived in 2018. My farther was a bank cashier. I grew up in Clapham and was later educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge University College, and Bristol Balliol College, and Oxford.
I had a comfortable childhood, however I had strict parents. They raised me to become a clergy, but I defied their wishes and instead became interested in mathematics and science. Before I was interested in economics, I was in interested in physics but, after going through a mental crisis, I abandoned physics to switch to philosophy. Metaphysics led me to ethics, where ethics in return led me to economics. I became interested in economics because I felt the need to improve material conditions and society. I also wanted to improve conditions for the working class by studying economics.

INFLUENCES
Many scholars had strong influences on me; my career in economics would have been very different if it wasn't for them.
I commenced my study about economics by reading John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy (1848). I recognized his tight logic and rigorous approach and started translating his work into equations. Mill's ideas influenced me a lot when I was writing Principles of Economics
Georg Hegel's organicist ontology also influenced my writing and thoughts. Books written by Antoine Augustin Cournot and Johann Heinrich von Thünen motivated me to incorporate diagrams when explaining economic concepts.

Major Publications

esther_han — 2018-09-13 18:31:03 UTC

During my lifetime I wrote several books about economics. Nevertheless, my most famous book is:

Principles of Economics (1890)
- This book helped me rise to world prominence and it was also the most dominant economic textbooks in England for many years. In the book I introduced numerous new economics concepts such as elasticity of demand, consumer's surplus, supply and demand - all of which played a major role in the development of economics. I also illustrate on the idea that price and output of a good are determined by supply and demand, which act like “blades of the scissors” in determining price in the book. On the graph two curves, that are like scissor blades, intersect at equilibrium (equilibrium is when the cost of producing and the profit is equal).

Some other famous books that i wrote includes:

Industry and Trade (1919)
- In this book I discussed business organization and also studied industrial organization.

Money, Credit and Commerce (1923).
- I wrote this book when economics was deeply divided on the theory of value - the philosophical study of goodness. Through this book I first introduced time as a factor in analysis and also brought the two principles - the cost of production principle and the marginal utility principle by William Jevons - together.

Below is the graph in Principles of Economics

Photo

esther_han — 2018-09-13 18:39:09 UTC

This is a photo of me, Alfred Marshall.

Economic Welfare

yan_zhou — 2018-09-14 01:34:59 UTC

My idea is that economics welfare is divided into producer surplus and consumer surplus. I use these ideas of surplus to analyze the effect of taxation and price shift on market welfare.

Consumer Surplus:

Consumer surplus is the difference between the highest price a customer is willing to pay and the actual price they pay for the item. If the consumer is willing to pay more than the actual given price, then they are benefiting because they are saving money. They pay less then what they would have initially paid. Price is typically the same value of each unity that a consumer buys, but the value to the consumer of each unit declines as it increases.

Definition and Law of Economics

yan_zhou — 2018-09-14 05:42:32 UTC

My idea of economics is that it is not just the study of wealth but it is also the study of human behavior of consumption and spending.

“Political Economy or Economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life; it examines that part of individual and social action which is most closely connected with the attainment and with tase of material requisites of well-being. Thus it is on the one side a study of wealth and on the other and more important side, a part of the study of man.”

Economics deals with man in their everyday lives. Their decreasing and increasing income, spending money, and shelter. Human activities contribute to material welfare and also not contribute to material welfare. Wealth in a sense is only a means to welfare. The main importance is man and the secondary importance is wealth.

Economics laws are concepts of economic tendencies and they are hypothetical. Human actions are many and uncertain, so they fit in this category.

The Theory of Production

yan_zhou — 2018-09-14 14:48:27 UTC

Three Periods
I believe there are three periods that show how markets adjust to the changes in supply and demand over time.

First is the market period, this is the period where in where the stock of a commodity is fixed.

Second is the short period, where supply can be increased by adding labor and other capital.

Third is the long period, in where the long amount of time taken for capital/appliances to be increased.

Law of Returns in the Short Run

The law of diminishing returns. Any variable factor to a fixed factor of production will lead to diminishing marginal returns. The principles of substitutions in where firms can maximize profit by minimizing the cost of production to be less than the output. Firms can substitute cheaper inputs for expensive ones.

Laws of Return in the Long Run

Three possible patterns that may result for an industry in the long run, which are constant returns, increasing returns, and diminishing returns.

Bibliography

esther_han — 2018-09-14 15:47:35 UTC

http://www.economicsdiscussion.net/economics-2/alfred-marshall/top-14-contributions-of-alfred-marshall-to-economics/21044

https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Marshall.html

http://www.studylecturenotes.com/management-sciences/economics/77-alfred-marshall-neo-classical-economist

https://web.archive.org/web/20161107181816/http://economics.illinoisstate.edu/ntskaggs/eco372/readings/alfred_marshall.htm

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Marshall

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/alfred-marshall-3571.php

http://www.famouseconomists.net/alfred-marshall

http://www.alexmthomas.com/2012/01/08/alfred-marshall-1842-1924/

https://web.archive.org/web/20161107181816/http://economics.illinoisstate.edu/ntskaggs/eco372/readings/alfred_marshall.htm

Comment from David Ricardo

emily_lou — 2018-09-16 17:46:18 UTC

Hello Mr. Marshall,
I appreciate your support in the law of diminishing returns. As the economist who first outlined this law, I strongly agree with your ideas in the Law of Returns in the Short Run. I also agree with the Laws of Return in the Long Run, although my law of diminishing marginal returns specifically results in diminishing returns in the long run. Moreover, I support your views on how economics deals with man in their everyday lives, their income, money, and shelter. I believe this is why free trade is important in an economy.
David Ricardo

Comment from Joseph Schumpeter

perry_dong — 2018-09-17 05:49:36 UTC

Hello Mr. Marshall

Regarding change, I believe that it is created through new innovations and firms by entrepreneurs. I do not think change is a side effect of production. As an economist, I urge you to take into account of the progress of economies and the impact that entrepreneurship has had on it.

Comment from Friedrich von Hayek

John_Choe — 2018-09-17 11:45:17 UTC

Hello Mr. Marshall,
I also think that the goal of economics is to observe human behaviors. Human knowledge is limited, so we have to be able to understand human action and behavior through the study of economics in order to make the most out of that knowledge.

Comment from J.M. Keynes

jmkeynes — 2018-09-17 12:55:08 UTC

Mr. Marshall,
You are truly a master-economist with a rare combination of gifts and a great teacher as well. I have built many of my theories and ideas off of your Marshallian economics, fashioning my ideas of aggregate supply and aggregate demand off of your ideas of supply and demand, and many of my views can be seen as theoretical applications of yours. Though my later works depart from your proposed ideas of the market and equilibrium, without you (and your theories), I could not be where I was today.
-J.M. Keynes

Jean-Baptiste Say Comment

ry_anxli02 — 2018-09-17 14:49:20 UTC

Hello Mr.Marshall,
It is to my utmost contentment that we find our agreeance regarding the economic concepts of the non-intervention of government within economics. Similar to your belief, it is my absolute view that the economy should be dictated by the choices and behaviours of the individuals, rather than being manipulated by the government. Hence, all in all, I believe that the establishment of free markets is in the best interest of the economy and individuals.

Comment from Adam Smith

jeffrey_zhu — 2018-09-18 01:32:10 UTC

Hello Mr. Alfred Marshall,

I see that you have challenged my definition of economics. According to you, “Economics is the study of people in the ordinary business of life”. However, I believe that economics is defined as “an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations". Economics studies the process of production, consumption and gathering of wealth.

Comment from Thomas Malthus

angie_huang — 2018-09-18 04:20:24 UTC

Hello Mr. Marshall,
Although your theories are very interesting, I’m sorry to say that I can not agree with you that the goal of economics is just to observe human behaviors ... and how they ... spend their money. In my opinion, economics should be studying human progression on a greater scale to discover what should be done in order to prevent devastation for the human race in the future. My major theory states that population grows exponentially while good production grows linearly and that without limitation on reproduction, there would eventually be famine. Therefore, I beg to differ from your believe that minimal government intervention is best for society.

The Theory of Demand

yan_zhou — 2018-09-18 10:41:21 UTC

Utility and Demand

I based demand on utility, this is partially influenced by Jevon’s work on the theory of marginal utility. I do not believe that marginal utility is the most important determinant of value, but costs of production is the determinant of value.

Price Elasticity of Demand

The slope of a demand curve is not the most correct measure of the sensitivity of price to changes in quantity. A change in the units of measurements change the slope of the demand curve, but should not change the relationship between price and quantity demanded.

Neoclassical Economics

yan_zhou — 2018-09-18 12:08:26 UTC

Similar to capitalist theories, neoclassical economics also prefers less government intervention. It supports the idea that the economy should be a free market. The functionality of the economy is based on the choices determined by human actions, and interactions in the market. Neoclassical economics relates to supply and demand to one’s rationality and ability to maximize utility and profit. It combines the study of wealth distribution and marginal utility. Neoclassical economics is the birthplace of mathematics used in economics, allowing economics to develop at a much faster rate.

When did alfred die?

2021-03-23 13:56:46 UTC