Abstract
Dennis Robertson played an important role in the history of Cambridge economics, through his contributions to monetary and business cycle theory, and to utility and welfare. As a macroeconomist, Robertson investigated the dynamic relationship between monetary flows and economic fluctuations. His main contributions to monetary macroeconomics were written between 1915 and 1934. During that period (especially in the 1920s), he and Maynard Keynes interacted extensively. However, after the publication of Keynes’s General Theory in 1936, Robertson became critical of what he perceived as the shortcomings of Keynesian liquidity preference and equilibrium unemployment theories. From a microeconomic perspective, Robertson made a sustained effort to keep alive the Cambridge Marshallian cardinalist approach to utility, especially after the ordinalist revolution in welfare economics in the 1940s. Robertson claimed that economic theory and policy necessarily involve interpersonal comparisons of utility and welfare.
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Notes
- 1.
Robertson would have noted that this ‘equilibrium’ value is always shifting, so it is a ‘quasi-equilibrium’.
- 2.
For two good short biographies, see those in Robertson on Economic Policy (1992), mainly by Dennison, and in Essays on Robertsonian Economics by Presley (1992). For a longer, somewhat metaphysical, biography, see Fletcher’s Understanding Dennis Robertson (2000). For a comprehensive treatment of Robertson’s macroeconomics, see Presley (1979).
- 3.
The father of one of the authors, A.L. Goodhart, went to Trinity in 1912 with the intention of studying economics. He was told by his Tutor that ‘Trinity had no economist. But they were sending their economics undergraduates to an economist at King’s [J.M. Keynes], but that they [in Trinity] did not regard him as “sound”’. A.L.G. decided then to turn to a study of law. (Traditional family story.)
- 4.
Skidelsky (2003: 711–712) has Beveridge giving a value of 8% to this and Keynes regarding 5% as ‘normal’.
- 5.
From Money (1948: 162–163): ‘But on these difficult matters the reader may well be excused from seeking further enlightenment in this little book, and the author from trying to impart it. It is enough to realise that by the use of their double weapon, Central Banks can up to a point check the expansion of the money-supply [sic]; and that while we cannot be sure that their power to do so is in all circumstances complete, there is good reason to believe that if it were used earlier and more resolutely than it has sometimes been in the past, many of the evil excrescences of a trade boom could be lopped away’.
References
Cited Works by Dennis Robertson
Robertson, D.H. (1915) [1948]. A Study of Industrial Fluctuation. London: London School of Economics and Political Science.
Robertson, D.H. (1922). Money. First edition, London: Nisbet.
Robertson, D.H. (1923) [1931]. ‘The Stabilisation of Employment’. In D.H. Robertson, Economic Fragments. London: P.S. King: 130–144.
Robertson, D.H. (1926) [1949]. Banking Policy and the Price Level. New York: A.M. Kelley.
Robertson, D.H. (1928). Money. Second edition. London: Nisbet.
Robertson, D.H. (1928) [1940]. ‘Theories of Banking Policy’. Chapter 2 in Essays in Monetary Theory. London: P.S. King: 39–59.
Robertson, D.H. (1929) [1931]. ‘The Monetary Doctrines of Messrs. Foster and Catchings’. Chapter III in Part II of D.H. Robertson and A.C. Pigou (1931) Economic Essays and Addresses. London: P.S. King: 139–162.
Robertson, D.H. (1933). ‘Saving and Hoarding’. Economic Journal, 43(171): 399–413.
Robertson, D.H. (1934). ‘Industrial Fluctuation and the Natural Rate of Interest’. Economic Journal, 44(176): 650–656.
Robertson, D.H. (1936). ‘Some Notes on Mr Keynes’ General Theory of Interest’. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 51(1): 168–191.
Robertson, D.H. (1936) [1940]. ‘The Snake and the Worm’. Chapter 8 in D.H. Robertson, Essays in Monetary Theory. London: P.S. King: 104–113.
Robertson, D.H. (1938) [1940]. ‘A Survey of Modern Monetary Controversy’. Chapter 11 in D.H. Robertson, Essays in Monetary Theory. London: P.S. King: 133–153.
Robertson, D.H. (1948). Money. Fourth edition. London: Nisbet.
Robertson, D. H. (1949) [1952]. ‘What Has Happened to the Rate of Interest?’. Chapter 5 in D.H. Robertson, Utility and All That And Other Essays. London: Allen & Unwin: 83–96.
Robertson, D.H. (1951) [1952]. ‘Utility and All That’. Chapter 1 in D.H. Robertson, Utility and All That And Other Essays. London: Allen & Unwin: 13–41.
Robertson, D.H. (1952). Utility and All That And Other Essays. London: Allen & Unwin.
Robertson, D.H. (1954a). ‘Utility and All What?’. Economic Journal, 64(256): 665–678.
Robertson, D.H. (1954b). ‘Thoughts on Meeting Some Important Persons’. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 68(2): 181–190.
Robertson, D.H. (1956). Economic Commentaries. London: Staples.
Robertson, D.H. (1957–1959) [1963]. Lectures on Economic Principles. London: Fontana Library.
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Cohen Council (1958). Council on Prices, Productivity and Incomes First Report. London: HMSO.
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Friedman, M. (1974). ‘A Theoretical Framework for Monetary Analysis’. In R.J. Gordon (ed.) Milton Friedman’s Monetary Framework: A Debate with His Critics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 1–62.
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Hague, D.C. (1962). ‘Summary Record of the Debate’. In D.C. Hague (ed.) Inflation. Proceedings of a Conference held by the International Economic Association in August 1959. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
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Boianovsky, M., Goodhart, C. (2017). Dennis Holme Robertson (1890–1963). In: Cord, R. (eds) The Palgrave Companion to Cambridge Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41233-1_25
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