Lionel Robbins’s essay on the nature and …

1 Lionel Robbins s essay on the nature and significance of geconomic science 75th anniversary conference proceedingsEdited byFrank CowellAmos Witztumi Table of Contents Preface Lionel Robbins, Economising and Innovating: A Business School Perspective Christos N. Pitelis and Jochen Runde iii 1 Is Robbins s Definition Necessarily Imperialistic? The Demarcation of Economics in Robbins s essay and the Concepts of Real and Formal Scarcity Ignacio Falgueras-Sorauren 16 Economics as a Moral Science Anthony B. Atkinson 38 Ethics and the Science of Economics: Robbins s Enduring Fallacy Amos Witztum 57 Robbins and Welfare Economics: A Reappraisal Roger E.

2 Backhouse 86 Can Economics be Founded on Indisputable Facts of Experience ? Lionel Robbins and the Pioneers of Neoclassical Economics Robert Sugden 99 Robbins, Positivism and the Demarcation of Economics from Psychology Don Ross 120 Effective Tension in Robbins s Economic Methodology D. Wade Hands 152 Disciplining Boundaries: Robbins s essay and the Borderlands of Economics and Psychology Harro Maas 169 Some Legacies of Robbins s nature and significance of Economic Science Address to Conference Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Lionel Robbins s essay on the nature and significance of Economic Science Richard G.

3 Lipsey 194 Defining Economics: the Long Road to Acceptance of the Robbins Definition Roger E. Backhouse and Steven G. Medema 209 What was It that Robbins was Defining? David Colander 231 Cost and the Means-End Definition of Economics in Lionel Robbins s essay : Analysis and Contemporary Implications Andrew Brown and David A. Spencer 244 Lionel Robbins: A Methodological Reappraisal Rodrigo M. Zeidan and Marcelo Resende 262 Robbins on the Stationary State: an Early Attempt to Distinguish Idealization from Abstraction Menno Rol 279 The Continuing Muddle of Monetary Theory: A Steadfast Refusal to Face Facts Goodhart 292 ii Lord Robbins, Monetary Reform and Keynesian Economics Geoff Tily 306 Robbins s Epistemology and the Role of the Economist in Society Fabio Masini 343 Scratch a Would-Be Planner.

4 Robbins, Neoclassical Economics and the End of Socialism Brigitte Granville and Judith Shapiro 366 The Science of Things Generally Jos Lu s Cardoso and Nuno Palma 387 Robbins s nature and significance and the M2T Seminar: Measurement with Theory and Theory with Measurement Jim Thomas 403 The Making of Robbins s essay Susan Howson 431 Value-Free Economics in Management and Engineering Education Kevin Christ 451 Attractive Polarities, Narrow Boundaries Reza Dibadj 472 iii Lionel Robbins s essay on the nature and significance of Economic Science 75th Anniversary Conference.

5 In 1932 Robbins set out to inquire about that which defines the subject matter of economic analysis: what economists can and cannot say and the method by which they can reach their conclusions. But this was far more a complex struggle than merely to identify the methodology of economic analysis. At that time, he also had to cross swords with other approaches concerning the delineation of the subject of economics. On the one hand, he had to fend off historicism or the claim that social phenomena cannot be subdivided into separate spheres of examination.

6 On the other hand, he also had to position himself vis- -vis the empirical drive emanating from institutional economics of the time. In many respects today we face a similar situation to the one that Robbins faced. Economics is under attack for lack of relevance, for inappropriate premises regarding human behaviour, for failing to confirm many of its propositions and for ignoring other aspects of social relations. This is particularly poignant as today s economics, in many ways, is based on Robbins s conclusions from his essay on the nature and significance of Economic Science.

7 Robbins s analysis did not lead to identifying the agenda of economics with any of the prevailing doctrines of the time. In fact, through a careful study of the existing alternatives both in substance and methods, Robbins forms an entirely new economics which, to some extent, is an amalgamation of Austrian and Lausanne themes. However, the economics he defined and, which still lives in contemporary textbooks, was new and brave and suggested yet another school of thought (the LSE School). Both the apparent difficulties that economics seems to be facing and the fact that its foundation can be traced back to the essay suggested that the 75th anniversary of the essay was a good opportunity both to repeat Robbins s exercise and to examine its historical significance .

8 So we invited scholars to do both. The conference, which ran over two days and included 30 papers, was divided broadly into the following themes: 1. Reflections on Definitions and Boundaries of Economic Analysis; 2. Ethics-Economics relationship; 3. Methodology; 4. The Role of Policy. Most papers in the conference were focused on topics 1 and 3 but topics 2 and 4 are, of course, no less significant. Naturally, there was no single voice coming out of the conference. However, the breadth of issues which were tackled suggests to us that the exercise was worth pursuing.

9 We hope that this volume will stimulate a discussion and a debate about the nature and significance of economic science but, most of all, we hope that it would stimulate a greater deal of reflection by those who are at the forefront of economic analysis. Frank Cowell Amos Witztum 1 Lionel Robbins, Economising and Innovating: A Business School Perspective Christos N Pitelis and Jochen Runde Abstract We revisit and critically evaluate Lionel Robbins s famous definition of economics from a business-school perspective, in the light of post-Robbins developments in (1) neoclassical economic theory and (2) evolutionary economics and management theory.

10 We argue that while the economising approach to economics captured by Robbins s definition has an important place in business school curricula, there are various economics-related topics of significant interest to business-school audiences not least those relating to technological change and its impact on resource creation and intertemporal economic performance that can only be addressed by moving beyond the strictures of Robbins s conception of the subject. 1. Introduction The aim of this paper is to revisit Lionel Robbins s famous definition of economics from a business school perspective and in the light of post-Robbins developments in neoclassical economic theory, evolutionary economics and management scholarship.