Alfred Marshall

["RICHARD P.F. HOLT" <holtri@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Since there has been some dumping on Marshall let me say a few words
in his favor. In many ways, I believe that Marshall is still underrated.
His desire not to stick with the ideological dogma of his time -- either
from the left, center or right made him unique. One of the strongest insights
I've received from reading Marshall is the power of social structures and
institutions to change economic theory. The traditonal classical economists
believed that we could come up with an economic theory that was universally
true. A theory that somehow could not be touched by history or social factors.
Marshall's writings gave a very serious threat to that outlook. And I might
be out of the nonlinear loop here, but I still believe that comparative
analysis is still a useful tool for economists, particularly those who
are interested in policy changes.
-Ric Holt
e-mail: holtri@xxxxxxxxxxxxx