Marshall, Marshallians and Industrial Economics

Edited by Tiziano Raffaelli, Tamotsu Nishizawa, Simon Cook

Routledge 2010

In recent years, Alfred Marshall’s reflections on industrial organization have attracted renewed attention, first in the booming literature on the industrial district and then as anticipations of the competence theory of the firm. Firms are no longer seen as devices aimed to economize transaction costs, but as organisms that grow and thrive thanks to their core competencies. This attitude has fostered a revival of interest in Marshall’s theory of industrial organization which now proves itself to be of long-lasting relevance. The aim of the book is to focus on both Marshall’s own work and the Marshallian tradition, revisiting the 1920s and 1930s debates on business size, external economies, coordination and management costs by the authors who followed Marshall’s insightful theoretical perspective.

Authors include well-known historians such as Roger Backhouse and Richard Arena, applied and theoretical economists, young researchers who are working on unpublished material by Marshall and the Marshallian writers and an introduction from Giacomo Becattini.

Introduction, Giacomo Becattini, Section 1: Marshall's Industrial Economics, 1. Marshall‘s evolutionary views on the industrial system, Tiziano Raffaelli, 2. "Industry and Trade" revisited, Marshall on Britain's industrial leadership and business organization, Tamotsu Nishizawa, Section 2: Wider Perspectives, 3. The history of industrial organization, Simon Cook, 4. Fair wages and capability-development, Kenji Fuji, 5. Partial equilibrium analysis as a tool for the study of the economics of industry, Roger Backhouse, 6. Ideal social orders, Marco Dardi, 7. Sraffa's attitude to Marshall, Annalisa Rosselli, Section 3: The Marshallian School, 8. The Lancashire industrial district: its rise, prosperity and decline in the analysis of British economists, Katia Caldari and Fiorenza Belussi, 9. Layton on industrial and applied economics, Masashi Kondo, 10. Two Marshallians: Layton and the early MacGregor, Carlo Cristiano, 11. Sargant Florence's research programme, Leonard Minkes, 12. Dennis Robertson’s ‘The Control of Industry’, Hiroyuki Shimodaira, Section 4: The Revival, 13. D. H. MacGregor and Industrial Economics at Oxford, 1920 – 1945, Frederick Lee, 14. "The Marshallian Tradition of Industrial Economics in Oxford (1947-1979): From Andrews’ contribution to the emergence of Industrial Organization and Business Studies", Lise Arena, 15. Marshall and George Richardson, Richard Arena, 16. On the revival of interest in industrial districts, Marco Bellandi, 17. Marshall's influence on recent developments in industrial economics, Richard Langlois.

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