Rewriting the Principles of Economics

Abstract

By the Principles of Economics I mean a core of economic theory such as that contained in John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy and, a generation later, in Alfred Marshall's Principles of Economics.' In our time no single treatise dominates as Mill and Marshall did in their days, but there is nevertheless a corpus of economic theory that constitutes mainstream Principles of Economics. These Principles are essentially the same whether expressed at the elementary, intermediate, or advanced (graduate) level. A textbook by a master craftsman such as Paul A. Samuelson may, perhaps, be taken as an approximation of a contemporary counterpart of the works of Mill and Marshall.2 The theme of this article is that contemporary Principles need to be rewritten, much as those of Mill and Marshall needed to be rewritten after a lapse of time. What is involved here is a judgment concerning a very large topic of great importance to professional economists and to the nonprofessional public. Even among our colleagues who, with a straight face, teach mainstream neoclassical economics, dissatisfaction is widespread. Perhaps more important, the general public is disenchanted with professional economists and with economics generally. Our professional responsibility to the public to provide intellectual guidance about economic affairs is not being fulfilled. Incredible as it may seem in 1981, our nation is