Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, 8th Edition, 1920, Book VI, Chapter XII “Progress in Relation to Standards of Life”.
- In relation to Marshall’s welfare analysis of growth, how does his distinction between the standards of ‘life’ and ‘comfort’ compare with the welfare economics derived from subjective value theories?
- What similar types of distinctions are apparent in earlier stages of economic thought (Mercantilism, Physiocracy, Classical Political Economy)? How do they differ from Marshall’s in terms of their function within those theoretical approaches? [these distinctions aren’t the same as for Marshall i.e. life vs comfort, but the identification of different and opposing categories of things or agents where the distinction plays an important theoretical part).
- How does Marshall’s treatment of the relationship between wages and
a. population growth
b. economic growth
compare to the standard Classical position? - What is notably different about Marshall’s treatment of preferences in general from that in modern theory? What is the significance of this difference?
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