The Marshallian Tradition of Industrial Economics in Oxford: 1940s – 1970s

Preliminary version 1 Browsing through Oxford students " economics reading lists during the inter-war period; it rapidly becomes apparent that Marshall " s theory formed a key part of economics syllabi at the time. It seems highly likely that Marshall " s Principles of Economics prevailed as the dominant theory of industry and of competition during these two decades. However, the Principles of Economics also left Marshall " s research programme unfinished and open to misunderstandings. In this context, the first aim of the paper is to provide a better understanding of one of the different interpretations of Marshall " s theory, ideas, and methodology which prevailed in Oxford during the period 1947-1979. The choice of the specific context of Oxford University and of this particular time period merit further comments. The history of Post-Marshallian thought in Cambridge at that time has been widely studied, especially in relation with the contributions dedicated to the works of A. Pigou, s influence at Oxford has drawn much less attention. Among the few significant works, Professor Lee covered the Post-Marshallian period in Oxford until 1940. This paper however does not only consider Marshall " s legacy. It also constitutes an attempt to fill a gap in the PostWar history of Industrial Economics 1. From this standpoint, the second purpose of this paper is to show that the developments of post-Marshallian ideas in Oxford gave birth to a new discipline in economic theory. For this reason, the paper seeks to emphasis the point of coincidence between, on the one hand, the increasing interest in Marshall " s theory and its interpretations and, on the other, the emergence of Industrial Economics. In accordance with its main purpose, this contribution falls into three main parts structured chronologically. The first part [1947-1952] describes the increasing interest of Oxford Economists in firms and industry related interests before the emergence of 1 The definition of industrial economics issues used in this contribution is rather standard and conventional. It will be assumed that it is a domain of research which deals with the firm, its internal organisation, and at a bigger scale, linking those firm " s issues with the structure of industry. 2 associated with many substantial theoretical and empirical developments of the discipline. The last part of this paper concerns the period 1968 to 1979, a time when Hay and Morris published a standard textbook popularising Industrial Economics …