Jan van Daal

The Equilibrium Economics of Leon Walras

The existing literature on Walras has focused on his Elements of Pure Economics to an extent which has unbalanced our view of his work. Jan van Daal and Albert Jolink pay very careful attention to Walras general equilibrium models, tracing their development through the five editions of his Elements. But they also place his equilibrium exercises in a broader context, arguing that these models should be considered as an instrument in Walras design for optimal economic order.

Leon Walras's Mathematical Economics and the Mechanical Analogies

In April 1909 LA©on Walras (1834–1910) presented his last lecture before the SociA©tA© Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles at Lausanne. The subject dealt with in this lecture was the analogy between the mathematics used in economics and that employed in mechanics; it is reformulated in what turned out to be one of Walrass last publications, entitled ‘Economique et MA©canique.’

Gossen's Laws

Au-dela de la reception de la premiere et de la seconde loi de Gossen concernant la jouissance decroissante dun bien et lallocation des revenus individuels, lA. montre quune relecture de loeuvre de leconomiste permet devaluer les restrictions imposees par Gossen a la validite de la seconde loi dans le cas des changements de prix relatifs. Examinant les solutions proposees et la supposition auxiliaire avancee par Gossen, lA. montre que la seconde loi doit etre comprise dans le sens dun veritable theoreme de lutilite marginale, dune part, et que la position de Gossen ouvre la voie a une loi morale qui participe a la construction theorique dune conception evolutionniste de la societe

From Utilitarianism to Hedonism: Gossen, Jevons And Walras

Utilitarianism as conceived of in the present article is the philosophical movement that is roughly characterized by three main features: (1) during his lifetime a person maximizes his utility, which depends on his pleasure and his pain; (2) an individuals behavior should be based on a good education and guided by effective legislation; (3) societys ultimate purpose is the maximization of the aggregate happiness of all people.

Stanley Jevons, The theory of political economy , first edition (1871)

Publisher Summary Jevonss Theory was the first book in which economics is presented as a mathematical science based on the assumption of utility-maximizing individuals. Jevonss Theory of Political Economy is the result of research that continued after his presentation in October 1862 before the Section F (‘Economic Science and Statistics) of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Cambridge of his “Notice of a general mathematical theory of political economy.” According to Jevons, exchange takes place in markets. A market is “theoretically perfect only when all traders have perfect knowledge of the conditions of supply and demand, and the consequent ratio of exchange” and “there can only be one ratio of exchange of one uniform commodity at any moment.” Jevonss economic work was not restricted to the Theory of Political Economy . In particular, in a work published two years after his death as 1983, Investigations in currency and finance, he founded a theory on business cycles on the solar cycles. Later, authors used it to indicate the tradition of marginalist work, in particular, that of its founding fathers, Jevons, Menger, and Walras.

Leon Walras' latest book: Melanges d'economie politique et sociale

SummaryThis article discusses Walras latest book, theMélanges déconomie politique et sociale. TheMélanges is a collection of unpublished material that was intended by Walras to appear as a book. The authors show that theMélanges is a valuable addition to the existing available work by Walras. At specific points theMélanges adds insights to Walras pure, applied or social economics that otherwise would not have been obtained. The book, however, seems to be restricted to those readers acquainted already with Walras theory.