History versus Equilibrium: Joan Robinson on Teaching Economics

Argues that Joan Robinson′s interest in teaching and her students was inherently connected to her views on the nature, scope and methodology of economics. More specifically, like the classical economists, she defined economics broadly as the study of the causes of material wealth and growth rather than the more narrow science of allocation of scarce resources. Like J.S. Mill, A. Marshall and J.M. Keynes, she viewed economics as a moral science rather than excluding ethics and politics from economic considerations. Most ⊃4importantly, she believed in the central role of history and thus uncertainty in economic analysis. This emphasis on history in turn implied that she did not consider the tools of economic analysis to be universally applicable across time and space. It is argued here that these beliefs directly affected her views on teaching economics.