Premium
Jevons In Australia: A Reassessment *
Author(s) -
WHITE MICHAEL V.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
economic record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1475-4932
pISSN - 0013-0249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1982.tb00347.x
Subject(s) - politics , economics , work (physics) , period (music) , distribution (mathematics) , positive economics , production (economics) , neoclassical economics , economic history , political science , law , macroeconomics , philosophy , mathematics , engineering , mechanical engineering , mathematical analysis , aesthetics
Historians of economic thought have generally considered that W. S. Jevons' Australian work on political economy has little significance. This article presents three arguments for reassessing that account. First, while in Australia, Jevons formulated the basic premises of his Theory of Political Economy. Second, the key influence on him during this period was not D. Lardner, as previously thought, but Professor Maurice Pell of Sydney University. Third, in Australia, Jevons formulated the project which culminated in the publication of his Theory—the derivation of ‘laws’ of income distribution, showing economic agents were rewarded according to their contribution to production.