The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
Volume 19, Issue 5, Oct 2012
Pages 785-795
- DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2010.540348
- Print ISSN: 0967-2567
- Online ISSN: 1469-5936
A historiographical exhumation of J.A. Hobson's Over-Saving Thesis: General theory versus historiography
- By
- Craig Medlen
Abstract
The discussion of J.A. Hobson's understanding of over-saving has been largely confined within John Maynard Keynes' famous critique in the General Theory. I argue that gauging Hobson's contribution by ‘general theory’, that is, by an ahistorical, non-evolutionary yardstick, is to miss the larger part of Hobson's achievement. Hobson's conception of over-saving was contained within an evolving historiography of capital accumulation and took on various meanings depending on whether Hobson was discussing a competitive or monopolistic environment. I show that Keynes' ‘corrected’ version of over-saving was implicitly contained within Hobson's analysis of an evolving monopolistic industrial structure.
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Subjects
Currents of Thought
Periods
- 1871-1914. Development of Major Contemporary Currents of Thought: Marginalism, Institutionalism, Historicism and Socialism
- Post-1914