10 Points On Alfred Marshall : A Life Dedicated To Economics.

Born in 1842, Alfred Marshall is considered, along with Léon Walras, a founding father of the school of Neoclassical Economics. 

His first book, which was first published in 1890, titled Principles of Economics, was the standard textbook for English students for an astounding 50 years.

Marshall was an excellent mathematician, providing brand new theories for the analysis of supply and demand by integrating calculus to study the workings of markets and firms – using this to express key concepts such as marginal utility and marginal cost.

He studied economics as an attempt to ‘understand the influences exerted on the quality and tone of a man’s life by the manner in which he earns his livelihood’.

Marshall paid good attention to facts, yet his work and much of his wisdom has largely been missed. His observation that large firms could produce at lower unit costs than small firms was vital to his thinking, but it never found a place in the neoclassical school. 

Marshall became a Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge in 1885, proposing to the university senate that women be granted degrees.

Although he stepped down as a professor in 1908, Marshall prevailed and in 1948 women were granted academic standing at Cambridge on a par with men.

His work was largely devoted to improving the living and working standards for all people, showing the truly altruistic side of his personality.

Although Alfred Marshall died in 1924, nearly 100 years ago, we still see today the theories he designed being used in day to day economics.

He will always be regarded as a true pioneer of neoclassical economics.