Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The Marshallian System of Economics

In a letter to Pigou, Alfred Marshall laid out the following six rules of expressing economics:

(1) Use mathematics as shorthand language, rather than as an engine of inquiry.
(2) Keep to them till you have done.
(3) Translate into English.
(4) Then illustrate by examples that are important in real life.
(5) Burn the mathematics.
(6) If you can’t succeed in 4, burn 3.

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