Who Among the Twelve Great Economists Discussed in the Course Would You Rank First, and Who Second?

All the twelve great economists had great contributions to economics and they all showed great enthusiasm in studying economics. There were some differences between their concepts of economics, but all of these concepts built up the basic ideas of the economics we studied today.

There were several criterion employed in ranking the economists.

First of all, the economist should have great influences in economics. He / she should have substantial theories which could be applied in the real world and could be used as reference to other economists.

Then he / she should enjoy his / her works in finding theories or developing his / her own ideas, he / she should show enthusiasm in studying economics. If he / she could enjoy his / her works, he / she would concentrate in the process of defining the theories and ideas and would give better results. Hence, meaningful and great economics theories would be formed.

Third, he / she should dedicate to spread the ideas of economics so that all people could receive the concepts of economics and hence improve the economy in the world.

Spreading the economics ideas was very important, other could make changes to his / her concepts and correct them.

Finally, he / she should have contributions to the society. It was very important for the economist to consider the public benefits when creating his / her own ideas which might have great influence to the society. As economics relates the allocation of resources in the world, the economics theories created might affect the wealth distribution in the world.

Among the twelve great economists discussed in this course, I would rank Alfred Marshall the first and Lerner Abba Potachya the second.

In my point of view, Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) who was the first economist I learned in this course, was the greatest economist among the twelve. He was just like the father of economics. He contributed most of his life in economics.

When he started teaching political economics at St John’s College, he was committed his career to developing this subject and helping to transform it into a new science of economics. He spent several years in developing and defining his economics ideas and deepening his understandings. He also visited the USA to probe economic conditions, and throughout his life he was tireless in his efforts to master the practicalities of the economic world. It seems that most of his life was surrounded by economics. He has tried his effort to investigate economics and build up his own ideas of economics. His spirit of studying economics was admirable.

Being the professor, although able students interested in economics were in short supply, Marshall did teach and influence several students who were to make contributions to economics. He was patient to spread the ideas of economics to other and successfully influenced other to become great economists. The more economists in the world, the better the economics theories would be formed. A.C. Pigou and J.M. Keynes were the great economists who were the pupils of Marshall. His pupils followed his ideas and developed their own concepts or even improve Marshall’s ideas. A.C. Pigou was one of the great economists we studied, most of his theories have combined with Marshall’s and even used to compare with Marshall’s. This could enhance the theories of economics and hence benefit to the whole economy.

Marshall published the first standard textbook in economics (Principles of Economics) which was the most influential treatise in economics and have many important concepts. This book went through eight editions in his lifetime. It showed that he improved his concepts continually and shouldered the responsibility in spreading the best ideas of economics to the public.

Although most of the Marshall’s concepts were incomplete and sketchy, they also gave general ideas to the latter economists. So, Marshall’s conceptions of economics were the foundation of other concepts.

Marshall saw economics as concerned with those aspects of human behaviour open to pecuniary influences and sufficientty regular and ubiquitous to permit statements of broad scope and some persistence. When we study economics nowadays, we also need to concern about the human desires. We have to find out solutions to solve the different human desires problems.

The conception of competition in Marshall's manufacturing case is closer to the ideas of imperfect or monopolistic competition. When we study microeconomics, we will learn about the types of competitions in the industry. Marshall gave his own ideas in the trend of industry shifting