Léon Walras: Elements of Theoretical Economics
Or, The Theory of Social Wealth

This is an English translation of the third edition (1896) of Léon Walras' Elements of Theoretical Economics.

Léon Walras (Author), Donald A. Walker (Edited and translated by), Jan van Daal (Edited and translated by)

9781107064133, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 October 2014

588 pages, 47 b/w illus. 4 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 3.5 cm, 0.96 kg

'Walras's theory of general economic equilibrium has inspired many great economists, from Pareto, Wicksell, Fisher, and Schumpeter to Hicks, Samuelson, Arrow, Hahn, and Debreu. It is therefore highly welcome that the third and finest edition of Walras's opus magnum, Éléménts, for the first time is made available in an excellent English edition thanks to Donald A. Walker and Jan van Daal, two leading Walrasian scholars.' Harald Hagemann, Universität Hohenheim, Stuttgart

In his fourth edition of Éléménts d'économie politique pure (1900), León Walras introduced the device of written pledges to eliminate path dependency: sellers of products and services write out commitments to supply certain quantities at suggested prices with no commodities actually produced and supplied until a set of prices is found at which supply and demand are equal simultaneously in every market. This brought about very serious alterations to the character of the book. Unfortunately, these changes resulted in an incomplete, internally contradictory, and occasionally incoherent text. This translation, therefore, by two leading scholars of León Walras' work, Donald A. Walker and Jan van Daal, revisits the third edition of this seminal work, including Walras' brilliant explanation of his comprehensive model, with all its richness derived from reality. Growing research into Walras' work indicates that it was this third edition that contained his best theoretical research and a translation of this edition of the book is now a necessity.

Translators' introduction
Part I. Objects and Divisions of Economics: 1. Adam Smith's and J.-B. Say's definitions
2. Distinction between science, the arts, and ethics
3. Social wealth
4. The fact of industry and applied economics
Part II. Theory of Exchange: 5. The market and competition
6. Curves of effective demand and effective supply
7. Discussion of the solution of the problem of the exchange of two commodities for each other
8. Utility or want curves
9. Discussion of demand curves
10. Rareté, or the cause of value in exchange
11. The problem of the exchange of several commodities for one another
12 General formula of the mathematical solution of the problem of the exchange of several commodities for one another
13. Law of the variation of the prices of the commodities
14. Theorem of equivalent redistributions
15. Purchase curves and sales curves
16. Exposition and refutation of Adam Smith's and J.-B. Say's doctrines of the origin of value in exchange
Part III. Theory of Production: 17. Capital and income
18. Elements and mechanism of production
19. The entrepreneur
20. Equations of production
21. Solution of the equations of production
22. The principle of free competition
Part IV. Theory of Capital Formation and Credit: 23. Gross and net income
24. Equations of capital formation and credit
25. Solution of the equations of capital formation and credit
26. Theorem of the maximum utility of new capital goods
27. Laws of the determination and variation of the prices of capital goods
28. Increase of the quantity of products
29. Critique of the physiocratic doctrine
30. Exposition and refutation of the English theory of the price of products
31. Exposition and refutation of the English theory of rent
32. Exposition and refutation of the English theories of wages and interest
Part V. Theory of Money: 33. The problem of the value of money
34. Mathematical theory of bimetallism
35. Relative stability of the value of the bimetallic standard
36. Fiduciary money and offsetting claims
Part VI. Price Fixing, Monopoly, and Taxation: 37. Price fixing and monopoly
38. Taxation.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Economics [KC]