The Theory of Political Economy

Name: The Theory of Political Economy
Author: William Stanley Jevons

William Stanley Jevons

Recasts economics as the mathematics of marginal utility, arguing that value comes from the utility of the last unit consumed rather than from labour embodied in a good.

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What it overturned

The consensus this work replaced. Both sides are catalogued, because how a field changed its mind is part of the subject.

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsAdam Smith, 1776A nation's wealth comes from the productivity gains of specialisation and the division of labour, coordinated not by design but by each person pursuing their own interest within a system of markets.

Filed under Schools of Economic Thought in Economics.