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Joan Robinson Biography

Joan Violet Robinson FBA (31 October 1903 – 5 August 1983), previously Joan Violet Maurice, was a British economist well known for her wide-ranging contributions to economic theory. She was a central figure in what became known as post-Keynesian economics.

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Joan Robinson Quotes

Reality is never a golden age.

Age, Golden, Reality

Not only subjective poverty is never overcome by growth, but absolute poverty is increased by it. . . . Absolute misery grows while wealth increases.

Growth, Overcoming, Poverty, Grows, Wealth

The orthodox doctrines of economics which were dominant in the last quarter of the nineteenth century had a clear message. They supported laisser faire, free trade, the gold standard, and the universally advantageous effects of the pursuit of profit by competitive private enterprise.

Competitive, Gold, Lasts, Message, Messages, Supported

economics limps along with one foot in untested hypotheses and the other in untestable slogans.

Economics, Feet, Foot, Hypothesis, Slogans

It is a popular error that bureaucracy is less flexible than private enterprise. It may be so in detail, but when large scale adaptations have to be made, central control is far more flexible. It may take two months to get an answer to a letter from a government department, but it takes twenty years for an industry under private enterprise to readjust itself to a fall in demand.

Fall, Two, Errors, Enterprise, Department, Bureaucracy

At any moment there is certainly not balanced trade between the various areas of the habitable globe that happens to be under seperate national governments - there is an ever-changing pattern of deficits and surpluses.

Balanced, Government, Moments, Pattern, Patterns, Various

The only thing worse than being exploited by capitalism is not being exploited by capitalism.

Economics, Capitalism, Thing, Exploited, Worse

I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn’t help but question why we need the vaccine at all.

Cancer, Effects, Greater, Risk, Vaccines

Progress is slow partly from mere intellectual inertia. In a subject where there is no agreed procedure for knocking out errors, doctrines have a long life. A professor teaches what he was taught, and his pupils, with a proper respect and reverence for teachers, set up a resistance against his critics for no other reason than that it was he whose pupils they were.

Teacher, Errors, Long, Resistance, Intellectual

The very nature of economics is rooted in nationalism. . . . It [was] developed. . . in the hope of throwing light upon questions of policy. But policy means nothing unless there is an authority to carry it out, and authorities are national.

Carry, Economics, Hope, Light, Mean, National

It is much easier to organize control over one industry serving many markets than over one market served by the products of several industries.

Easier, Industries, Organize, Products, Serving

Unequal distribution of income is an excessively uneconomic method of getting the necessary saving done.

Done, Excessively, Income, Saving

Capitalism with near-full employment was an impressive spectacle. But a growth in wealth is not at all the same thing as reducing poverty. A universal paean was raised in praise of growth. Growth was going to solve all problems. No need to bother about poverty. Growth will lift up the bottom and poverty will disappear without any need to pay attention to it. The economists, who should have known better, fell in with the same cry.

Cry, Growth, Paean, Pay, Should Have, Spectacle

The point of studying economics is so as not to be fooled by economists.

Study, Economics, Economist, Economists, Studying

Ideology is like breath: you never smell your own.

Breaths, Ideology, Like, Smell

Marx, however imperfectly he worked out the details, set himself the task of discovering the law of motion of capitalism, and if there is any hope of progress in economics at all, it must be in using academic methods to solve the problems posed by Marx.

Details, Economics, Hope, Law, Progress

If there is any law governing the distribution of income between classes, it still remains to be discovered.

Class, Distribution, Governing, Income, Law

The first essential for economists. . . is to. . . combat, not foster, the ideology which pretends that values which can be measured in terms of money are the only ones that ought to count.

Economics, Essentials, Firsts, Ought, Terms, Values

Income from property is not the reward of waiting, it is the reward of employing a good stockbroker.

Employing, Income, Rewards, Waiting

science progresses by trial and error, and when it is forbidden to admit error there can be no progress.

Error, Errors, Forbidden, Progress, Progresses, Science

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