Joan Robinson

Joan Robinson (1903–1983) was a British economist whose work reshaped theories of imperfect competition, economic growth, and Keynesian economics.

Imperfect competition: A market structure in which firms have some power to influence prices. Robinson’s 1933 analysis gave this market structure a systematic theory.
The Economics of Imperfect Competition: Joan Robinson’s 1933 book analyzing price, output, wages, and resource allocation under imperfect competition. It develops her account of how firms with market power set prices and hire labor.
John Maynard Keynes: A British economist whose work on aggregate demand transformed theories of output and employment. Robinson became a prominent interpreter and defender of Keynes’s economic ideas.
Cambridge capital controversy: A debate over whether capital can be measured independently of prices and income distribution. Robinson helped initiate this challenge to neoclassical theories of production and distribution.
Women in economics: The history and study of women’s participation, recognition, and contributions in economics. Robinson achieved prominence in a profession where women faced substantial barriers.
Monopsony: A market with a single buyer whose purchasing decisions can affect prices or wages. Her analysis extended market-power reasoning from sellers to employers and other buyers.
Price discrimination: The practice of charging different prices for the same good to different buyers or markets. Robinson analyzed how sellers with market power can vary prices across buyers.
Piero Sraffa: An Italian economist at Cambridge whose work influenced critiques of neoclassical price theory. His analysis of production and prices helped shape Robinson’s later theoretical debates.
Reswitching: The possibility that a production technique can be most profitable at two different interest rates, but not between them. It became a central example in Robinson’s critique of capital measurement.
Cambridge school of economics: A diverse intellectual tradition centered at Cambridge, including distinctive approaches to growth, capital, and Keynesian theory. Robinson became one of its most influential and outspoken figures.

Linked from 6 pages