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Hobson, John Atkinson (1858–1940)

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Abstract

John Atkinson Hobson, a self-styled economic heretic, had a long and prolific career as an economist and political activist. His heresies included underconsumptionism and a critique of orthodox welfare economics based on ideas from John Ruskin, the former being elaborated into a theory of imperialism that influenced Lenin. He was belatedly recognized as a forerunner by Keynes in his General Theory, but this does not do justice to the range of Hobson’s work.

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Bibliography

  • Backhouse, R.E. 1990. J.A. Hobson as a macroeconomic theorist. In Freeden (1990).

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Clarke, P., Backhouse, R.E., Cain, P.J. (2018). Hobson, John Atkinson (1858–1940). In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1090

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