John R. Hicks

John R. Hicks was one of the most significant and influential economists of 20th century. He was educated at the Oxford University but his real education began when he was appointed to the London School of Economics in the late 1920s. There he pursued economics and studied the economic systems of various countries of Europe. Thus he steeped himself in the Walrasian, Austrian and Swedish tradition. His studies consolidated the Marginalist Revolution that began over fifty years.

John R. Hicks was one of the most significant and influential economists of 20th century. He was educated at the Oxford University but his real education began when he was appointed to the London School of Economics in the late 1920s. There he pursued economics and studied the economic systems of various countries of Europe. Thus he steeped himself in the Walrasian, Austrian and Swedish tradition. His studies consolidated the Marginalist Revolution that began over fifty years. He held a position of Drummond professor of Political Economy before he retired. [br]

Contribution to Economics

John R. Hicks, the British economist introduced the idea of ‘elasticity of substitution’. It explained that the labor’s share of national income does not reduce by introducing the technology.

He invented the IS-LM model, which was his second major contribution to economics. This model gives a graphical demonstration on the argument that an economy could reach the equilibrium even if it does not employ the total population. This helped in elaborating Keynes’s argument.

Another major contribution of Hicks was his book named Value and Capital. In this book he explored that the value of a product can be measured even without assuming that utility is measurable. His book was among the first research works on the survival of the market and how it reaches the equilibrium.

His fourth contribution to economics was the concept of compensation test. This concept establishes that free trade is good. It has propounded a way to reduce the risk of the section of people when the other section is benefiting from that. He received the Nobel Prize in 1972 in economics for his theories of welfare economy, macroeconomic studies of general equilibrium.

Major Works of John R. Hicks [br]

The economist had been a professor almost all his life. He has penned down many books and the major ones are:

• The Crisis in Keynesian economics published in 1974
• Capital and Growth published in 1965
• Capital and Time: A Neo-Austrian Theory published in 1973
• The Foundations of Welfare Economics: Economic Journal19*39
• Mr. Keynes and the Classics: Econometrica published 1937
• The Valuation of the Social Income: Economica published in 1940
• Value and Capital 1939

Books by John R. Hicks

• A Theory of Economic History (Oxford Paperbacks)
• The Framework of the Indian Economy
• John R Hicks: The Economist’s Economist

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