MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION: ROBINSON AND CHAMBERLIN. 1. ROBINSON, JOAN. 1903-1983. The Theory of I...

MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION: ROBINSON AND CHAMBERLIN. 1. ROBINSON, JOAN. 1903-1983. The Theory of Imperfect Competition. London: Macmillan and Co., 1933. 8vo. Publisher's blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, publisher's printed dust jacket, minor chipping to edges, reinforced with paper tape. Custom cloth folding case. Provenance: Duncan Lyall Burn (economist and historian, 1902-1988, ink name to endpaper 'D.L. Burn/1935'); Hon. Stanley C. Wisniewski (pencil inscription) to each book in this lot. FIRST EDITION OF ROBINSON'S FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT BOOK. Joan Robinson was a prominent economist of the Keynesian circle, one of 3 people thanked in the acknowledgements of his General Theory for her contributions. Her 1933 Imperfect Competition sparked a revolution in economic thought surrounding the idea of monopolistic competition. Along with Chamberlin's Monopolistic Competition, produced independently in the same year, Robinson's work criticized the Marshallian idea of equilibrium, in that it existed only under the condition of 'perfect competition,' which Robinson asserted rarely, if ever, existed. Traditional neoclassicist economics held that monopoly and competition existed separately in opposition, while Robinson (and Chamberlin) showed, following upon Sraffa, that conditions most often lie in an intermediate zone between monopoly and competition. She also introduced the concept of monopsony, a market with a single buyer whereby they set the demand, and thus the price. A woman in the largely male dominated world of economics, Robinson nearly became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics during the 1980s. WITH: 'What is Perfect Competition,' OFFPRINT FROM: The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume XLIX, November 1934. 8vo. Publisher's staple-bound printed paper wrappers, minor wear. Folding archival paper chemise and folder. RARE OFFPRINT OF HER IMPORTANT 1934 PAPER, A PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY ROBINSON, 'With the author's compliments' in ink to front wrapper. Following upon her 1933 work, a major step forward in analyzing economic behavior at the level of the firm, here proposed a reconstruction of the theory of value. 2. CHAMBERLIN, EDWARD HASTINGS. 1899-1967. The Theory of Monopolistic Competition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933. (Harvard Economics Studies 38). 8vo. Publisher's red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, Harvard device in blind to upper cover, original printed dust jacket, minor fading to two spots on spine, some chipping to jacket. Custom cloth folding case. FIRST EDITION OF CHAMBERLIN'S MAJOR WORK ON MONOPOLIES AND COMPETITION. Like Robinson, effectively an attack on the idea of 'perfect competition,' Chamberlin independently proposed the theory of imperfect competition, termed 'monopolistic competition.' Chamberlin added to his model not just production costs, but advertising and selling costs. Schumpeter applauded the 'direct applicability to practical questions and hence for the economic profession as a whole' (Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, pp 1150-1). WITH: Theory of Monopolistic Competition. Fourth Edition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1942. 8vo. Publisher's red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, original printed dust jacket, 'For Mr. Stauber' penciled to front panel of jacket. Custom folding cloth box. FOURTH EDITION, with important additions. WITH: 'The Origin and Early Development of Monopolistic Competition Theory,' OFFPRINT FROM: The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume LXXV, November, 1961. 8vo. Publisher's staple-bound printed wrappers, upper cover inscribed 'Eric Roll/EHC' with stamp, 'COMPLIMENTS OF THE AUTHOR.' AN ASSOCIATION COPY, inscribed by Chamberlain to economist Eric Roll, an important contributor in the history of economic thought. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing