2026/03/31 by François Allisson, Cléo Chassonnery-Zaïgouche · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Economic Theory and Institutions #Economic Theory and Policy #Political Economy and Marxism
paper · doi:10.1093/cje/beag013
openalex publication_date 2026/03/31 · openalex created_date 2026/05/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02
Abstract Maurice Dobb’s Wages, a short textbook-style work commissioned by John Maynard Keynes for the Cambridge Economic Handbooks series, was first published in 1928. It went through six revised editions by 1959, along with numerous reprints and translations up to the 1980s. This paper analyses the evolution of the book’s content in order to question the status of economic theory in relation to the study of labour issues. The first section examines the making of the handbook and shows how Wages addressed the usefulness of economic theory, particularly price theory. The second section traces the evolution of Dobb’s views on wages, shaped by his controversy with John Hicks in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The third section explores the growing scepticism of Wages across its subsequent editions and translations, following its trajectory from the centre to the periphery of economics.