Friday, January 20, 2023

Translation Between The Language Of Classical Economists And Marginalists

Lately, when trying to write up my results I use terminology from classical political economy. The table below maps some terms from classical political economy to terminology for marginalists.

Terminology
ClassicalMarginalist
Use valueUtility
SupplyQuantity supplied
DemandQuantity demanded
(Normal) profitsInterest
Extra profits(Pure) economic profits
Supernormal profits
Market pricesShort run prices
Natural pricesLong run prices
Prices of production

I probably am leaving some important mapping out. Nuances, at least, exist to distinguish between entries in rows in the tables. And maybe it depends on which classical or marginalist economist you read, and which of their works. I think the first row is the most questionable.

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