Lionel Charles Robbins, Baron Robbins, (22 November 1898 – 15 May 1984) was a British

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

, and prominent member of the economics department at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

(LSE). He is known for his leadership at LSE, his proposed definition of economics, and for his instrumental efforts in shifting Anglo-Saxon economics from its Marshallian direction. He is famous for the quote, "Humans want what they can't have."

Early life

Robbins was born in

Sipson Sipson is a village in the London Borough of Hillingdon, the westernmost borough of Greater London, England. It is west of Charing Cross and near the north perimeter of London Heathrow Airport. History Toponymy The village's name was recorde ...

, west of London, the son of Rowland Richard Robbins (1872–1960), known as Dick, and his wife Rosa Marion Harris; his father was a farmer, a member of

Middlesex County Council Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965. The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the coun ...

involved also in the National Farmers' Union, and the family was

Strict Baptist Reformed Baptists (sometimes known as Particular Baptists or Calvinistic Baptists) are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology (salvation). The first Calvinist Baptist church was formed in the 1630s. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith w ...

. His sister Caroline became a noted Professor of History at Bryn Mawr College. Robbins was educated at home, at Hounslow College (a preparatory school) and at Southall County School. He went to

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

in October 1915, beginning an Arts degree and attending lectures by

W. P. Ker William Paton Ker, FBA (30 August 1855 – 17 July 1923), was a Scottish literary scholar and essayist. Life Born in Glasgow in 1855, Ker studied at Glasgow Academy, the University of Glasgow, and Balliol College, Oxford. He was appointed ...

, the medievalist Francis Charles Montague, and

A. F. Pollard Albert Frederick Pollard, FBA (16 December 1869 – 3 August 1948) was a British historian who specialized in the Tudor period. He was one of the founders of the Historical Association in 1906. Life and career Pollard was born in Ryde o ...

. Wishing to serve in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he began training in early 1916 at Topsham, Devon. He was in the Royal Field Artillery as an officer from August 1916 to 1918, when he was wounded by a sniper on 12 April in the Battle of the Lys and returned home with the rank of lieutenant. During the war Robbins became interested in

guild socialism Guild socialism is a political movement advocating workers' control of industry through the medium of trade-related guilds "in an implied contractual relationship with the public". It originated in the United Kingdom and was at its most influent ...

, reading in G. D. H. Cole and by personal contact with Reginald Lawson, a connection from the Harris side of the family. Through Clive Gardiner, an artist commissioned by Dick Robbins in 1917 to paint his son's portrait, Robbins met first Alfred George Gardiner, Clive's father, and then his ally the activist

James Joseph Mallon James Joseph Mallon, (24 December 1874 – 12 April 1961), known as Jimmy Mallon, was a British people, British economist and political activist. Life Born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Chorlton near Manchester, Mallon became an apprentice jeweller a ...

. After his convalescence and 1919 demobilisation from the army, Robbins was employed for about a year by the Labour Campaign for the Nationalization of the Drink Trade, a position found with Mallon's help. The campaign was an offshoot of the State Management Scheme set up during the war, and Robbins worked in

Mecklenburgh Square Mecklenburgh Square is a Grade II listed square in Bloomsbury, London. The square and its garden were part of the Foundling Estate, a residential development of 1792–1825 on fields surrounding and owned by the Foundling Hospital. The square was ...

, London for Mallon and

Arthur Greenwood Arthur Greenwood, (8 February 1880 – 9 June 1954) was a British politician. A prominent member of the Labour Party from the 1920s until the late 1940s, Greenwood rose to prominence within the party as secretary of its research department f ...

. In 1920, Robbins resumed studies at the

(LSE), where he was taught by

Harold Laski Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of ...

Edwin Cannan Edwin Cannan (3 February 1861, Funchal, Madeira – 8 April 1935, Bournemouth), the son of David Cannan and artist Jane Cannan, was a British economist and historian of economic thought. He was a professor at the London School of Economics from 1 ...

and Hugh Dalton. He graduated B.Sc.(Econ) in 1923 with first class honours. Dalton's biographer

Ben Pimlott Benjamin John Pimlott FBA (4 July 1945 – 10 April 2004), known as Ben Pimlott, was a British historian of the post-war period in Britain. He made a substantial contribution to the literary genre of political biography. Early life Pimlott was ...

wrote that Robbins was the "most promising student of his generation at the L.S.E."

Academic

After graduation, Robbins found a six-month position as a researcher for

William Beveridge William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and Liberal politician who was a progressive and social reformer who played a central role in designing the British welfare state. His 19 ...

, via Dalton. He had applied successfully to New College, Oxford for a fellowship in economics, with references from Alfred George Gardiner (shortly to be his father-in-law), Theodore Gregory and

Graham Wallas Graham Wallas (31 May 1858 – 9 August 1932) was an English socialist, social psychologist, educationalist, a leader of the Fabian Society and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Biography Born in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, Wall ...

. It was a one-year lecturing position, and he returned to LSE in 1925, again with Dalton's backing, as assistant lecturer, shortly becoming lecturer. In 1927, Robbins returned to New College as a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

, but continued to teach at LSE, lecturing on a weekly basis. After the death in 1929 of Allyn Abbott Young, Professor of Economics at LSE, Robbins replaced him in the chair, and moved with his wife to

Hampstead Garden Suburb Hampstead Garden Suburb is an elevated suburb of London, north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green. It is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations. It is an example of early twentie ...

. During the 1930s he built up the economics department, hiring

Friedrich von Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Hayek ...

John Hicks Sir John Richards Hicks (8 April 1904 – 20 May 1989) was a British economist. He is considered one of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century. The most familiar of his many contributions in the field of economi ...

and Nicholas Kaldor. LSE Library at Lionel Robbins

Contra Keynes

Robbins clashed with

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...

in early October 1930, on the Committee of Economists of the Second MacDonald ministry. It was a small working group chaired by Keynes, apart from the Economic Advisory Council, to consider economic policy in the Great Depression conditions, comprising also

Hubert Henderson Sir Hubert Douglas Henderson (20 October 1890 – 22 February 1952), was a British economist and Liberal Party politician. Background Henderson was born the son of John Henderson of Glasgow. He was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School, Rugby School ...

and Josiah Stamp from the council, with

Arthur Cecil Pigou Arthur Cecil Pigou (; 18 November 1877 – 7 March 1959) was an English economist. As a teacher and builder of the School of Economics at the University of Cambridge, he trained and influenced many Cambridge economists who went on to take chair ...

and Robbins representing academia. Robbins refused to sign a draft by Keynes of proposals including tariffs, and wanted the chance to submit a minority report. Keynes as chair would not grant the request, given that Robbins was in a minority of one. Robbins, who had compared the protectionist views to those of Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook, walked out of a meeting, and briefed

Philip Snowden Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, PC (; 18 July 1864 – 15 May 1937) was a British politician. A strong speaker, he became popular in trade union circles for his denunciation of capitalism as unethical and his promise of a socialist utop ...

against the report that contained a version of his criticism, considered himself poorly treated. Bad feeling persisted for years between LSE and Cambridge economists. Initially, Robbins was opposed to Keynes's 1936 '' General Theory''. His own 1934 treatise on the Great Depression is an analysis belonging to that period of his thought. Later, he accepted the need for government intervention.

World War II period

Robbins joined the British government's Central Economic Information Service in summer 1940, from Cambridge to where the LSE had moved. The Service was split into the Central Statistical Office and the Economic Section, which Robbins headed as Director from September 1941. The points system devised in 1941 for rationing of clothing, footwear and household goods, by Robbins with Peggy Joseph and

James Meade James Edward Meade, (23 June 1907 – 22 December 1995) was a British economist and winner of the 1977 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with the Swedish economist Bertil Ohlin for their "pathbreaking contribution to the ...

, is considered a successful policy. From 1942 Robbins worked largely on planning for post-war reconstruction, with Meade. When John Boyd Orr and

Frank Lidgett McDougall Frank Lidgett McDougall (1884–1958) was a British-born Australian farmer and economic adviser, now best known for his part in the foundation of the Food and Agriculture Organization. Early life He was the son of John McDougall, a Wesleyan Met ...

successfully lobbied to put food security on the agenda of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

, Robbins attended the resulting 1943 conference at

Hot Springs, Virginia Hot Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) in Bath County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 738. It is located about southwest of Warm Springs on U.S. Route 220. Hot Springs has several historic resorts, f ...

. He represented the United Kingdom also at the

Bretton Woods Conference The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, Unite ...

of 1944, and took part in the negotiation of the 1946

Anglo-American loan The Anglo-American Loan Agreement was a loan made to the United Kingdom by the United States on 15 July 1946, enabling its economy after the Second World War to keep afloat. The loan was negotiated by British economist John Maynard Keynes and Am ...

. Over this period he became fully reconciled with John Maynard Keynes. Post-war, Robbins wrote:

I grew up in a tradition in which, while recognition was indeed given to the problems created by the ups and downs of the trade cycle and the fluctuations of aggregate demand, there was a tendency to ignore certain deep-seated possibilities of disharmony, in a way which, I now think, led sometimes to superficiality and sometimes to positive error. I owe much to Cambridge economists, particularly to Lord Keynes and Professor Robertson, for having awakened me from dogmatic slumbers in this very important respect.

Later life

The Robbins Report of 1963 advocated substantial expansion of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...

in the United Kingdom, taking the line, often called now the "Robbins principle", that

demand In economics, demand is the quantity of a good that consumers are willing and able to purchase at various prices during a given time. The relationship between price and quantity demand is also called the demand curve. Demand for a specific item ...

from those suitably qualified should drive its development. There was background at the LSE for the view taken, in work of Richard Layard and

Claus Moser Claus Adolf Moser, Baron Moser, (24 November 1922 – 4 September 2015) was a British statistician who made major contributions in both academia and the Civil Service. He prided himself rather on being a non-mathematical statistician, and said t ...

, and it drew also on recent ideas of Jean Floud and A. H. Halsey. Robbins became the first Chancellor of the new

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (, gd, Oilthigh Shruighlea (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built ...

in 1968. He also advocated major government support for the arts, as well as universities. In later life, Robbins turned to the history of economic thought, publishing studies on English doctrinal history. His LSE lectures, as he gave them in 1980, were later published.

Views

Robbins is noted as a

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

economist, and for his definition of economics.

Influences

As an undergraduate, Robbins felt he had gained much from Philip Wicksteed's ''The Common Sense of Political Economy'' (1910). Within the earlier British tradition, he admired William Stanley Jevons's mastery of statistical evidence, and for theory which he thought had abiding relevance. Skidelsky takes Robbins to be a possible but in any case rare example of a British continuator of John Neville Keynes and his ''Scope and Method of Political Economy'' (1891). He corresponded with the American

Frank Knight Frank Hyneman Knight (November 7, 1885 – April 15, 1972) was an American economist who spent most of his career at the University of Chicago, where he became one of the founders of the Chicago School. Nobel laureates Milton Friedman, George ...

from 1931 until Knight's death in 1972.

''An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science'' (1932)

The definition appears in the ''Essay'' by Robbins as: :"Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." After contention in the 1930s, this definition reached some general acceptance among economists. The book has six chapters, and the second half remains controversial. The ''Essay'' was influenced by Nathan Isaacs, a close friend from the army, and a paper he had given to the Aristotelian Society in June 1931. The same month, Robbins sent Isaacs a copy of his inaugural lecture, commenting (in relation to

business cycle Business cycles are intervals of expansion followed by recession in economic activity. These changes have implications for the welfare of the broad population as well as for private institutions. Typically business cycles are measured by examin ...

s) that its content was out of date through not taking account of work of the Austrians

Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Haye ...

and Ludwig von Mises. Hayek's cycle theory, and

Jacob Viner Jacob Viner (3 May 1892 – 12 September 1970) was a Canadian economist and is considered with Frank Knight and Henry Simons to be one of the "inspiring" mentors of the early Chicago school of economics in the 1930s: he was one of the leading fig ...

's work on the balance of payments for

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, both developments of the 1920s, were used as contrasting examples, respectively of new theorisation and the checking of existing theories. Part of the intellectual framework was the insistence of Isaacs on the importance of inductive reasoning, where Robbins relied more naturally on deductions.

Collectivism

Robbins came to dislike

collectivism Collectivism may refer to: * Bureaucratic collectivism, a theory of class society whichto describe the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin * Collectivist anarchism, a socialist doctrine in which the workers own and manage the production * Collectivis ...

. His early interest in Samuel George Hobson and G. D. H. Cole as proponents of guild socialism led him to join the National Guilds League, but did not last beyond 1920, though he continued longer with socialist views. He became involved in the

socialist calculation debate The socialist calculation debate, sometimes known as the economic calculation debate, was a discourse on the subject of how a socialist economy would perform economic calculation given the absence of the law of value, money, financial prices fo ...

, taking the side of the

Austrian School The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian schoo ...

Honours and awards

Robbins was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1944 Birthday Honours. On 16 June 1959 he was created a life peer as Baron Robbins, of

Clare Market Clare Market is a historic area in central London located within the parish of St Clement Danes to the west of Lincoln's Inn Fields, between the Strand and Drury Lane, with Vere Street adjoining its western side. It was named after the food ma ...

in the City of Westminster. In the 1968 New Year Honours he was appointed a Companion of Honour (CH). Robbins received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1967. The Lionel Robbins Building at the

is named after him. Since 2009 that building has had on the exterior of it an installation art work, ''Blue Rain'', by the American artist Michael Brown. There is also a Lionel Robbins Building at Nottingham Trent University.

Works

The early paper ''The Representative Firm'' (1928) has been considered Robbins's most celebrated article. In its origins a talk to the London Economic Club, it attacked a major concept of Alfred Marshall.

Ralph George Hawtrey Sir Ralph George Hawtrey (22 November 1879, Slough – 21 March 1975, London) was a British economist, and a close friend of John Maynard Keynes. He was a member of the Cambridge Apostles, the University of Cambridge intellectual secret society. ...

of the Club defended Marshall's ideas in a letter to Robbins, who within weeks submitted a version to Keynes as editor of the ''Economic Journal''. Robbins' 1966 Chichele lecture on the accumulation of capital (published in 1968) and later work on Smithian economics, ''The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy,'' have been described as imprecise. * "Principles Of Economics", 1923, "Economics" * "Dynamics of Capitalism", 1926, ''Economica''. * "The Optimum Theory of Population", 1927, in T.E. Gregory and H. Dalton, editors, ''London Essays in Honour of

''. * "The Representative Firm", 1928, ''EJ''. * "On a Certain Ambiguity in the Conception of Stationary Equilibrium", 1930, ''EJ''. * '' Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science'', 1932
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* "Remarks on the Relationship between Economics and Psychology", 1934, ''Manchester School''. * "Remarks on Some Aspects of the Theory of Costs", 1934, ''EJ''. * ''The Great Depression'', 1934. Scroll to chapter-previe
links.
* "The Place of Jevons in the History of Economic Thought", 1936, ''Manchester School''. * ''Economic Planning and International Order'', 1937. Macmillan, London. * "Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility: A Comment", 1938, ''EJ''. * ''The Economic Causes of War'', 1939
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* ''The Economic Problem in Peace and War'', 1947. * ''The Theory of Economic Policy in English Classical Political Economy'', 1952. * ''Robert Torrens and the Evolution of Classical Economics'', 1958. * ''Politics and Economics'', 1963. * ''The University in the Modern World'', 1966. * ''The Theory of Economic Development in the History of Economic Thought'', 1968. * ''Jacob Viner: A tribute'', 1970. * ''The Evolution of Modern Economic Theory'', 1970. * ''Autobiography of an Economist'', 1971. * ''Political Economy, Past and Present'', 1976. * ''Against Inflation'', 1979. * ''Higher Education Revisited'', 1980. * "Economics and Political Economy", 1981, ''AER''. * ''A History of Economic Thought: The LSE Lectures'', edited by Warren J. Samuels and Steven G. Medema, 1998. Scroll to chapter-previe
links.

Family

On 2 August 1924, Robbins married Iris Elizabeth Harris Gardiner, one of the daughters of the journalist and editor Alfred George Gardiner. They had a daughter and a son; Ann and Richard. His daughter married Christopher Louis McIntosh Johnson in 1958. His son was an artist and sculptor; the LSE has a bust of Lionel Robbins which was made by his son.

References

External links

LSE Digital Library - Lionel Robbins

Lionel Charles Robbins Photographs
from National Portrait Gallery, London *
Lionel Robbins Profile
from

Ludwig von Mises Institute Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, or Mises Institute, is a libertarian nonprofit think tank headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, United States. It is named after the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973). It ...