Joan Violet Robinson (1903-1983)

Prue Kerr

Introduction

Joan Robinson was a distinguished economist at the forefront of major developments in modern economic theory from the 1930s and for the next 50 years. She was as passionate about social injustices as she was about intellectual honesty. She was born into an upper-middle-class family, the third child in a family of four daughters and one son. Her father was Major General Sir Frederick Maurice, a professional soldier and, later, a well-regarded military historian. Her mother was Helen Margaret Marsh, from a family with many ties to Cambridge, including her father, Frederick Marsh, who became Professor of Surgery and Master of Downing College at Cambridge. The family favoured education for women, and Joan was educated at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London and then Girton College, Cambridge.

While at school her father became involved in a very public argument with the Prime Minister, Lloyd George, over troop requirements for the anticipated German attack on the Western Front. George ignored the military advice and

I am much indebted to Geoff Harcourt and have drawn extensively from our joint biography of Joan Robinson (Harcourt and Kerr 2009), and to David Kelly, both of whom made this chapter possible. I am also grateful to the Economics Department of the University of Adelaide, South Australia, for very generously providing me access to all their facilities, a space to work, and some colleagues to confront. I have also drawn on earlier research carried out in the Modern Archives Centre of King’s College, Cambridge, and thank the staff for their guidance through the extensive collection.

P. Kerr (*)

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R.A. Cord (ed.), The Palgrave Companion to Cambridge Economics,

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-41233-1_30

deceived parliament and the people, with the outcome being disastrous losses of soldiers’ lives. The official blame for this was put on military decisions. Joan’s father was absolutely loyal to his men, and this blame came on top of the tragic losses. In early 1918, he published a letter with his evidence in the daily papers, exposing the government for its deception. The Maurice Debate in the House of Commons became sensational. Although he was vindicated, he had to leave the army. It had a major impact on Joan, then aged 14, as she became known as ‘Maurice’s daughter’, and was thrust, as she put it, from her life in her mind to a life in reality.

She began her studies in economics at Girton in 1922. It was unusual at that time for women to continue their education at university level, and the few women students of economics were permitted to attend the same lectures as the men. (While the men dressed in academic gowns, the women were to wear day dresses and hats! (Turner 1989)). Lectures in economic theory were based on Marshall’s Principles as interpreted and adapted by his successor as Professor of Political Economy, A.C. Pigou. Joan would also have attended lectures by Maynard Keynes, on ‘Realistic Monetary Problems’. Her other lecturers included Dennis Robertson and Gerald Shove, who also based their thinking around Marshallian theory.

The Cambridge approach to economics at this time was a combination of the inductive and deductive. First one had to identify and establish through empirical study, the economic problem, and then develop a theory which was logically sustainable and appropriate in its method and conditions for understanding the problem. These were seen to be the directions for economics to be awarded the sought-after status of a science and were consistent with Marshall’s ‘deductive political economy guided by observation’ (Neville Keynes quoted in Whitaker 1987: 353).

Robinson completed the Cambridge Economics Tripos in 1925 with a 2.I, a disappointment to her after being the only student to receive Class 1 in the Intercollegiate Examination in Economics at the end of the first year of study. The actual degree was only awarded in 1948 when the University recognised women graduates.

In 1926, she married Austin Robinson. He had graduated from the Economics Tripos in 1922 with First Class Honours and was now a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. Two months later, they sailed for Bombay for Austin’s appointment as tutor to the son of the recently deceased Maharaja of Gwalior. Although the appointment was offered for eight to 10 years, they stayed there for only two years. In this time, Austin and Joan drafted substantial portions of a book on optimum population for India given the existence of diminishing, constant, and increasing returns to industry; it remained unfinished. Joan also reviewed fiction in local newspapers. On their return to Cambridge in 1929, Austin was appointed to a University Lectureship in the Faculty of Economics in 1931 elected to a Fellowship at Sidney Sussex College. Joan developed an informal relationship with the Faculty of Economics and Politics attending some lectures and taking some college supervisions. She was familiar with the prevailing Marshallian ideas on value theory from her undergraduate lecturers and her Girton supervisor, Marjorie Tappan-Holland, but uncomfortable with the authority these assumed. She was soon developing what would become lifetime friendships with critics of Marshall’s hold on economics. There were two in particular: Piero Sraffa, who became a personal friend, and while he remained reluctant to read her work, he was nevertheless a continuing source of inspiration, especially for his knowledge of classical political economy and of Marx; and Richard Kahn, always a close personal friend, who became her ‘sounding board’ and an astute critic whom she trusted and respected.

In 1936, she met Michai Kalecki, a Polish economist visiting Cambridge, whose Marxist-inspired approach to a theory of employment was based on analytical propositions parallel with those of Keynes. He remained an important intellectual influence in Robinson’s subsequent development and became a lifelong friend. She also met Roy Harrod, who had been in Cambridge in 1921-1922 and had since maintained contact with Keynes, James Meade, who was visiting Cambridge from Oxford in 1930-1931, and Nicholas Kaldor, at the London School of Economics (LSE) during the 1930s, and who, after a more formal friendship as they met at joint seminars or discussions, when he came to Cambridge in 1940, became a colleague, sometimes a rival, and friend.

In 1931, albeit with some controversy, Joan was allowed to give occasional lectures. In 1934, she was appointed to a Faculty position of University Assistant Lecturer for one year and, in 1937, to a permanent place as a University Lecturer. By this time, she had publications in top journals and an internationally regarded book to recommend her, quite apart from her success as a lecturer and supervisor—‘the most exciting and brilliant lecturer’ (Turner 1989: 45). She had also just given birth to her second daughter. Keynes and Pigou both supported her appointment. She was appointed Reader in 1949 and, finally, Professor in 1965, when Austin retired from his Chair.

From her family and school experience to the introduction to academic life, all of these people contributed to the young Joan Robinson’s intellectual development and confidence. Within this context, she was encouraged to explore her potential for challenging the status quo. She was a sensitive and shy person despite her public presence, her passion frequently expressed in her confrontational style; these, coupled with her incisive mind, meant she was rarely ignored. From this early stage in her career, she had the important support of intellectual engagement and respect and of friendships, as well as professionally strategic support, from Austin, Keynes, Kahn, and Sraffa, among others. From the outset of her career, she did not want to be known as a woman economist.