Essays on the life and work of Leon Walras, the founder of general equilibrium analysis.

In this book Dr Walker brings together Dr William Jaffe's essays on the important and interesting work of Leon Walras, the founder of general equilibrium analysis. The essays were selected on the basis of their importance to the Walrasian literature, in that they provide information on Walras's intellectual biography with which we would otherwise be unfamiliar or they make a contribution to the interpretation and analysis of his ideas. One of Jaffe's main interests was to explain the genesis of Walras's work, which he did by examining Walras's biography. Using a wide variety of sources, Jaffe pieced together an account of these matters in the belief that biography is essential for understanding the origins and development of a scientist's work. Jaffe corrected what he regarded as errors of interpretation of Walras by other writers, evaluated Walras's contributions, and indicated his significance for modern economics. The essays are informative, illuminating, and - as a result of Jaffe's scholarly and literary craftsmanship - aesthetically satisfying.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Walras's Biography: 1. Unpublished papers and letters of Leon Walras (1935)
2. Leon Walras, an economic advisor manque (1975)
Part II. The Genesis and Development of Walras's Ideas: 3. A. N. Isnard, progenitor of the Walrasian general equilibrium model (1969)
4. The birth of Leon Walras's Elements (1977)
5. A centenarian on a bicentenarian: Leon Walras's Elements on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1977)
6. Leon Walras and his relations with American economists (1960)
Part III. The Scope of Walras's Work: 7. Leon Walras and his conception of economics (1956)
8. Leon Walras (1968)
Part IV. Special Topics in Walras's Economics: 9. Leon Walras' theory of capital accumulation (1942)
10. Walras's theory of capital formation in the framework of his theory of general equilibrium (1953)
11. New light on an old quarrel: Barone's unpublished review of Wicksteed's 'Essay on the coordination of the laws of distribution' and related documents (1964)
12. The Walras-Poincare correspondence on the cardinal measurability of utility (1977)
13. Walras' theory of tatonnement: a critique of recent interpretations (1967)
14. Another look at Leon Walras's theory of tatonnement (1981)
Part V. Walras's Place in the History of Economic Thought: 15. Reflections on the importance of Leon Walras (1971)
16. Leon Walras's role in the 'marginal revolution' of the 1870s (1972)
17. Menger, Jevons and Walras de-homogenized (1976)
18. The normative bias of the Walrasian model: Walras versus Gossen (1977)
19. Walras's economics as others see it (1980)
Index.