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Con Pec 1999; 18:31-45
© 1999 Cambridge Political Economy Society

Article

The significance of Penrose's theory for the development of economics

BJ Loasby

Department of Economics, University of Stirling, UK

Abstract

Adam Smith identified the division of labour as the prime source of growth, through the generation of differentiated knowledge; the co-ordination problem was a consequence of this causal sequence. But Jevons, Walras, and their successors isolated co-ordination from the growth of knowledge, and replaced causal sequences with formal proofs, despite Marshall's efforts to preserve Smith's theoretical system. Penrose reinvented the Smith-Marshall analysis of the growth of knowledge, centred on the firm, but explicitly endorsed the separation. Nevertheless her theory may permit a more convincing treatment of the co-ordination of differentiated knowledge than current models of rational choice equilibrium.


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