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Joan Violet Robinson (1903 in Surrey - 1983) was a
Keynesian economist who was well known for her
knowledge of monetary economics and wide-ranging
contributions to economic theory. She studied at
Girton College, Cambridge, and got married right
after graduation in 1925 with economist Austin
Robinson. In 1937, she became a full lecturer in
economics at Cambridge. She joined the British
Academy in 1958 and was then elected the fellow of
Newnham College in 1962. In 1979, four years
before she died, she was given the position of
full professor.

Joan Robinson's career started when she focused on
writing her Neoclassical Theory to assist the
Neoclassical General Equilibrium Theory. (After
returning to Cambridge from India with her husband
in 1929.) The Economics of Imperfect Competition
(1933) was the first book on a subject which keeps
microeconomics|microeconomists busy to this day,
but typically, she moved on rapidly.

As a member of the "Cambridge School" of
economics, Robinson assisted with the support and
exposition of John Maynard Keynes|Keynes'
Keynesian economics|General Theory, writing
especially on its employment implications in 1936
and 1937 (in the midst of the Great Depression it
tried to explain). 

In 1942 Robinson's An Essay on Marxian Economics
famously concentrated on Marx as an economist,
helping revive the debate on this aspect of his
legacy. 

During the Second World War, Joan Robinson worked
on a few different Committees for the Wartime
Labour Government. During this time, she visited
Soviet Union as well as China. She developed an
interest in underdeveloped and developing nations
and contributed a lot that is now understood in
this section of economics. At that time, she
praised the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

In 1949, she was invited by Ragnar Frisch to
become the vice president of the Econometric
Society but declined because she couldn't be part
of the editorial committee on a journal she
couldn't read.

In 1956, Joan Robinson published her magnum opus,
The Accumulation of Capital, which extended
Keynesianism into the long-run. Six years later,
she published another book about the growth
theory, which talked about concepts of "Golden
Age" growth paths. Afterwards, she worked together
with Nicholas Kaldor and developed the Cambridge
growth theory with him.  

Close to the end of her life she studied and
concentrated on methological problems in economics
and tried to recover the original message of
Keynes' General Theory. Between 1962 and 1980 she
wrote many books to try and bring several economic
theories to the general public.

== Major works ==

* The Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933)
* An Essay on Marxian Economics (1942)
* Accumulation of Capital (1956)
* Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth (1962)
* Economic Philosophy: An essay on the progress of
economic thought (1962)

== Texts for the lay reader ==

* Economics is a serious subject: The apologia of
an economist to the mathematician, the scientist
and the plain man,(1932) Publisher: W. Heffer &
Sons
* Introduction to the Theory of Employment (1937)
* An Introduction to Modern Economics (1973) with
John Eatwell
* The Arms Race (1982), Tanner Lectures on Human
Values

== Quotes ==
*"The purpose of studying economics is not to
acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic
questions, but to learn how to avoid being
deceived by economists." 











== See Also ==

* International economics
* Macroeconomics
* Wealth condensation
* Welfare economics

== External links ==

*
http://www.economyprofessor.com/theorists/joanrobi
nson.php Life and economics of Joan Robinson
*
http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/robinson.ht
m Biography