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History of Economic Analysis part 108

History of Economic Analysis part 108. At the time of his death in 1950, Joseph Schumpeter-one of the major figures in economics during the first half of the 20th century-was working on his monumental History of Economic Analysis. A complete history of humankind's theoretical efforts to understand economic phenomena from ancient Greece to the present, this book is an important contribution to the history of ideas as well as to economics. | History of economic analysis 1032 on with Allen and Hicks indifference curves were the starting points of the analysis they were not as with Edgeworth derived from a utility surface. However the indifference curves are part of index functions and can also be derived from these. This is what Pareto did. But they are just as independent of the particular index function chosen as they are of the particular form of the cardinal utility function being uniquely determined by the scale of preferences. This suggests the idea of doing also without index functions especially because they give rise to difficulties similar to those that Professor Fisher met in the case of utility functions.13 But it took until 1934 to give full effect to it and to develop a theory that is nothing but a logic of choice the theory of Allen and Hicks that was published in that year was so far as I know the first to be completely independent of the existence of an index function and completely free from any lingering shadows of even marginal utility which is replaced in their system by the marginal rate of substitution.14 In consequence elasticities of substitution and complementarity are defined exclusively from the scales of preference and likewise divorced from utility. Beyond this we cannot go. It must suffice to mention the most important of the problems that are as yet unsolved within the range of this theory of choice so far indifference curves are satisfactorily defined for individual households only the question remains what meaning is to be attached to collective indifference curves for example indifference curves of a country which have been used in some of the most brilliant theoretical work of our time.15 The first six sections of the Note on the Theory of Utility had been substantially completed and had been typed. The next few paragraphs were found in manuscript incomplete with shorthand notes to indicate the argument contemplated. See editor s note at end of this section. 7. THE .