Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-1-2025
Identifier/URL
42198851 (Pure)
Abstract
The economy-wide economic surplus, defined as output beyond what is needed to sustain the labouring workforce, is one of the oldest ideas in Western political economy. Marx permanently changed economic thinking by characterising it as exploitation. As confidence in government management of economic affairs grew in the twentieth century, how to spend the surplus better than free individuals would spend it themselves became a growing theme among economists and among the broader public. While the role of the surplus in economic theory today is modest, its vibrancy in the public conversation remains.
Repository Citation
Osborne, E. W.
(2025). The Economic Surplus: A History of an Eventually Problematic Idea. Economic Affairs, 45 (1), 45-61.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/econ/365
DOI
10.1111/ecaf.12691
Comments
Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Economic Affairs published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Institute of Economic Affairs.
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0
