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Retrospectives: The Origins of the Representative Agent

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  • James E. Hartley

Abstract

This paper examines Alfred Marshall's invention of the representative firm. Marshall first used the representative firm in order to describe an industry supply curve for an industry with heterogeneous firms. Despite Marshall's limited use of the notion, the representative agent was extensively criticized as an ephemeral, useless construct that was unable to account for economic growth and that ignored important heterogeneities. The criticisms succeeded in banishing the representative agent from economics. These initial criticisms are also shown to apply to modern uses of the representative agent as well.

Suggested Citation

  • James E. Hartley, 1996. "Retrospectives: The Origins of the Representative Agent," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 169-177, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:10:y:1996:i:2:p:169-77
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.10.2.169
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    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.10.2.169
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Aoki, Masanao & Hawkins, Raymond J., 2010. "Non-self-averaging and the statistical mechanics of endogenous macroeconomic fluctuations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1543-1546, November.
    3. Aoki, Masanao & Hawkins, Raymond, 2009. "Macroeconomic Relaxation: Adjustment Processes of Hierarchical Economic Structures," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-21.
    4. Holtfort, Thomas, 2023. "Quantenökonomie: Einfluss der Quantenphysik auf ökonomische Entscheidungsprozesse," Arbeitspapiere der FOM 88, FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management.
    5. Herzberg, Frederik, 2010. "A representative individual from Arrovian aggregation of parametric individual utilities," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1115-1124, November.
    6. Kazuo Sano, 2022. "Intelligence and Global Bias in the Stock Market," Papers 2210.16113, arXiv.org.
    7. Carlos Alberto Ibarra, 1998. "Exchange Rate Policy Credibility in Mexico, 1991-1994," Economía Mexicana NUEVA ÉPOCA, CIDE, División de Economía, vol. 0(2), pages 229-266, July-Dece.
    8. Michael Paetz, 2007. "Robust Control and Persistence in the New Keynesian Economy," Quantitative Macroeconomics Working Papers 20711, Hamburg University, Department of Economics.
    9. N. J. Chater & R. S. MacKay, 2024. "Thermal Macroeconomics: An axiomatic theory of aggregate economic phenomena," Papers 2412.00886, arXiv.org.
    10. Becker, Robert & Zilcha, Itzhak, 1997. "Stationary Ramsey Equilibria under Uncertainty," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 122-140, July.
    11. Philippe Delquié, 2003. "Optimal Conflict in Preference Assessment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(1), pages 102-115, January.
    12. Thomas Holtfort & Andreas Horsch, 2023. "Social science goes quantum: explaining human decision-making, cognitive biases and Darwinian selection from a quantum perspective," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 99-116, August.
    13. Kobbi Nissim & Rann Smorodinsky & Moshe Tennenholtz, 2018. "Segmentation, Incentives, and Privacy," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 43(4), pages 1252-1268, November.
    14. Alberto Jaramillo & Hermilson Velásquez & Javier Santiago Ortiz & Natalia Serna, 2003. "Aspectos teóricos y empíricos de la relación empresas bancos," Documentos de Trabajo de Valor Público 3922, Universidad EAFIT.
    15. Frank Schohl, 1998. "The Paradoxical Fate of the Representative Firm," Working Paper Series B 1998-03, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, School of of Economics and Business Administration.
    16. Senbeta, Sisay, 2011. "How applicable are the new keynesian DSGE models to a typical low-income economy?," MPRA Paper 30931, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Oscar Andrés Espinosa Acuna & Paola Andrea Vaca González, 2012. "La educación como motor de desarrollo integral: la importancia del capital humano en el crecimiento económico y social de largo plazo," Econógrafos, Escuela de Economía 9936, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID.
    18. Bos Iwan & Vermeulen Dries, 2022. "On the Microfoundation of Linear Oligopoly Demand," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 1-15, January.
    19. Philipp Koellinger & Matthijs Loos & Patrick Groenen & A. Thurik & Fernando Rivadeneira & Frank Rooij & André Uitterlinden & Albert Hofman, 2010. "Genome-wide association studies in economics and entrepreneurship research: promises and limitations," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 1-18, July.
    20. Tilfani, Oussama & Kristoufek, Ladislav & Ferreira, Paulo & El Boukfaoui, My Youssef, 2022. "Heterogeneity in economic relationships: Scale dependence through the multivariate fractal regression," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 588(C).
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • B13 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Neoclassical through 1925 (Austrian, Marshallian, Walrasian, Wicksellian)
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics

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