Léon Walras
| Léon Walras | |
|---|---|
Léon Walras
|
|
| Born |
16 December 1834 Évreux, Upper Normandy, France |
| Died | 5 January 1910 (aged 75) Clarens, now Montreux, Switzerland |
| Nationality | French |
| Field | Economics, marginalism |
| School or tradition |
Lausanne School |
| Alma mater | École des Mines de Paris |
| Influences |
Augustin Cournot French Rationalism |
| Influenced |
Vilfredo Pareto Joseph Schumpeter Maurice Allais Wassily Leontief Gérard Debreu Gustav Cassel Henry Ludwell Moore Knut Wicksell Alfred Marshall Oskar R. Lange Axel Leijonhufvud |
| Contributions |
Walras' Law General equilibrium |
Marie-Esprit-Léon Walras (French: [valʁas]; 16 December 1834 – 5 January 1910) was a French mathematical economist and Georgist. He formulated the marginal theory of value (independently of William Stanley Jevons and Carl Menger) and pioneered the development of general equilibrium theory.
Walras was the son of French economist Auguste Walras. His father was a school administrator and not a professional economist, yet his economic thinking had a profound effect on his son. He found the value of goods by setting their scarcity relative to human wants.
Walras enrolled in the École des Mines de Paris, but grew tired of engineering. He worked as a bank manager, journalist, romantic novelist and railway clerk before turning to economics. Walras received an appointment as the professor of political economy at the University of Lausanne.
Walras also inherited his father's interest in social reform. Much like the Fabians, Walras called for the nationalization of land, believing that land's value would always increase and that rents from that land would be sufficient to support the nation without taxes.
Another of Walras' influences was Augustin Cournot, a former schoolmate of his father. Through Cournot, Walras came under the influence of French Rationalism and was introduced to the use of mathematics in economics.
As Professor of Political Economy at the University of Lausanne, Walras is credited with founding, under the direction of economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, the Lausanne school of economics.
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