The economics of W.S. Jevons

by Sandra Peart

William Stanley Jevons occupies a pivotal position in the history of economic thought, spanning the transition from classical to neo-classical economics and playing a key role in the Marginal Revolution. The breadth of Jevons's work is examined here which includes a detailed consideration of a wide range of his work - policy, theoretical, methodological, applied and empirical; relies on textual exegisis; and takes account of a wide range of secondary sources. A new approach to the 'Jevonian revolution' is adopted, which emphasizes the link between poverty and economics, focuses on the nature and meaning of rationality in Jevonian economics and highlights Jevons's contributions to empirical economics.