Robinson, Joan Violet

Robinson, Joan Violet, 1903–83, British economist, b. Surrey, England. A socialist, she worked with Keynes and taught at Cambridge Univ. (1931–71). Her treatise, The Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933), analyzes the debates over monopolistic competition and microeconomic theory. Robinson was outspoken in her criticism of social and economic injustices against the developing nations; she came under fire from some Cambridge colleagues, particularly because of her criticism of neoclassical economic theory. Other works by Robinson include An Essay on Marxian Economics (1942), and The Accumulation of Capital (1956, 3d. ed. 1985).