Walras, Léon

Walras, Léon, 1834–1910, French economist. After abandoning his studies in mining engineering, he became a free-lance journalist, advancing the causes of economic and social reform. He later became a professor of political economy at the Univ. of Lausanne (1870–1892). One of the most influential of economists, Walras advanced several theories that served as the foundation of modern economic analysis. He is widely regarded as the founder of the theory of general economic equilibrium, mathematical economics, the concept of "imperfect competition," and the marginal utility theory. A prolific and creative writer, Walras's work also extended to such themes as managed currency, production, credit, and capital formation.

Bibliography

See his correspondence, ed. by W. Jaffé (3 vol., 1965), and Elements of Pure Economics (tr., 1984). See also D. A. Walker, ed., William Jaffe's Essays on Walras (1983).

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Walras, (Marie-Esprit-) Léon

(born Dec. 16, 1834, Évreux, France—died Jan. 5, 1910, Clarens, near Montreux, Switz.) French-Swiss economist. An advocate of cooperatives as an alternative to revolution, he ran a bank for producers' cooperatives with Léon Say (grandson of Jean-Baptiste Say) from 1865 to 1868. At the Academy of Lausanne, Switz. (1870–92), he began the school of economics later known (under Vilfredo Pareto) as the Lausanne school. Walras's Elements of Pure Economics (1874–77) was one of the first comprehensive mathematical analyses of general economic equilibrium. Assuming an environment of free competition, he constructed a mathematical model in which productive factors, products, and prices automatically adjust in equilibrium. He thus tied together the theories of production, exchange, money, and capital.