Liberal Interventionism: D.H. Robertson’s Social Philosophy

Robertson, as is clear in Robertson (1950), has the face of a Pigovian utilitarian in that he supports the theory of cardinal utility. In it, Robertson criticizes those who advocate the New Welfare Economics, such as Hicks of ordinal utility theory (Pareto’s position) and Samuelson of revealed preference theory, and expresses his full support for Pigou’s theory of cardinal utility. Robertson is also widely known for his original economic fluctuation theory developed in Banking Policy and the Price Level (Robertson 1926). And because Robertson had a theory of dynamics that focused on the characteristics of modern industry with large-scale production, he became more and more critical of Keynes who proceeded to A Treatise on Money and then The General Theory.