Jevons, William Stanley

Japanese: ジェボンズ（英語表記）Jevons, William Stanley

Born: September 1, 1835, Liverpool
[Died] August 13, 1882. British economist and logician from near Hastings. He developed marginal utility theory at almost the same time as Léon Walras and Carl Menger (→ Marginal Utility School). He studied at University College, London, but due to financial difficulties he went to Australia at the age of 18 to become a currency inspector. He returned to the United States in 1859 and re-enrolled. After graduating, he became a professor at Owens College in 1866, and served as a professor at his alma mater from 1876. He resigned his professorship in 1880, and died while swimming in 1882. In Britain, where the economics of John Stuart Mill was mainstream, he called his own economics the "differential calculus of pleasure and pain," and attempted to incorporate a utilitarian view of humanity and the analytical tool of mathematics into economics. Jevons' equation of exchange has an aspect of viewing exchange phenomena as a negotiating equilibrium between individual agents (→Law of One Price), and influenced Francis Y. Edgeworth and Knut Wicksell. In addition to his major work, The Theory of Political Economy (1871), he also left behind excellent empirical and theoretical research in the fields of monetary theory and business cycle theory, including The Coal Question (1865), which predicted the imminent depletion of coal, which was Britain's power source at the time. His achievements in logic and scientific methodology were also important. Since 1972, a seven-volume collection of papers and letters, "Papers and Correspondence of William Stanley Jevons," has been published. (→Theory of Value, Marginal Revolution)

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

[生]1835.9.1. リバプール
[没]1882.8.13. ヘースティングス近郊
イギリスの経済学者，論理学者。レオン・ワルラス，カール・メンガーとほとんど同時に限界効用理論を展開した（→限界効用学派）。ロンドンのユニバーシティ・カレッジに学んだが，経済的困窮により 18歳のときオーストラリアへ渡り貨幣検査官となる。1859年に帰国，再入学。卒業後 1866年オーウェンズ・カレッジの教授に就任し，1876年から母校の教授を務めた。1880年に教授の職を辞し，1882年水泳中死亡した。ジョン・スチュアート・ミルの経済学が主流であったイギリスにあって，みずからの経済学を「快楽と苦痛の微分学」と称し，経済学に功利主義的な人間観と数学という分析用具を取り入れようとした。ジェボンズの交換方程式は交換現象を個別の主体間の交渉均衡としてとらえる面があり（→一物一価の法則），フランシス・Y.エッジワースやクヌート・ウィクセルに影響を与えた。主著『経済学の理論』The Theory of Political Economy（1871）のほか，当時イギリスの動力源であった石炭の早晩の枯渇を予言してベストセラーとなった『石炭問題』The Coal Question（1865）をはじめ，貨幣論，景気循環論の領域でも優れた経験的・理論的研究を残しており，論理学や科学的方法論上の業績も重要。1972年以降 7巻からなる論文・書簡集"Papers and Correspondence of William Stanley Jevons"が公刊された。（→価値学説，限界革命）

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