The Economics of the Short Period

This study represents a Fellowship dissertation submitted in 1929, two years after the author had graduated with a First in Part II of the Economic Tripos at Cambridge. The dissertation influenced Keynes in his analysis of the economics of unemployment equilibrium. The foundations of the treatment of the short period were laid by Marshall, and it is his discussion of the concept in Chapter V of Book V of "Principles" and his conception of quasi-rent which, together with the additions of later economists, provide the material upon which the author elaborates here. He departs further from the traditional treatment in the position of prominence he assigns to the imperfection of the market. Kahn made substantial inroads into areas which subsequently became familiar in the work of other authors - imperfect competition itself, duopoly, the kinked demand and curve and oligopoly, the contrast between business people's actual behaviour and what economic theory predicts it would be. A feature of the dissertation is a blend of theory and empirical study, especially of the UK textile industry.