Marshall, Alfred

Alfred Marshall is known by economists for developing diagrams that translate economic concepts into simple graphs and provide the foundation for undergraduate economic education. He is also responsible for introducing many new concepts into economic analysis.

Marshall grew up in a working-class area of London. With financial aid from an uncle, he was able to afford to go to Cambridge University, where he studied mathematics, philosophy, and political economy. After walking through ‘‘the poorest quarters... looking at the faces of the poorest people,” Marshall decided to specialize in economics. He coined the term residuum to refer to people in the lowest economic classes who were stuck in poverty and unable to be part of the larger society.

Marshall saw such poverty as detrimental to the individual as ...