Marshall and the notions of welfare and value in the Cambridge tradition

Abstract This article analyses the notions of welfare and value in the contributions of Alfred Marshall, and how they were developed or criticised within the Cambridge economic tradition, especially by authors like Piero Sraffa and Amartya Sen, who, like Marshall, saw themselves as continuators of classical political economy (albeit with different interpretations of the latter). The analysis is conducted drawing on the stratified ontology adopted in critical realism. It is argued that contributors developing or criticising Marshall placed their emphasis on different aspects, which can be fruitfully identified in terms of the critical realist stratified ontology, depending both on their analytical purposes and strategic intentions when engaging in academic debate. The distinction between welfare and value is also shown to be essential to the Cambridge economic tradition, and its stance towards modes of socio-economic organisation.