Michio Morishima, 1923-

Maverick economist at the L.S.E. who, although never quite abandoning his Neo-Walrasian roots, remains one of the most enthusiastic proponents of John von Neumann's 1937 model of an expanding economy. As a result, Morishima has spent much of his career exploring the von Neumann model and translating existing economic theory (notably, that of Ricardo, Marx, Walras and Hicks) into those terms.  

Morishima has been influential also in various other aspects of Neo-Walrasian theory - notably, in linear production theory, stability theory, capital theory (to which he contributed a turnpike theorem) and the theory of demand  in all of which he has made landmark contributions. It his hard to choose among his various remarkable treatises which can be considered his magnum opus (he tends to announce that each new book is it), but perhaps his Equilibrium, Stability and Growth (1964) has been the most influential on Neo-Walrasian economics.

Morishima was also a protagonist in the revival of interest in Classical Ricardian System.  He was involved in the Cambridge Capital Controversy of the 1960s and the Marxian debate over the "transformation problem". The ever-eclectic Morishima has also written several examinations of the historical, social and economic conditions of Japan and the world at large.

Major works of Michio Morishima

• "On the Laws of Change of the Price System in an Economy which Contains Complementary Goods", 1952, Osaka EP.
• "Consumer Behavior and Liquidity Preference", 1952, Econometrica.
• "An Analysis of the Capitalist Process of Reproduction", 1956, Metroeconomica.
• "Notes on the Theory of Stability of Multiple Exchange", 1957, RES.
• "A Contribution to the Non-Linear Theory of the Trade Cycle", 1958, ZfN.
• "A Dynamic Analysis of Structural Change in a Leontief Model", 1958, Economica.
• "Prices Interest and Profits in a Dynamic Leontief System", 1958, Econometrica.
• "Some Properties of a Dynamic Leontief System with a Spectrum of Techniques", 1959, Econometrica.
• "Existence of Solution to the Walrasian System of Capital Formation and Credit", 1960, ZfN.
• "On the Three Hicksian Laws of Comparative Statics", 1960, RES.
• "A Reconsideration of the Walras-Cassel-Leontief Model of General Equilibrium", 1960, in Arrow, Karlin and Suppes, editors, Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences.
• "Economic Expansion and the Interest Rate in Generalized von Neumann Models", 1960, Econometrica.
• "Proof of a Turnpike Theorem: The `No Joint Production' Case", 1961, RES.
• "Aggregation in Leontief Matrices and the Labor Theory of Value", with F. Seton, 1961, Econometrica.
• "Generalizations of the Frobenius-Wielandt Theorems for Non- Negative Square Matrices", 1961, J of London Mathematical Society.
• "The Stability of Exchange Equilibrium: An alternative approach", 1962, IER.
• Equilibrium, Stability and Growth: A multi-sectoral analysis, 1964.
• "A Refutation of the Non-Switching Theorem", 1966, QJE.
• "A Few Suggestions on the Theory of Elasticity", 1967, Keizai Hyoron
• Theory of Economic Growth, 1969.
• "A Generalization of the Gross Substitute System", 1970, RES.
• "Consumption-Investment Frontier, Wage-Profit Frontier and the von Neumann Growth Equilibrium", 1971, ZfN.
• The Working of Econometric Models, with others, 1972.
• Marx's Economics: A dual theory of value and growth, 1973.
• Theory of Demand: Real and monetary with others, 1973.
• The Economic Theory of Modern Society, 1973.
• "The Frobenius Theorem, Its Solow-Samuelson Extension and the Kuhn-Tucker Theorem", with T. Fujimoto, 1974, JMathE.
• Walras's Economics: A pure theory of capital and money, 1977.
• Value, Exploitation and Growth with G. Catephores, 1978.
• "The Cournot-Walras Arbitrage Resource Consuming Exchange and Competitive Equilibrium", with M. Majumdar, 1978 in Hommage a Francois Perroux.
• "The Good and Bad Uses of Mathematics", 1984, in Wiles and Routh, editors, Economics in Disarray.
• Economics of Industrial Society, 1984.
• Ricardo's Economics, 1989.
• Why Has Japan Succeeded? Western technology and the Japanese ethos.
• "General Equilibrium Theory in the 21st Century", 1991, EJ.
• Capital and Credit: A new formulation of general equilibrium theory, 1992.
• "Capital and Growth", 1994, in Homouda, The Legacy of Hicks.
• Dynamic Economic Theory, 1996.
• Why Will Japan Collapse?, 1999.

Resources on Michio Morishima

• HET Pages: the von Neumann System, the Walras-Cassel System, the Classical Ricardian System, Local Multi-Market Stability
• Morishima  on APEC.
• Morishima Page at LSE History
• Review of Morishima's 1999 book by Louis W. Goodman, Foreign Affairs