Lionel Robbins received his degree at the London School of Economics and later taught there. He also taught at New College, Oxford and the University of London during his academic career. He is best known among fellow economists for his work in econom ic theory. During World War II, he served as an economist for the British government.
According to The Fortune Encylcopedia of Economics, Robbins most famous exception to laissez-faire economics was "that the government should subsidize any qualified applicant for higher education who would not otherwise have the current income or savings to pay for it." This became known as the Robbins Principle. According to the above stated, his advocacy of this opinion is what led higher education in Britain to adopt policies that focused on this goal n the 1960's and 70's. Though his economic ideology is very similar to Austrian economic ideology, he is best known for his view of economics as "the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." (the definition of econ omics that is memorized by students of economics 101 everywhere). Under this view, "economics is not concerned with some particular class of phenomena (the production, distribution, exchange, and comsumption of goods and services). It is instead concerne d with a particular aspect of virtually all human behavior." Robbins also was among the first to draw a distinction between positive (what is) and normative (what should be) issues in economics. He believed that the study of economics needs to b e a positive science.
Though Robbins was an opponent of Keynesianism for most of his life, after World War II he "advocated Keynes's policies of full employment through control of aggregate demand."
Works by Lionel Robbins :
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