For all you struggling economics students (like me), here's
In 1854 Jevons went to Australia to be the Assayer at the Mint in Sydney. He returned in 1859 and studied Logic in London. He then became Professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy at the Univ. of Manchester, England in 1866. In 1876 he became Professor of Political Economy at University College, London. He retired from this position in 1880, and died while swimming in 1882 at Hastings, England.
His works :
*General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy (1862) - Outlined the theory of marginal utility
*Investigations in Currency and Finance (1863-4)
*The Coal Question (1865) - Argued coal was England's greatest industrial resource and was exhaustible
*The Theory of Political Economy (1871) - Argued that economics should be based on mathematics, because it deals with mathematical quantities. This book provided much of the basis for microeconomics.
*Principles of Science (1874) - Treatise on Logic
*The State in Relation to Labour (Posthumous, 1888)
*Investigations (Posthumous Collection of Essays) - Dealt mainly with market fluctuations
*The Solar Period and the Price of Corn (Pub. Posthumously) - Describes a 30-year study attempting to relate fluctuations in the business cycle to abnormal solar activity, such as solar flares
Other Info:
He was greatly influenced by Utilitarianism, a theory that states questions of morality should be answered by calculating the consequences of actions. This is demonstrated by his "equation of exchange" which states that for a consumer to maximize his or her utility, "the ratio of the marginal utility of each item consumed to its price must be equal." Basically that people should pay for what something is worth.
His description of Marginal Utility in 1862 did not draw much attention, but with similar discoveries by economists Carl Menger and Leon Walrus, and the publication of Theory of Political Economy in 1871, the discovery was made public.
He developed the "logical piano", a type of adding machine with 21 keys for logical operations. Many features were incorporated into modern day computers. He also made important contributions to probability.
Jevons was mainly concerned with Microecononomics, with price changes, utility, opportunity cost and certain goods, such as coal and corn.
Jevons has been looked up times here.