ABSTRACT
Economic theories propounded by Hicks always sought to comprehend the economic phenomena in their operational setting. Though, economists know a lot of economics, rarely very few like Sir. John Hicks succeed to comprehend them in a theoretical framework. The passage of time and changes in the institutional net work, compel economic theories to be constantly improved, revised and reformulated. Despite astonishingly wide range of Hicks’ contributions to the economic discipline, we do not have ‘Hicksian Economics’ in the same tradition of ‘Ricardian or Marxian or Keynesian Economies’. In his life long voyage in the wavy sea of economics, one thing that distinguishes him and his economic theories is the ‘unique method’ that he developed. It is the ‘Hicksian Method’. To Hicks, economic theories should address the ever changing objective conditions of economic realities, so that they illuminate a part of the detail. But, he warns a theory which illuminates a right thing at a given point of time, may illuminate wrong things at another time. On the question of the theory of history, Hicks seemed to position himself nearer to Marx. Rejection of economic theories, unlike in natural sciences occurs not because they are being ‘falsified’ or ‘proved wrong’, but more so because they have become ‘inappropriate’ to handle the phenomena under the given empirical realities. This, to him is the source of ‘Revolutions in Economies’. Hicks emphasised that theories must be practically useful and should be a servant of applied economics.
