ABSTRACT
John Bates Clark independently discovered both the marginal utility and the marginal productivity theories. He is best known for his exposition of the marginal productivity theory; it is indicative that many continental economists consider Clark's theory to be the marginal productivity theory. After the Philosophy of Wealth, Clark's fundamental ideas on production and distribution theory appeared as monographs and articles within a half-dozen years. In the theory of the allocation of given productive services between industries, a simon-pure alternative cost theory is followed. The law of diminishing return is explained as due to the "crowding" of the resources held constant in quantity, particularly in the case of land. The interest rate is determined by the marginal productivity of capital. The most extensive analysis of the Ricardian rent theory, particularly with regard to its historical pretensions, was presented in "Capital and Its Earnings." Besides a marginal productivity theory of wages, Clark offers a pain cost explanation of the supply of labor.
