RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Revisiting Land, Labor, and Capital in Neoclassical Economics
JF Land Economics
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 566
OP 584
DO 10.3368/le.101.4.021225-0009
VO 101
IS 4
A1 Missemer, Antoine
A1 Pottier, Antonin
YR 2025
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/101/4/566.abstract
AB It is usually argued that the advent of neoclassical economics led to the consideration of only two factors of production (capital and labor) instead of three (capital, labor, and land). From the 1880s to the 1920s, land and natural resources would have been marginalized and left to applied fields such as land economics. This article revisits this episode. Theoretically, it shows that there was no requirement in marginal productivity theories to subsume land into capital. Historically, it demonstrates that alternatives did exist within U.S. neoclassicism to the neglect of land and natural resources, providing inspiration for today’s research.