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John Creedy termina su artículo biográfico sobre John Richard Hicks:

Después de transcurrido un tiempo, la mayor parte de los economistas son olvidados o ignorados, independientemente de lo importantes que fueran en su momento. Sería interesante hacer la prueba para saber cuántos de los actuales licenciados y jóvenes profesores han oído hablar de la mayoría de los galardonados con un Premio Nobel o, incluso aunque su nombre no les fuera totalmente desconocido, cuántos podrían citar alguna de sus contribuciones. Es muy probable, sin embargo, que el nombre de Hicks y su relación con muchos de los conceptos clave y de los elementos fundamentales de la teoría económica pervivan en la memoria colectiva. Desde la perspectiva actual, resulta claro que hay mucho que celebrar en la dedicación continuada de Hicks a las cuestiones fundamentales de la teoría económica.

Como se señalaba anteriormente, John Hicks siguió trabajando hasta un mes antes de su muerte. En su última época, cuando ya su mujer había muerto y él estaba muy frágil y necesitaba asistencia para moverse, le comentó a Samuelson, con un sentido del humor muy británico: «Fortunately I am dying from my feet up rather than from my brain down»19. Genio y figura…

[1]Se puede consultar la referencia a Hicks en la página web de los Premios Nobel en: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1972/hicks/facts/.

[2]«Sir John Richard Hicks. 1904.1989», John CREEDY. University of Melbourne. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, XII, 215-231. The British Academy 2013 https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/1485/08_Hicks.pdf.

[3]Se puede ver los títulos publicados hasta ahora en la página web de la Fundación ICO: https://www.fundacionico.es/economia/colecciones-de-clasicos/colecciones-clasicos-la-economia/clasicos-pensamien-to-economico/.

[4]IS-LL, en su versión original.

[5]El propio Hicks escribió, en «The Formation of an Economist»: «J. R. Hicks… [is] a “neoclassical” economist now deceased…John Hicks [is] a non-neo-classic who is quite disrespectful towards his “uncle”.», reconociendo su «conversion», a la que luego aludiremos.

[6]The Formation of an Economist: «I took my degree in “philosophy, politics and economics”, a new course just established at Oxford, a course which was perhaps better devised for the training of politicians than that of academics (…) But I wanted to be academic and, although I had done very little economics, I was advised that economics was an expanding industry, so I would have a better chance of employment…».

[7]The Formation of an Economist: «(…) people are terribly prone to quarrelling with each other. At that time the Cambridge faculty was divided into parties which wouldn’t talk to each other. I didn’t enjoy that at all».

[8]Ver el estupendo artículo titulado «Hicks’s ‘conversion’ – from J.R. to John», de Luigi L. PASINETTI y Gian Paolo MARIUTTI, publicado en el libro Markets, Money and Capital. Hicksian Economics for the Twenty-first Century, editado por Roberto Scazzieri, Amartya Sen y Stefano Zamagni. Cambridge University Press 2008, al que nos referiremos también más adelante.

[9]Para mayor detalle, ver también el artículo citado de PASINETTI y MARIUTTI, así como la exposición del profesor Vegara.

[10]Ver «The Formation of an Economist».

[11]En el prefacio del libro «John Hicks – His Contributions to Economic Theory and Application» http://www.drkps.com/books/john-hicks-his-contributions-to-economic-theory-and-application.html. «Hicks was one of the last of an almost extinct species of scholars: a generalist who covered microeconomics and macroeconomics, mathematical economics and literary economics, pure theory and policy applications. He was part of no school; John Hicks was his own school.(…) A temperament of no small aspiration, he thought of himself as a rival of Keynes in creating a new less-than-full employment equilibrium paradigm».

[12]Se puede ver en la página web de la organización de los Premios Nobel, en https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1972/hicks/biographical/.

[13]«I have been reluctant to pronounce on larger issues of practical economics since I am convinced that one should not pronounce unless one knows the facts; and to keep abreast of changing facts on a world, or even on a nation scale, is more than can be done by one whose main concern is with principles. A mere familiarity with statistics that have been prepared and digested by others is not sufficient».

[14]«Between theory and history: on the identity of Hicks’s economics», Roberto SCAZZIERI and Stefano ZAMAGNI, en el libro Markets, Money and Capital, Hicksian Economics for the Twenty-first Century, Edited by Roberto Scazzieri, Amartya Sen y Stefano Zamagni. Cambridge University Press, 2008.

[15]El propio Hicks escribió, en «The Formation of an Economist», incluido en este volumen: «J. R. Hicks…[is] a “neoclassical” economist now deceased…John Hicks [is] a non-neo-classic who is quite disrespectful towards his “uncle.”».

[16]«Hicks’s “conversion” – from J. R. to John», Luigi. L. PASINETTI y Gian Paolo Mariutti, en el libro Markets, Money and Capital Hicksian Economics for the Twenty-first Century, editado por Roberto Scazzieri, Amartya Sen y and Stefano Zamagni. Cambridge University Press, 2008.

[17]SAMUELSON señala, respecto al estilo de Hicks: «A final element of luck enhanced Hicks’ total impact on the field. He was privileged to be able to write well and knew how to blow his own horn». Sabía escribir bien y «darse bombo». Por su parte, John Creedy señala: «And while his work often involved highly technical material, he wrote in a style that attracted a wide audience at a time when most economists did not have his mathematical training», aunque, luego, matiza: «In later years Hicks’s style became somewhat prolix as he took it for granted that his readers were interested in knowing every twist and turn in his own developing understanding of a subject (…) Hicks would take several different paths in turn, each time stopping mid-way with a long silence, until producing his final eloquent preferred response».

[18]Aunque CREEDY también introduce una «puya», echando en cara a Hicks que no mencionase a algunas de sus fuentes: «There is, however, a curious feature of this book in that, despite Hicks’s wide reading and his sincere attachment to the history of the subject, he does not display the historian’s respect for sources».

[19]«Afortunadamente, me estoy muriendo de pies para arriba, en lugar de de cerebro para abajo».