Summary
Neoclassical economics is really the birth of mathematics as an inescapable tool for constructing theories that are internally coherent (that is, explained in and of themselves without requiring casuistic examples), escaping the slightly lackadaisical approach of many classical economists like the great Ricardo. This allowed Economics to develop at a much faster pace, and provided the basis for how Economics is studied and investigated today.
Carl Menger, was an Austrian economist (1840-1921), who is considered to be, along with W. S. Jevons and M.-E.-L. Walras, a co-founder of marginalism and of the theory of utility, and was also founder of the Austrian School, where his main followers Wieser and Böhm-Bawerk were his disciples. In his “Principles of Economics”, 1871, Menger attacked as incorrect the labor theory of value, expressing his view that the factor determining the value of a good is not the amount of work nor other goods needed to produce it, but the importance we place on the basis of the satisfaction we believe that it can offer.
Next, Léon Walras. His work is still relevant today, often studied along with Pareto as the basis of barter exchange as a solution leading to a general equilibrium and welfare economics.
