J. A. Hobson

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John A. Hobson
Hobson in c. 1910
Born	John Atkinson Hobson 6 July 1858 Derby, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Died	1 April 1940(1940-04-01) (aged 81) Hampstead, London, England, United Kingdom
Academic career
Field	Imperialism studies Poverty studies
School or tradition	Liberal socialism
Alma mater	Lincoln College, Oxford
Influences	George Hyndman Mummery
Contributions	Imperialism: A Study Underconsumption

Part of a series about
Imperialism studies
Theories Dependency theory Intercommunalism Neo-Gramscianism Neocolonialism Social imperialism Super-imperialism Three Worlds Theory Ultra-imperialism World-systems theory
Concepts Ecologically unequal exchange North–South model Unequal exchange Superprofit Uneven and combined development
People Samir Amin Giovanni Arrighi Paul A. Baran Charles Bettelheim Ľuboš Blaha Nikolai Bukharin Arghiri Emmanuel John Bellamy Foster Andre Gunder Frank Michael Hardt Rudolf Hilferding Peter Gowan J. A. Hobson Vladimir Lenin Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev Li Minqi Rosa Luxemburg Antonio Negri Kwame Nkrumah Huey P. Newton Walter Rodney Paul Sweezy Leon Trotsky Immanuel Wallerstein
Works The Accumulation of Capital Empire How Europe Underdeveloped Africa Imperialism Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism Monopoly Capital Multitude Naked Imperialism
Related Banana republic Economic development Illicit financial flows Global North and Global South Lumpenbourgeoisie Neo-Marxism Prebisch–Singer hypothesis Primitive accumulation of capital Third worldism
Category
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John Atkinson Hobson (6 July 1858 – 1 April 1940) was an English economist and social scientist. Hobson is best known for his writing on imperialism, which influenced Vladimir Lenin, and his theory of underconsumption.^[1]

His principal and earliest contribution to economics was the theory of underconsumption, a scathing criticism of Say's law and classical economics' emphasis on thrift. However, this discredited Hobson among the professional economics community from which he was ultimately excluded. Other early work critiqued the classical theory of rent and anticipated the Neoclassical "marginal productivity" theory of distribution.

After covering the Second Boer War as a correspondent for The Manchester Guardian, he condemned British involvement in the war and characterised it as acting under the influence of mine owners. In a series of books, he explored the associations between imperialism and international conflict and asserted that imperial expansion is driven by a search for new markets and investment opportunities overseas. Commentaries on Hobson have noted the presence of antisemitic language and themes in his work, especially in his writing on the Boer War.

Later, he argued that maldistribution of income resulted, through oversaving and underconsumption, in unemployment and that the remedy was in eradicating the "surplus" by the redistribution of income by taxation and the nationalization of monopolies. He opposed the First World War and advocated the formation of a world political body to prevent wars. Following the war, he became a reformist socialist.