Economist who rebuilt classical and Marxian political economy on real competition and the turbulent equalisation of profit rates
Born into a Sindhi family in Karachi, Shaikh graduated from Princeton University in 1965 and took his PhD in economics at Columbia University in 1973. He taught at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York from 1972. His 1974 paper on the "Humbug production function" attacked the neoclassical aggregate production function, and in 1978 he surveyed the history of crisis theories. Against perfect competition he set a theory of "real competition", competition as war between firms, and of the "turbulent equalisation" of profit rates, with which he rebuilt the theory of prices of production and tested it on industry data; his 2016 book Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises brought this work together. He died in October 2026 at the age of 80.
Also known as: Anwar Mir Mohammed Shaikh
Activities and affiliations
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1972–
Scholarship and theory
Career Timeline
- 1965B.S.E., Princeton University
- 1972Joins the economics faculty of the New School for Social Research
- 1973PhD in economics, Columbia University
- 1977Founding editor of the Cambridge Journal of Economics
- 1994Measuring the Wealth of Nations (with Ahmet Tonak)
- 2016Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises