Besides the natural rivalry with Cambridge, as a competing academic centre with an
outstanding record of excellence in many fields, LSE economics was also opposed to the
heritage of Marshall, Pigou and partial equilibrium, endorsing the Austrian and the general
equilibrium approach in the tradition of continental authors such as Walras and Pareto. The
controversy between Hayek and Keynes 1931-33 seemed to have stretched these differences
to the extreme notwithstanding the efforts of the younger and less “embattled” (J. Robinson
1951: viii) members of the two groups to find a common ground (Marcuzzo-Sanfilippo,
2005). The situation came to a climax with the publication of the General Theory. A line was
drawn between those who felt themselves in total agreement with Keynes and those who felt
either misrepresented or alienated by it. In Cambridge Kahn, Joan and Austin Robinson
belonged to the former category, Pigou and Robertson to the latter. Sraffa was secretly