Part I of the book takes as its starting point a reformulation of the marginal productivity theory of wages as determined by supply and demand in full competitive equilibrium of a free market economy.
2.
Moore's first book, on testing the marginal productivity theory of wages, was well received as a pioneering venture, although Alfred Marshall refused to read it, telling Moore that " it proceeds on lines which I deliberately decided not to follow many years ago . " Moore wrote two books on economic cycles, in which the economic cycle is presented as a reflection of a physical cycle . " Economic Cycles " argues that a rainfall cycle affects agricultural markets, which affect industrial markets . " Generating Economic Cycles " traces the rainfall cycle back to an astronomical cycle.