During the Second World War Joan Robinson worked for several committees for the wartime Labour government. In this position she visited both the Soviet Union and China. Joan Robinson was also very interested in underdeveloped and developing countries. She made great contributions in this area of economics. However, Joan Robinson also praised the Chinese Cultural Revolution so much that many of her friends and colleagues were quite embarrassed due to the negative aspects of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

In 1956 Joan Robinson published her magnum opus "The Accumulation of Capital". Despite the fact that it is now more than 50 years old many people agree that students will learn more about finance, money and credit from this book than from any other textbook. Near the end of her life Joan Robinson concentrated both on more methodological problems in economics and in trying to recover the original message of Keynes’ General Theory. Between 1962 and 1980 she wrote many books to try and bring several economic theories to the general public. Joan Robinson is quoted as saying "the purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists."

Joan Robinson never won a Nobel Prize in Economics. Some people believe that this was due to her gender; a female has never won a Nobel Prize in Economics. Other people believe that she never won this coveted prize due to her eclectic study of economics. However, despite the fact that she didn’t win this important prize, Joan Robinson’s works are still being studied while many Nobel Prize winners’ works have faded away.

Books on Joan Robinson

• Joan Robinson and the Americans - Marjorie Shepherd Turner, M.E. Sharpe Publishers, 1989.
• The Joan Robinson Legacy - Ingrid Hahne Rima, M.E. Sharpe Publishers, 1991.
• Joan Robinson and Modern Economic Theory - George R Feiwel, New York University Press, 1989.
• Joan Robinson : A bio-bibliography - James Cicarelli and Julianne Cicarelli, Greenwood Press, 1996.
• The Economics of Joan Robinson - Maria Cristina Marcuzzo et. al, Routledge, 1996.

Journal Articles on Joan Robinson

• Joan Robinson and her Circle - Geoffrey C. Harcourt, History of Economic Ideas v9, n2 (2001): 59-71.
• The Economics of Joan Robinson - Vivian Walsh, Science and Society v65, n2 (Summer 2001): 229-35.
• "Your Position Is Thoroughly Orthodox and Entirely Wrong": Nicholas Kaldor and Joan Robinson, 1933-1983 - Journal of the History of Economic Thought v20, n4 (December 1998): 411-32.
• Joan Robinson 1903-1983 - G.C. Harcourt, Economic Journal v105, n432 (September 1995): 1228-43.
• Joan Robinson: In the Radical Vein. A Laywoman's Homage - Sita Narasimhan, Cambridge Journal of Economics v7, n3-4 (September-December 1983): 213-19.