1,720,963 research outputs found
Le equazioni svelate. Breve storia delle equazioni di Produzione di Merci a Mezzo di Merci
No full textIn the first part of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, four equation systems are introduced: three are drawn up in order to solve the problem of relative prices; the last one is devised to define a suitable standard of prices. The book was published in 1960, but—as we are told in the preface—its ‘central propositions’ and a first version of the price equations had been originally conceived and written more than 30 years before, when the author was still in his twenties. Having access now to the Sraffa Papers, preserved in the Wren Library, we can ascertain the intellectual origin of the equations. In this paper the analytical path that led to the final draft of the price equation is followed, step by step, and the link between these equations and Sraffa's quest for an ‘invariable standard of value’ is clarified
The Man from the Moon: Sraffa's upside-down approach to the Theory of Value
No full textBy the end of 1927, Sraffa, not yet in his thirties, showed Keynes a system of three linear and homogeneous equations to determine prices in an economy without surplus. We now know that these “first equations” were to be the starting point for his future (1960) book. Considered as such, this elementary system can hardly be considered
as particularly impressive. Indeed, it could be viewed as a rather trivial set of accounting identities. Keynes’s reaction is therefore surprising: “It is very interesting and original—he wrote to his wife Lydia—but I wonder if his class will understand it when he lectures”. In the present paper, it is suggested that Keynes’s enthusiastic approval of the equations relied on their being the outcome of a totally new theoretical approach to the problem of value. With the aid of the Sraffa Papers, preserved in the Wren Library, this approach is shown to be a most unusual one, so unusual as to be hardly intelligible and acceptable even for the “advanced” students for which
Sraffa’s lectures were intended. Moreover, if we adopt this new approach, a remarkable consequence becomes evident. This is that the vexed question of variable or constant returns becomes irrelevant—as Sraffa always maintained
Breve storia editoriale del Tableau Economique
No full textFrançois Quesnay, a surgeon, is rightly considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern economic science. However, as an economist, his career shows two remarkable aspects which should not be overlooked. First, he came across political economy relatively late, when he was already in his sixties. Second, his new interest in economics was surprisingly short-lived: less than 15 years.
Indeed, Quesnay,s creative period, as far as economic theory is concerned, is limited to the decade 1756-1766, which is marked by the succession of his famous Tableaux Economiques
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