Search results for " classical economics"

On the limits to the long-period method in classical economics. A note

2001

On a first reading of Theory of Production, Kurz & Salvadori (1995) appear to confine the empirical domain of the long-period models of the classical theory of value and distribution to stationary economies with non-constant returns to scale and to growing economies with constant returns to scale. Such a reading is shown to be untenable since it merges the two levels of exploring the extension of a model and of testing a theoretical hypothesis. Conversely, the way Kurz & Salvadori tackle the problems of price dynamics and returns to scale in growing economies is shown to be compatible with what appears to be Sraffa's (implicit) strategy of research.

Adam Smith on Monopoly Theory. Making good a lacuna

2014

This article analyses Adam Smith's views on monopoly by focusing on Book IV and V of The Wealth of Nations. It argues that the majority of scholars have assessed Smith's analysis of monopoly starting from premises different from those, actually though implicitly, used by Smith. We show that Smith makes use of the word 'monopoly' to refer to a heterogeneous collection of market outcomes, besides that of a single seller market, and that Smith's account of monopolists' behaviour is richer than that provided by later theorists. We also show that Smith was aware of the growth-retarding effect of monopoly and urged State regulation. © 2014 Scottish Economic Society.

Recensione di A. Roncaglia (2000). Piero Sraffa. His life, thought and cultural heritage. London: Routledge

2002

“Natural wages dynamics in a Ricardian growth model”

2006

Ricardian growth models are generally built on the assumption of a constant natural wage. Such an assumption conceals the fact that classical economists were aware that in growing economies workers' normal pattern of consumption steadily rise both in terms of quantity and quality. In the first part of the chapter we gather some classical hints on the relationship between economic growth and natural wages in order to provide a rational reconstruction of the classical point of view on natural wage dynamics. In the second part of the chapter we propose a formal analysis of the dynamics of a Ricardian model with endogenous natural wage

Mark Blaug revisited: a rebel with many causes

2022

We clarify Blaug’s thought as well as Sraffa’s though on the relationship between rational and historical reconstructions we devote a section to the analysis of some of Sraffa’s unpublished documents concerning the reconstruction of Classical economics.