Piero Sraffa's Political Economy

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Piero Sraffa's Political Economy Piero Sraffa’s Political Economy A centenary estimate Edited by Terenzio Cozzi and Roberto Marchionatti London and New York Piero Sraffa’s Political Economy Piero Sraffa’s work has had a significant impact on the study of economics in the twentieth century. This book presents a centenary assessment of his work by leading academics in the history of economic thought. Contributions from a wide range of Sraffa scholars are brought together to evaluate Sraffa’s overall contribution to economics as well as selected aspects of Sraffa’s biography. His Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities—still a source of extensive international academic debate—and Sraffa’s edition of Ricardo’s Work and Correspondence are examined. Piero Sraffa’s Political Economy is divided into four parts. Part I looks at Sraffa’s biography during the first three decades of the century. Part II is dedicated to Sraffa’s work between the middle of the 1920s and the early 1930s—the criticism of Marshallian orthodoxy, the contributions to the Cambridge debates on imperfect competition and Keynes’ monetary work. Part III considers the relationship between the articles of the 1920s and the subsequent work leading to the publication of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. Part IV looks in detail at Keynes’ General Theory; Sraffa’s relationship with mathematicians; the controversy and critical influence on Hayek; Sraffa’s 1960 model and open economy. Terenzio Cozzi is Professor of Economics at the University of Torino, Italy. He is also Professor of Money and Finance, Coripe Master of Economics, Torino. He has previously authored Teoria dello sviluppo economico, and Elementi di economia politica: Un testo europeo (with S.Zamagni), and has published essays and articles in the fields of macroeconomics, growth and cycles, and Keynesian economics. Roberto Marchionatti is Professor of Economics at the University of Torino, Italy. His previous publications include Karl Marx Critical Responses and “From Our Correspondent”, Luigi Einaudi’s Articles in The Economist, 1908–1946, and he has published extensively in the fields of economic theory, industrial economics and history of economic thought. Contents Acknowledgements xiii List of contributors xiv Preface by Terenzio Cozzi and Roberto Marchionatti xv Introduction by Roberto Marchionatti xvii A memoir by Sergio Steve xxxv PART I On Sraffa’s biography 1 1 A child of Cultura Positiva: Turin and the education of Piero Sraffa 3 ANGELO D’ORSI 2 Piero Sraffa’s early approach to political economy: from the gymnasium to the beginning of his academic career 23 NERIO NALDI PART II Sraffa’s contribution to the Cambridge debates in the 1920s and 1930s 41 3 Sraffa and the criticism of Marshall in the 1920s 43 ROBERTO MARCHIONATTI 4 Sraffa and Cambridge economics, 1928–1931 81 MARIA CRISTINA MARCUZZO 5 On some controversial aspects of Sraffa’s theoretical system in the second half of the 1920s 100 DUCCIO CAVALIERI x Contents Comments 121 6 On Marshall’s representative firm: a comment on Marchionatti 123 TIZIANO RAFFAELLI 7 Why did Sraffa lose interest in imperfect competition? A comment on Marcuzzo 128 MARCO DARDI PART III Continuity and change in Sraffa’s thought: from the 1920s to Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities 137 8 Continuity and change in Sraffa’s thought: an archival excursus 139 LUIGI L.PASINETTI 9 Some notes on the Sraffa Papers 157 GIANCARLO DE VIVO 10 From the 1925–6 articles to the 1960 book: some notes on Sraffa’s not so implicit methodology 165 ANDREA SALANTI AND RODOLFO SIGNORINO 11 Sraffa’s edition of Ricardo’s Works: reconstruction of a reconstruction 187 ANNALISA ROSSELLI 12 Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities between criticism and reconstruction: the given quantities assumption 207 ALESSANDRO RONCAGLIA Comments 223 13 A comment on Salanti and Signorino 225 MARINA BIANCHI 14 A comment on Rosselli 228 PIER LUIGI PORTA 15 A comment on Roncaglia 231 GIORGIO LUNGHINI Contents xi PART IV Specific topics 237 16 Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities and the open economy 239 IAN STEEDMAN 17 Sraffa and the mathematicians: Frank Ramsey and Alister Watson 254 HEINZ D.KURZ AND NERI SALVADORI 18 Monetary analysis in Sraffa’s writings 285 CARLO PANICO 19 On the relationship between Sraffa and Keynes 311 FABIO RANCHETTI 20 Sraffa on Hayek: unexpected influences 333 CARLO ZAPPIA Comments 357 21 A comment on Steedman 359 SALVATORE BALDONE 22 Monetary analyses in Sraffa’s writings: a comment on Panico 362 RICCARDO BELLOFIORE 23 Whatever happened to Dr Hayek after the debate with Mr Sraffa? A comment on Zappia 377 NICOLÒ DE VECCHI Bibliography 387 Index 411 Contributors Salvatore Baldone, Politecnico of Milano, Italy Riccardo Bellofiore, University of Bergamo, Italy Marina Bianchi, University of Cassino, Italy Duccio Cavalieri, University of Firenze, Italy Terenzio Cozzi, University of Torino, Italy Marco Dardi, University of Firenze, Italy Nicolò De Vecchi, University of Pavia, Italy Giancarlo de Vivo, University of Napoli, Italy Angelo D’Orsi, University of Torino, Italy Heinz D.Kurz, University of Graz, Austria Giorgio Lunghini, University of Pavia, Italy Roberto Marchionatti, University of Torino, Italy Maria Cristina Marcuzzo, University of Roma, Italy Nerio Naldi, University of Roma, Italy Carlo Panico, University of Napoli, Italy Luigi L.Pasinetti, Universitá Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy Pier Luigi Porta, University of Milano, Italy Tiziano Raffaelli, University of Cagliari, Italy Fabio Ranchetti, University of Pisa, Italy Alessandro Roncaglia, University of Roma, Italy Annalisa Rosselli, University of Roma, Italy Andrea Salanti, University of Bergamo, Italy Neri Salvadori, University of Pisa, Italy Rodolfo Signorino, University of Pisa, Italy Ian Steedman, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK Sergio Steve, University of Roma, Italy Carlo Zappia, University of Siena, Italy Preface Piero Sraffa is considered one of the great economists of the twentieth century. Such a reputation is based on what amounts to a small number of writings, though all of lasting impact and influence. His 1926 anti- Marshallian article, ‘The laws of returns under competitive conditions’, had a dramatic effect on the economic theory of that time—particularly in the United Kingdom—and contributed in an essential way to the abandonment of the Marshall-Pigou theory of value and the subsequent emergence of the imperfect competition theory in the 1930s. Sraffa’s edition of Ricardo’s Works and Correspondence—a work which started at the beginning of the 1930s and took nearly thirty years to complete—has been considered a masterpiece in the history of economics; in recognition, Sraffa was awarded the Söderstrom Gold Medal for Economic Sciences by the Swedish Academy of Sciences, an honour which he shared with Keynes and a small number of other scholars. His 1960 book, Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, is seen as a classic in the theory of capital and has been the source of extensive academic debate. Although the importance of Sraffa’s writings is fully recognised, general consensus on their meaning and relevance has not been achieved. With regard to the 1926 article, the majority of commentators emphasise that Sraffa constructed a sturdy intellectual foundation for the English branch of the theory of imperfect competition; though recognising this historical role, others prefer to see it as a contribution to a new mainstream, distinguished by the tacit agreement that is better to have a poor, useful theory than a rich, useless one. Other authors emphasise that Sraffa was essentially a critic of partial method and an advocate of a simultaneous equation approach, the outcome of which would be his 1960 book. As to Sraffa’s 1951 introduction to Ricardo’s Principles, reviewers initially saw no break with Ricardo’s own interpretative tradition, indeed they were struck by Sraffa’s ‘unfailing neutrality’. Later, however, it was viewed as strongly influenced by Sraffa’s own particular path of research, to the point, according to some critics, of misinterpreting Ricardo. Above all, disagreement has prevailed with regard to the 1960 book. Some of the first reviewers considered it a great theoretical xvi Preface advance, while others judged it to be just another Leontiev-type model and original only from a subjective point of view: these differences of opinion were ascribed to the extreme difficulty of the work and to what seemed to many commentators its mathematical incompleteness. Later some economists tried to show Sraffa’s distinction with respect to neoclassical economics, maintaining that he represented the rehabilitation of the classical objective theory of value and distribution against marginalist subjectivism and demonstrated that the Ricardo-Marx approach was logically consistent. Different and opposing judgements are still present, however, as can be seen for example in some of Samuelson’s recent contributions. At the end of the 1970s, for a decade or more, interest in Sraffa’s work waned quite considerably, but around the beginning of the 1990s it had started to return. Undoubtedly, the availability since December 1994 of Sraffa’s unpublished papers, kept in the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge, has contributed to this renewal of interest, representing both a great stimulus and a fundamental source of information in assessing Sraffa’s work.1 The present book is largely a result of studies based, directly or indirectly, on the new evidence available. We asked a wide range of Sraffa scholars to present and evaluate Sraffa’s contributions to economic theory and the history of economic thought on the occasion of a conference commemorating the centenary of Sraffa’s birth, held in Turin at the Fondazione Einaudi from 15–17 October 1998: after revision and rewriting, these papers are collected here. Although a complete assessment of Sraffa’s work is certainly not possible at present, we like to think that this book represents a relevant contribution in that direction.
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