Classical Economics And Modern Theory

The well known economists Kurz and Salvadori cover original findings and new vistas on old problems including alternative interpretations of classical economics, new groth theory, Sraffian theory and Von Neumann and the treatment of capital.

This book presents an in-depth, novel, and mathematically rigorous treatment of the modern classical theory of value based on the spectral analysis of the price–profit–wage rate system. The classical theory is also subjected to empirical testing to show its logical consistency and explanatory content with respect to observed phenomena and key economic policy issues related to various multiplier processes. In this context, there is an examination of the trajectories of relative prices when the distributive variables change, both theoretically and empirically, using actual input–output data from a number of quite divers e economies. It is suggested that the actual economies do not behave like the parable of a one-commodity world of the traditional neoclassical theory, which theorizes the relative scarcities of “goods and production factors” as the fundamental determinants of relative prices and their movement. By contrast, the results of the empirical analysis are fully consistent with the modern classical theory, which makes the intersectoral structure of production and the way in which net output is distributed amongst its claimants the fundamental determinants of price magnitudes. At the same time, however, these results indicate that only a few vertically integrated industries (“industry core” or “hyper-basic industries”) are enough to shape the behaviour of the entire economy in the case of a disturbance. This fact is reduced to the skew distribution of the eigenvalues of the matrices of vertically integrated technical coefficients and reveals that, across countries and over time, the effective dimensions of actual economies are surprisingly low. Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE />

Economic theory reached its zenith of analytical power and depth of understanding in the middle of the nineteenth century among John Stuart Mill and his contemporaries. This book explains what took place in the ensuing Marginal Revolution and Keynesian Revolution that left economists less able to understand how economies operate. It explores the false mythology that has obscured the arguments of classical economists, providing a pathway into the theory they developed.

This book promotes an in-depth understanding of the key mechanisms that govern the functioning of capitalist economies, pursuing a Classical Political Economics approach to do so. It explores central theoretical issues addressed by the classical economists Smith and Ricardo, as well as Marx, while also operationalizing more recent theoretical developments inspired by the works of Sraffa and other modern classical economists, using actual data from major economies. On the basis of this approach, the book subsequently provides alternative explanations for various microeconomic issues such as the determination of equilibrium prices and their movement induced by changes in income distribution; the dynamics of competition of firms within and between industries; the law of tendential equalization of interindustry profit rates; and international exchanges and transfers of value; as well as macroeconomic issues concerning capital accumulation and cyclical economic growth. Given its scope, the book will benefit all researchers, students, and policymakers seeking new explanations for observed phenomena and interested in the mechanisms that give rise to surface economic categories, such as prices, profits, the unemployment rate, interest rates, and long economic cycles.

Heinz Kurz is recognised internationally as a leading economic theorist and a foremost historian of economic thought. This book pays tribute to his outstanding contributions by bringing together a unique collection of new essays by distinguished economists from around the world. Classical Political Economy and Modern Theory comprises twenty essays, grouped thematically into five sections. Part I examines political economy and its critique, Part II looks at entrepreneurship, evolution and income distribution, Part III discusses Cambridge, Keynes and macroeconomics, Part IV explores crisis and cycles, whilst Part V is dedicated to personal reminiscences. The essays in this book will be an invaluable source of inspiration for economists interested in economic theory and in the evolution of economic thought. They will also be of interest to postgraduate and research students specialising in economic theory and in the history of economic thought.

The essays in this collection argue that the 'classical' approach to economic problems holds the key to an explanation of important present day economic phenomena.

This book attempts to elucidate the views of Keynes's General Theory as far as equilibrium, expectations and information are concerned, and compares them with those of modern classical economists of the Chicago and Ricardian persuasion.

First Published in 2007. This book is the third volume of previously published essays from Heinz D. Kurz and Neri Salvadori, following Understanding Classical Economics (1998) and Classical Economics and Modern Theory (2003), both published by Routledge. This new collection can be read in isolation but perhaps more fruitfully in conjunction with the previous texts, providing modern interpretations of the classical economists and comparing their analyses with that of contemporary mainstream economics. The essays in the new volume are split between three parts, the first section dealing with classical economics and modern theory focusing specifically on the differences in the analytical structure and content of the theory of value and distribution of Ricardo, on the one hand, and Say and Walras, on the other. The second part is devoted to Piero Sraffa’s contribution, drawing from his hitherto unpublished papers. The final part assesses linear theory of production, concentrating on comparative studies of the contributions of von Neumann, Arrow-Debreu, Georgescu-Roegen and Sraffa. This new volume will be of interest to economic theorists and methodologists in Europe, Asia and America and particularly academics and researchers engaged with theories of production, value, distribution, economic growth and the history of economic thought.