Interpreting Classical Economics

First Published in 2007. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Drawing in particular on the work of Sraffa, Smith, Ricardo and Marx, the essays in this volume explore the characteristic features of the Classical economists’ approach to economic problems, and the renewal of interest in that approach in modern times. In recent years, new material has been made available on both Sraffa and Marx which have made new insights and interpretations possible. The release of Sraffa’s hitherto unpublished papers and correspondence has led to reconsideration of doctrinal questions such as to what extent Sraffa built upon, or deviated from the analyses of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and other representatives of the classical British school and Karl Marx. A major theme is also to what extent we can today, equipped with Sraffa's insights and analytical tools, re-interpret and develop ideas of classical authors, which they could present only in primitive forms, on technological progress, exhaustible resources and other contemporary issues. On Marx, the publication of the MEGA2 edition of the works, papers and correspondence of Marx and Engels also gives rise to a reconsideration of this relationship, given Marx's disenchantment with some of his own work and return to ideas advocated by Ricardo, especially as regards the long-term tendency of the rate of profits. Finally, the classical notion of competition and monopoly deserve to be scrutinized carefully again and frequent misinterpretations in the literature refuted. This volume is vital reading for scholars of classical economics, Marx and Sraffa, and the history of economic thought more broadly. It also deals with issues in the areas of machinery and technical progress, joint production, and economic development and growth.

The Classical Tradition in Economic Thought demonstrates that classicism, in all its many faces, is not only alive but generating an ongoing flow of interpretative literature which will be of interest to students and scholars concerned with economic theory and the history of economic thought as well as the heterodox schools in modern economics.

John Maynard Keynes failed to correctly interpret classic economic concepts, and dismissed the classical explanations and conclusions as being irrelevant to the world in which we live. The trauma of the Great Depression and Keynes's changed definition of economic concepts, aided by Eugen Bhm-Bawerk, have made it difficult for modern economists to

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.

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.

Warren J. Samuels Each book in this series explores the present status of its field in terms of where it is, how it got there, the existing tensions within the field, and something of how the field might develop in the future. Each book presumes that work in each field is neither settled nor unequivocal. Each book attempts to comprehend its field as an evolving, developmental process or set or efforts. This particular book, covering neoclassical economics, is the third of three in the field of the History of Economic Thought. The others are Pre-Classical Economic Thought, edited by S. Todd Lowry, and Classical Political Economy, edited by William O. Thweatt. Each one conducts the same kind of analysis as the others in the series, with the understanding that here we are dealing with the history of interpretation, rather than a substantive body of analysis of a certain aspect of the economy: for example, labor or international trade. (That understanding must be com plex and subtle, inasmuch as revision of interpretation of earlier ideas is part of the process-both cause and consequence-of re-analyzing the economy. ) In this group we are interested in how recent and contemporary writers have interpreted the history of economic thought differently, both among themselves and from earlier writers. 1 NEOCLASSICAL ECONOMIC lHEORY 2 Several topics must be discussed to place such work in perspective, in part as it is here applied to the history of the interpretation of neoclassical economics.

Keynes and the Classics Reconsidered is a collection of scholarly work re-evaluating Keynes's revolution in economic thought, both in the method of macroeconomic reasoning and in policy-making. This book brings together mostly a younger generation of economists to revisit Keynes's interpretation of the classics and its impact on macroeconomic theory and policy. There has been a considerable advance in the literature re-interpreting the classics and the early neoclassical economists. Most of the contributing authors have themselves been active participants in this reinterpretation. The participation of Robert Clower, an active participant in the Keynes versus the classics debate since the 1960s, brings a particularly significant retrospective to this fresh look at the record. Keynes and the Classics Reconsidered will be of interest to policy-makers and economists, especially those working in the areas of macro and monetary economics.