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Abstract
Classical Economics Today: Essays in Honor of Alessandro Roncaglia is a collection of essays that pays tribute to Alessandro Roncaglia whose research is based on Schumpeter’s dictum that good economics must encompass history, economic theory and statistics, and therefore does not generally take the form of elegant formal models that are applicable to all and everything. In this direction, Roncaglia is inspired by the Classical economists of the past and becomes a model for present-day Classical economists. A perceptible family air imbues the essays: all the contributors are friends of Roncaglia and see his personality and his interests as a common point of reference.
Marcella Corsi is professor of economics at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, and editor of the International Review of Sociology.
Jan Kregel is director of research at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, USA, and professor of development finance at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. He is coeditor of the Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics.
Carlo D’Ippoliti is associate professor of economics at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, and editor of PSL Quarterly Review
“This is a very welcome volume of stimulating essays from renowned scholars in the Classical tradition. They provide a fitting tribute to the full range of the contributions made by Alessandro Roncaglia, including on Sraffa theory of prices, and on financial and oil markets.”
—Malcolm Sawyer, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Leeds, UK
“Classical Economics Today: Essays in Honor of Alessandro Roncaglia” is a collection of essays that investigates and applies the method and principles of Classical political economy to current issues of economic theory and policy.
The contributors to the volume, like all classical economists in general, regard history as a useful tool of analysis rather than a specialist object of investigation. By denying that a single, all-encompassing mathematical model can explain everything we are interested in, Classical political economy necessarily requires a comparison and integration of several pieces of theory as the only way to discuss economics and economic policy. Economists inspired by the Classical approach believe that economic theory is historically conditioned: as social systems evolve, the appropriate theory to represent a certain phenomenon must evolve too. Therefore, plurality in methods, including the history of economic thought, must be a deliberate choice, as evidenced by the essays in “Classical Economics Today: Essays in Honor of Alessandro Roncaglia.”
“Classical Economics Today” is a tribute to Alessandro Roncaglia, to his personality and his research interests. Roncaglia’s research is based on Schumpeter’s dictum that good economics must encompass history, economic theory and statistics, and therefore does not generally take the form of elegant formal models that are applicable to all and everything. In this direction, Roncaglia is inspired by the Classical economists of the past, and becomes a model for present-day Classical economists. A perceptible family air imbues the essays: all the contributors are friends of Roncaglia and see his personality and his interests as a common point of reference.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cover | Cover 1 | ||
| Front Matter | ii | ||
| Half title | i | ||
| Series information | ii | ||
| Title page | iii | ||
| Copyright information | iv | ||
| Tables of Contents | v | ||
| List of Illustrations | vii | ||
| Figures | vii | ||
| Tables | vii | ||
| Preface | ix | ||
| References | x | ||
| Acknowledgments | xi | ||
| Chapter Int-16 | 1 | ||
| Chapter One The Reconstruction of an Alternative Economic Thought: Some Premises | 1 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 1 | ||
| 2. Complexity | 1 | ||
| 3. Instability | 3 | ||
| 4. State | 3 | ||
| 5. Trust | 4 | ||
| 6. Remarks | 4 | ||
| Notes | 5 | ||
| References | 6 | ||
| Chapter Two Reflections on Unity and Diversity, The Market and Economic Policy | 7 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 7 | ||
| 2. Prices and Markets: Theory and History from Smith to Schumpeter via Petty | 7 | ||
| 3. The Textbook Definition of the Perfect Competitive Market | 9 | ||
| 4. The Diversity, Uniformity and Perfection of Financial Markets | 13 | ||
| 5. The Financial Engineers, Unbundling and Innovation | 14 | ||
| 6. Diversity, Homogeneity and the Fallacy of Composition in Current Economic Policy | 16 | ||
| References | 17 | ||
| Chapter Three Ending Laissez-Faire Finance | 19 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 19 | ||
| 2. The Theoretical Roots and Features of the Current Approach to Financial Regulation | 20 | ||
| 3. The Role of Vested Interests | 26 | ||
| 4. An Alternative Approach to Financial Regulation | 27 | ||
| 5. Conclusions | 29 | ||
| Acknowledgments | 29 | ||
| Notes | 29 | ||
| References | 30 | ||
| Chapter Four Democracy in crisis: So what’s new? | 33 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 33 | ||
| 2. Back to Basics | 33 | ||
| 3. Good Government | 35 | ||
| 4. The Input of Democracy | 36 | ||
| 5. The European Union | 38 | ||
| 6. Crisis, Then, but Perhaps Not Unsurmountable: For Now | 40 | ||
| Notes | 42 | ||
| References | 43 | ||
| Chapter Five The Democracy of Ideas: J. S. Mill, liberalism and the Economic Debate | 45 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 45 | ||
| 2. The Moral Foundations of Liberalism | 46 | ||
| 3. A New Stage of Tyranny | 48 | ||
| 4. Experimenting Diversity | 51 | ||
| 5. Open Debate as Scientific Morality | 53 | ||
| 6. The Economic Debate | 55 | ||
| 7. Conclusions | 57 | ||
| Notes | 58 | ||
| References | 59 | ||
| Chapter Six Turgot and The Division of Labor | 61 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 61 | ||
| 2. Inequality and the Division of Labor | 63 | ||
| 3. Turgot’s Réflexions | 65 | ||
| 4. Turgot’s Reforms of the Corvée and the Milice | 67 | ||
| 5. Conclusions | 70 | ||
| Notes | 70 | ||
| References | 70 | ||
| Chapter Seven Agricultural Surplus and The Means of Production | 73 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 73 | ||
| 2. Mercantilism and the Balance of Trade | 74 | ||
| 3. Petty and Cantillon | 75 | ||
| 3.1 Sir William Petty | 75 | ||
| 3.2 Richard Cantillon | 77 | ||
| 4. Quesnay: A Story of Oxen and Horses—the Avances | 79 | ||
| 5. Smith and the Division of Labor | 83 | ||
| 6. Conclusions | 85 | ||
| Notes | 85 | ||
| References | 86 | ||
| Chapter Eight The Role of Sraffa Prices In Post-Keynesian Pricing Theory | 89 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 89 | ||
| 2. Marx’s Role | 91 | ||
| 3. Effects of Systemic Constraints | 92 | ||
| Notes | 94 | ||
| References | 94 | ||
| Chapter Nine Classical Underconsumption Theories Reassessed | 97 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 97 | ||
| 2. The Two 1930s Misleading Approaches | 98 | ||
| 3. Differences among Underconsumption Authors | 100 | ||
| 4. Malthus and Sismondi vis-à-vis Periodical Crises | 101 | ||
| 5. Criticisms of Underconsumption Theories | 104 | ||
| 6. Conclusion: Diversification of Goods as the Driving Force of Accumulation | 106 | ||
| Notes | 107 | ||
| References | 108 | ||
| Chapter Ten on The “Photograph” Interpretation of Piero Sraffa’s Production Equations: A View From The Sraffa Archive | 113 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 113 | ||
| 2. Sraffa and the Metaphor of “Photograph” | 114 | ||
| 2.1 An Annotation in One of Sraffa’s Books | 114 | ||
| 2.2 Sraffa’s Unpublished Papers | 115 | ||
| Difference vs. Change | 115 | ||
| Working Capital | 117 | ||
| Time, Labor, Value | 117 | ||
| 3. Another Metaphor: The “Man from the Moon” | 119 | ||
| 4. Interpreting Sraffa’s Approach vis-à-vis a Statement by Pantaleoni | 120 | ||
| 5. Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities | 123 | ||
| 6. Sraffa’s Correspondence | 125 | ||
| 7. Concluding Remarks | 125 | ||
| Acknowledgments | 126 | ||
| Notes | 126 | ||
| References | 127 | ||
| Chapter Eleven on The Earliest Formulations of Sraffa’s Equations | 129 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 129 | ||
| 2. The Spring of Sraffa’s Equations: The “absolutely necessary commodity” and the “community... | 132 | ||
| 3. Writing the Equations: Garegnani’s View | 135 | ||
| 4. End of November 1927 | 139 | ||
| 5. Writing the Equations: A Different View | 140 | ||
| 6. Conclusions | 145 | ||
| Acknowledgments | 146 | ||
| Notes | 146 | ||
| References | 150 | ||
| Chapter Twelve Normal and Degenerate Solutions of The Walras-Morishima Model | 153 | ||
| 1. A Controversial Model | 153 | ||
| 2. A Stationary State | 159 | ||
| Notes | 163 | ||
| References | 164 | ||
| Chapter Thirteen Trading In The “Devil’s Metal”: Keynes’s Speculation and Investment In Tin (1921–46) | 167 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 167 | ||
| 2. The Tin Market in the Interwar Period: Competition and Control | 167 | ||
| 3. Betting on Derivatives: Keynes, the Speculator | 170 | ||
| 4. From Speculation to Investment: Keynes, the Investor | 173 | ||
| 5. Understanding Market Behavior: Keynes, the Economist | 178 | ||
| 6. Conclusions | 185 | ||
| Acknowledgments | 185 | ||
| Notes | 186 | ||
| References | 186 | ||
| Chapter Fourteen The Oil Question, The Prices Of Production and A Metaphor | 189 | ||
| 1. Introduction | 189 | ||
| 2. A Sketch of the “Oil Question” | 189 | ||
| 3. The Argument | 191 | ||
| 4. A Formal Comparison | 191 | ||
| 4.1 Sraffa’s Equations with Land | 192 | ||
| 4.2 Sraffa’s Equations with Oil | 193 | ||
| 5. Objections and Answers | 194 | ||
| 5.1 First Objection: On the Hotelling’s Rule | 194 | ||
| 5.2 Second Objection: On the Persistence of Given Quantities | 194 | ||
| 6. Production Prices with Oil and the Metaphor of the Snapshot | 195 | ||
| 7. Conclusions | 197 | ||
| Notes | 197 | ||
| References | 198 | ||
| Chapter Fifteen Europe and Italy: Expansionary Austerity and Expansionary Precariousness | 201 | ||
| 1. GDP Growth, Employment and Labor Income Share | 201 | ||
| 1.1 Assessing the Scenario: The Trend of Selected OECD Macroindicators | 201 | ||
| 1.2 A Close Focus on Wages and the Labor Income Share | 203 | ||
| 2. Errare Humanum Est, Perseverare Autem Diabolicum:7 Unchanging Recommendations and Plans in Europe and Italy | 209 | ||
| 2.1 Expansionary Austerity and the Work of the Last Three Italian Governments | 209 | ||
| 2.2 The Italian Jobs Act: Expansionary Precariousness | 210 | ||
| 2.2.1 Deregulating Wage Bargaining | 211 | ||
| 2.2.2 Job Insecurity | 211 | ||
| 2.2.3 More of the Same: A Closer Look at the Jobs Act | 212 | ||
| 3. Policy Actions for Italy | 214 | ||
| 3.1 Industrial Policy | 214 | ||
| 3.2 Innovation Policy | 215 | ||
| 3.3 Wage Policy | 216 | ||
| 4. Conclusions | 217 | ||
| Notes | 218 | ||
| References | 220 | ||
| Chapter Sixteen Adam Smith and The Neophysiocrats: War of Ideas In Spain (1800–4) | 223 | ||
| 1. Introduction: A Lost Text in the British Library | 223 | ||
| 2. Juan Polo y Catalina: From Mercantilism to Adam Smith | 224 | ||
| 3. Juan Polo y Catalina: Smith against the Neophysiocrats | 227 | ||
| 4. A New Setting: The Influence of Les Idéologues | 229 | ||
| 5. The Translations: War of Ideas in Spain 1800–4 | 231 | ||
| 6. A New Interpretation of Smith: Mathematical Economics Appear on the Scene | 234 | ||
| 7. Concluding Remarks | 235 | ||
| Acknowledgments | 236 | ||
| Notes | 237 | ||
| References | 239 | ||
| End Matter | 243 | ||
| Bibliography | 243 | ||
| Alessandro Roncaglia’s Publications | 243 | ||
| Books | 243 | ||
| Book Sections | 244 | ||
| Journal Articles | 248 | ||
| List Of Contributors | 253 | ||
| Index | 257 |