Neo-Ricardian Theory: With Applications to Some Current Economic Problems (Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, 156)

During the last fifteen years certain very fundamental aspects of economic theory have been very actively debated. The debate has often been called the Cambridge controversy, since the main parti­ cipants in the debate come from Cambridge, USA and Cambridge, Eng­ land. In this debate certain important foundations of economic theory have been criticized which are specifically important for understand­ ing price formation and income distribution. An important starting point has been Sraffa's extensions of Ricardo's theory and one has therefore sometimes called those neo-Ricardians, who have based themselves on Sraffa's work. We shall deal with some important issues that have been debated, and we shall try to describe a rather complete theoretical construction which will be an alternative to neo-classical theory. A special problem relates to the title of the book and classification of authocs to whom we refer. Perhaps post-Keynesian would sometimes be a better label than neo-Ricardian. We have used the latter name for the book due to its large emphasis on Sraffa's work. To understand the main parts of the book only basic algebra and calculus are necessary. Front Matter....Pages N2-VI Front Matter....Pages 1-1 What is Neo-Ricardian Theory?....Pages 3-8 History Emphasizing Ricardo....Pages 9-32 The Sraffa System....Pages 33-57 The Capital Controversy....Pages 59-75 Income Distribution and Growth....Pages 77-92 Front Matter....Pages 93-93 Applications: An Introduction....Pages 95-97 Some Stability Problems: An Outline....Pages 99-110 Wage Earners’ Funds....Pages 111-123 Technological Change....Pages 125-144 The Efficiency of Different Economic Systems....Pages 145-155 Concluding Remarks....Pages 157-160 Back Matter....Pages 161-169