The Theory of Wages in Classics Economics. A Study of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and their Contemporaries

This important new book is the first specific study on the classical theory of wages to appear for more than 50 years and as such fills an important gap in the literature. Antonella Stirati argues that the wage-fund theory played no part in the theory of wages expounded by Ricardo and his predecessors. Classical wage theory is shown to be analytically consistent but very different from contemporary theory, particularly as it did not envisage an inverse relationship between employment and the real wage level, and hence a spontaneous tendency to full employment of labour. The author bases her approach not only on a reinterpretation of Smith and Ricardo, but also on the writings of Turgot, Necker, Steuart, Hume, Cantillon and other pre-classical economists. Historians of economic thought as well as other economists will welcome Dr Stirati's careful analysis of classical writings on economics which includes simple but rigorous explanations of phenomena, central to current economic debate, such as the occurrence of persistent unemployment. 1. Labour Supply And Demand, Unemployment, Natural Wage: Some Definitions -- 2. Wages In The English Economic Literature Of The Late Seventeenth And Early Eighteenth Centuries -- 3. The Theory Of Wages In Adam Smith And His Contemporaries -- 4. Theories Of Population From Cantillon To Ricardo -- 5. The Theory Of Wages In Ricardo -- 6. Wages And The Labour Market In Classical Political Economy. Antonella Stirati ; Translated By Joan Hall. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 199-212) And Index. Argues that the wage-fund theory played no part in the theory of wages expounded by Ricardo and his predecessors. This text shows classical wage theory to be analytically consistent with, but different from, contemporary theory