IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/sraffa/0021.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Sraffa on the Degeneration of the Notion of Cost

Author

Listed:
  • Fratini, Saverio M.

    (Università degli Studi Roma Tre (University of Rome Tre))

Abstract

The paper reconstructs the history of what Sraffa called the ‘degeneration of cost’ as emerges from his manuscripts of the late 1920s. In particular, Sraffa regards the Physiocrats as having the correct idea of cost as being the commodities that allow workers to subsist. The classical economists measured this bundle of commodi-ties in terms of labour, which they also ambiguously viewed as ‘toil and trouble’. Then, the idea of labour as ‘toil and trouble’ was indicated by neoclassical authors as an anticipation of their conception of cost as a sacrifice. Conferring also upon abstinence from consumption the nature of sacrifice, the neoclassical-marginalist theory understood wages and interest as compensation for the disutility of working and saving. Then, cost was ultimately seen as what induces workers and capitalists to produce. This completed the degeneration of cost from the objective-physical conception of the Physiocrats to the subjective-psychological view of the neoclassical school.

Suggested Citation

  • Fratini, Saverio M., 2016. "Sraffa on the Degeneration of the Notion of Cost," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP21, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:sraffa:0021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.centrosraffa.org/public/b576b563-ad82-454b-968c-e982acd95719.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frank A. Fetter, 1923. "Value and the Larger Economics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31, pages 587-587.
    2. Heinz Kurz, 1998. "Against the current: Sraffa's unpublished manuscripts and the history of economic thought," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 437-451.
    3. Kurz, Heinz D., 2006. "The agents of production are the commodities themselves: On the classical theory of production, distribution and value," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 1-26, January.
    4. Rodolfo Signorino, 2005. "Piero Sraffa's lectures on the advanced theory of value 1928-31 and the rediscovery of the classical approach," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 359-380.
    5. Heinz Kurz & Neri Salvadori, 2005. "Representing the production and circulation of commodities in material terms: On Sraffa's objectivism," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 413-441.
    6. Whitaker, Albert Conser, 1904. "History and Criticism of the Labor Theory of Value in English Political Economy," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number whitaker1904.
    7. Frank A. Fetter, 1923. "Value and the Larger Economics: Value Giving Way to Welfare," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31, pages 790-790.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Saverio M. Fratini, 2018. "Theories of Value and Ultimate Standards in Sraffa’s Notes of Summer 1927," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 12(1-2), pages 35-53, June.
    2. Fratini, Saverio M., 2019. "Theories of value and ultimate standards in Sraffa's notes of summer 1927," MPRA Paper 91728, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Alessandro Le Donne, 2022. "Quale Marx? A partire da una rilettura di Marx e gli economisti classici di Pierangelo Garegnani (Which Marx? A discussion from a re-reading of Marx and the classical economists by Pierangelo Garegnan," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 75(299), pages 327-338.
    4. Trezzini, Attilio, 2019. "Sraffa on Marshall's Theory of Value in the Cambridge Lectures: Achievements in an Unfinished Criticism," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP34, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    5. Cesaratto, Sergio, 2017. "Garegnani, Ackley and the years of high theory at Svimez," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP26, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fratini, Saverio M., 2019. "Theories of value and ultimate standards in Sraffa's notes of summer 1927," MPRA Paper 91728, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Saverio M. Fratini, 2018. "Theories of Value and Ultimate Standards in Sraffa’s Notes of Summer 1927," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 12(1-2), pages 35-53, June.
    3. Trezzini, Attilio, 2019. "Sraffa on Marshall's Theory of Value in the Cambridge Lectures: Achievements in an Unfinished Criticism," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP34, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    4. Attilio Trezzini, 2018. "Piero Sraffa’s Use of the History of Economic Thought in the Cambridge Lectures," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 4(1), pages 189-209, March.
    5. Lee, Frederic, 2011. "Heterodox surplus approach: production, prices, and value theory," MPRA Paper 31824, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Michel Bellet & Adrien Lutz, 2018. "Piero Sraffa and the project to publish Saint-Simon’s works," Working Papers 1840, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    7. Naldi, Nerio, 2018. "On the Origins of Piero Sraffa’s Equations. New Evidence Following Pierangelo Garegnani’s Lead," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP33, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    8. Heinz Kurz & Neri Salvadori, 2005. "Removing an 'insuperable obstacle' in the way of an objectivist analysis: Sraffa's attempts at fixed capital," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 493-523.
    9. Michel Bellet & Adrien Lutz, 2018. "Piero Sraffa and the project to publish Saint-Simon's works," Working Papers halshs-01973864, HAL.
    10. Pierangelo Garegnani, 2005. "On a turning point in Sraffa's theoretical and interpretative position in the late 1920s," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 453-492.
    11. Pier Luigi Porta, 2013. "What remains of Sraffa's economics," Working Papers 242, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised May 2013.
    12. Kurz, Heinz D. & Salvadori, Neri, 2023. "Marx's concept of “exploitation” and the problem of measurement," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 887-896.
    13. Fratini, Saverio Maria & Ravagnani, Fabio, 2023. "Sraffa and the ‘slogans not used’," MPRA Paper 117815, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Signorino, Rodolfo, 2011. "David Ricardo on natural and market prices," MPRA Paper 39212, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Rosselli, Annalisa & Trabucchi, Paolo, 2019. "Sraffa, the ‘marginal’ method and change," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 334-340.
    16. Lee, Frederic & Jo, Tae-Hee, 2010. "Heterodox production and cost theory of the business enterprise," MPRA Paper 27635, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Antonio D'Agata, 2021. "Normative (and objective) analysis in Sraffa's system," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 635-648, July.
    18. M. Magnani, 2019. "Keynes Between the Classics and Sraffa: on the Issue of the Numéraire," Working Papers wp1139, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    19. Rogério Arthmar & Michael McLure, 2019. "Sraffa, Myrdal, and the 1961 Söderström Gold Medal," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(2), pages 843-853, April.
    20. Pier Luigi Porta, 2000. "Sraffa’s Ricardo after Fifty Years - A Preliminary Estimate," Working Papers 26, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2000.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    cost; economic methodology; Sraffa; Sraffa’s manuscripts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith)
    • B13 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Neoclassical through 1925 (Austrian, Marshallian, Walrasian, Wicksellian)
    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • B51 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Socialist; Marxian; Sraffian
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:sraffa:0021. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Saverio M. Fratini (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sraffit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.