IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/awu/journl/v15y2021i2p147-162.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pierangelo Garegnani: economics with a critical orientation

Author

Listed:
  • Heinz D. Kurz

    (University of Graz)

Abstract

In this paper we will focus on some of the problems in the theory of value and distribution that Sraffa and Garegnani have tackled in their path-breaking works. In particular, the focus will be first on the identification of the cost-minimizing system of production from a set of technical alternatives and its properties in terms of the general rate of profits and the set of relative prices corresponding to a given real wage rate. Next we will discuss briefly in highly abstract terms and in the context of an utterly simple one-good economy the process of the diffusion of new techniques and the gradual elimination of old techniques, which once were cost minimizing, but no longer are. The issue at hand is an aspect of what Schumpeter called “creative destruction.†Finally, we will analyse the non-conventional (that is, non-marginalist) findings in capital theory put forward by Sraffa (1960) and further elaborated by Garegnani (1970, 1990 etc.). When their theoretical possibility had been firmly established, they were questioned on empirical grounds. The problem with this questioning is that it is far from clear, how it could convincingly be shown that some of the phenomena under scrutiny do, or do not, exist in the real world. After all, what is at issue is the behaviour of the economic system as a whole, and the data situation on the basis of which the question could possibly be decided is perhaps not up to the problem at hand. In this respect, we will point out some of the difficulties to investigate the situation in terms of data taken from input-output tables.

Suggested Citation

  • Heinz D. Kurz, 2021. "Pierangelo Garegnani: economics with a critical orientation," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 15(2), pages 147-162, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:awu:journl:v:15:y:2021:i:2:p:147-162
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://serialsjournals.com/abstract/51206_3-kurzfinal.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.bulletinofpe.com/heinz-d-kurz-20212
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Heinz D. Kurz, 2017. "Technical Progress and the Diffusion of Innovations: Classical and Schumpeterian Perspectives," Frontiers of Economics in China-Selected Publications from Chinese Universities, Higher Education Press, vol. 12(3), pages 418-449, September.
    2. Heinz D. Kurz, 2012. "Pierangelo Garegnani (1930--2011)," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 303-311, April.
    3. Kurz,Heinz D. & Salvadori,Neri, 1997. "Theory of Production," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521588676, September.
    4. Ian Steedman, 2020. "Fixed capital in the corn‐tractor model," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 49-56, February.
    5. Heinz D. Kurz, 2020. "The theory of value and distribution and the problem of capital," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 17(2), pages 241-264, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kurz, Heinz D., 2022. "Re-reading Carl Menger’s Grundsätze. A Book That “Cries Out To Be Surpassed”," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP52, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    2. Tsoulfidis, Lefteris, 2021. "Capital Theory Debates: New Developments and Direction," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP51, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    3. Sergio Parrinello, 2014. "A search for distinctive features of demand-led growth models," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 67(270), pages 309-342.
    4. Heinz D. Kurz & Neri Salvadori, 2011. "In Favor of Rigor and Relevance: A Reply to Mark Blaug," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 607-616, Fall.
    5. Potestio, Paola, 1999. "The aggregate neoclassical theory of distribution and the concept of a given value of capital: towards a more general critique," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3-4), pages 381-394, December.
    6. Stefano Di Bucchianico & Riccardo Pariboni, 2022. "Garegnani, dieci anni dopo: introduzione al numero speciale (Garegnani, ten years after: introduction to the special issue)," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 75(299), pages 227-231.
    7. Veneziani, Roberto & Yoshihara, Naoki, 2014. "One million miles to go: taking the axiomatic road to defining exploitation," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2014-10, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    8. Kazuhiro Kurose, 2022. "A two-class economy from the multi-sectoral perspective: the controversy between Pasinetti and Meade–Hahn–Samuelson–Modigliani revisited," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 239-270, April.
    9. Massimo Cingolani, 2015. "Sylos Labini su Marx: implicazioni per la politica economica (Sylos Labini on Marx: economic policy implications)," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 68(269), pages 81-147.
    10. A. J. Julius, 2005. "The wage-wage-...-wage-profit relation in a multisector bargaining economy," GE, Growth, Math methods 0501003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Keiran Sharpe, 2006. "Effective demand in a stylised Keynesian model of growth," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 173-191.
    12. Naoki Yoshihara, 2021. "On the labor theory of value as the basis for the analysis of economic inequality in the capitalist economy," Japanese Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2-3), pages 190-212, July.
    13. Michael Gaul, 2024. "A Discussion of Marx’s Account of Technical Progress by Means of Wage Curves and Their Historical Evolution," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 56(2), pages 267-299, June.
    14. Ellis Scharfenaker, 2022. "Statistical Equilibrium Methods In Analytical Political Economy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 276-309, April.
    15. Rodolfo Signorino, 2003. "Book Reviews," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 339-370.
    16. Giorgio Giorgi, 2022. "Nonsingular M-matrices: a Tour in the Various Characterizations and in Some Related Classes," DEM Working Papers Series 206, University of Pavia, Department of Economics and Management.
    17. Luis Daniel Torres-González, 2020. "The Characteristics of the Productive Structure Behind the Empirical Regularities in Production Prices Curves," Working Papers 2016, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    18. A. Rainer & R. Strohmaier, 2014. "Modeling the diffusion of general purpose technologies in an evolutionary multi-sector framework," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 425-444, August.
    19. Heinz D. Kurz, 2011. "The Contributions of Two Eminent Japanese Scholars to the Development of Economic Theory: Michio Morishima and Takashi Negishi," Chapters, in: Heinz D. Kurz & Tamotsu Nishizawa & Keith Tribe (ed.), The Dissemination of Economic Ideas, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Kiedrowski, Roman, 2018. "Profit rates equalization and balanced growth in a multi-sector model of classical competition," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 39-53.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Garegnani; Sraffa’s price system; choice of techniques; creative destruction; capital theory; probability of reswitching and capital reversing; input-output tables.;
    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)
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • D57 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Input-Output Tables and Analysis
    • E11 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Marxian; Sraffian; Kaleckian
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    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:awu:journl:v:15:y:2021:i:2:p:147-162. 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: Maria Cristina Barbieri Goes (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.bulletinofpe.com/ .

    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.