Corporate limited liability and Cambridge economics in the inter-war period: Robertson, Keynes and Sraffa

This article investigates the contribution of three well-known Cambridge economists--Dennis Robertson, John Maynard Keynes and Piero Sraffa--to the analysis of limited corporate liability in relation to the separation of ownership from control. The paper argues that although, as is to be expected, these economists develop different approaches and overall conclusions on the issue of corporate limited liability and the separation of ownership from control, their interpretations converge, nevertheless, on important points. Put differently, Robertson, Keynes and Sraffa raised the same micro- and macro-economic issues but came up with different answers. Their shared concerns, as well as their varied answers, display an undeniable modernity and thus remain very relevant to contemporary considerations on firm governance, especially in the context of the present global economic crisis. Copyright The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.