IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rio/texdis/526.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Ricardo puzzle

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco L. Lopes

    (Macrométrica)

Abstract

This paper tackles the puzzle of Ricardo’s stubborn commitment to a labor theory of value that he himself saw as no more than an approximation to reality and which was heavily opposed by Malthus, his most respected contemporary. We show it is wrong to think that the theory had no analytical use. Quite to the contrary, it was the only defence Ricardo could find against Malthus’ destructive criticism, which introduced an unacceptable degree of indetermination in his theory of profits. By adopting the labor theory of value, Ricardo drastically simplified the method of proof of his main proposition, which otherwise seemed to present unsurmountable analytical difficulties. The irony is that the proposition was correct, quite independently of the labor theory of value, but Ricardo was just unable to prove it.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco L. Lopes, 2006. "The Ricardo puzzle," Textos para discussão 526, Department of Economics PUC-Rio (Brazil).
    • Handle: RePEc:rio:texdis:526
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.puc-rio.br/uploads/adm/trabalhos/files/td526.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Langer, G F, 1982. "Further Evidence for Sraffa's Interpretation of Ricardo," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 397-400, December.
    2. John Hicks & Samuel Hollander, 1977. "Mr. Ricardo and the Moderns," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 91(3), pages 351-369.
    3. Garegnani, P, 1982. "On Hollander's Interpretation of Ricardo's Early Theory of Profits," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 65-77, March.
    4. Hollander, Jacob H., 1904. "The Development of Ricardo's Theory of Value," History of Economic Thought Articles, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, vol. 18, pages 455-491.
    5. George W. Wilson & James L. Pate, 1968. "Ricardo's 93 Per Cent Labor Theory of Value: A Final Comment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76, pages 128-128.
    6. Hollander, Samuel, 1990. "Ricardian Growth Theory: A Resolution of Some Problems in Textual Interpretation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(4), pages 730-750, October.
    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. Duccio Cavalieri, 2009. "Sull'inseparabilit? delle strutture sintattiche nell'analisi classica del valore e della distribuzione," STUDI ECONOMICI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(97), pages 5-46.
    2. Ajit Sinha, 2015. "A Reflection on the Samuelson-Garegnani Debate," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 4(2), pages 1-48, September.
    3. Sergio Nistico & Giorgio Rodano, 2005. "Reflections on Sraffa's Legacy in Economics: A review essay," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 471-487.
    4. Cavalieri, Duccio, 2015. "Structural interdependence in monetary economics: theoretical assessment and policy implications," MPRA Paper 65526, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. R. Monk, 1990. "Ricardo's Views on Technological Unemployment: the Truth?," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 90-18, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    6. Sugata Marjit & Meghna Dutta & Moushakhi Roy, 2022. "Role of Finance in Dixit-Stiglitz-Krugman Model of International Trade," CESifo Working Paper Series 9804, CESifo.
    7. Ajit Sinha, 2000. "The Transformation Problem: Is the Standard Commodity a Solution?," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 265-281, June.
    8. Thomas Frank Kompas, 1985. "Traditional Notions of Equilibrium Reconsidered," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 361-372, Oct-Dec.
    9. Sugata Marjit & Noritsugu Nakanishi, 2023. "The wage fund theory and gains from trade in a dynamic Ricardian model," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 19(4), pages 879-897, December.
    10. Giuseppe Freni, 1994. "The Complex Dynamics Of The Simple Ricardian System: A Note," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 89-95, February.
    11. Olivier Rosell, 2013. "L’apport de Robert TORRENS à la théorie Ricardienne du salaire naturel," Working Papers hal-04141164, HAL.
    12. Alessandro Roncaglia, 2014. "Should the History of Economic Thought be Included in Undergraduate Curricula?," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 3(1), pages 1-1, March.
    13. André Lapidus, 1996. "Introduction à une "Histoire de la Pensée Economique" qui ne verra jamais le jour," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 47(4), pages 867-892.
    14. Ormazabal Sánchez, Kepa Mirena, 2011. "A new look at Marx's refutation of Ricardo's refutation of the labor theory of value," IKERLANAK 6258, Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I.
    15. Wakamatsu, Naoyuki, 2020. "The Non-Ricardian Stationary State in Chapter 17 of the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation," MPRA Paper 103183, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Roncaglia, Alesandro, 2015. "¿Debería la Historia del Pensamiento Económico ser incluida en los Planes de Estudio de Economía en Pregrado? [Should the History of Economic Thought be Included in Undergraduate Curricula?]," MPRA Paper 67384, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 30 Jun 2015.
    17. Christian Gehrke & Heinz Kurz, 2002. "Keynes and Sraffa's 'Difficulties with J. H. Hollander'," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(4), pages 644-671.
    18. Alex Pazaitis & Primavera de Filippi & Vasilis Kostakis, 2017. "Blockchain and value systems in the sharing economy: The illustrative case of Backfeed," Post-Print hal-01676881, HAL.
    19. Takashi Uchiyama, 2000. "Ricardo on machinery: a dynamic analysis," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 208-227.
    20. Marjit, Sugata & Das, Gouranga G., 2021. "The new Ricardian specific factor model," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    More about this item

    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:rio:texdis:526. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dpucrbr.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.