Abstract
This chapter illustrates Piero Sraffa’s life and works, from his early writings on money and his articles on the theory of the firm up to his edition of Ricardo’s works and correspondence and his book, Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. It recalls Sraffa’s influence on Gramsci and Wittgenstein, and his intellectual relationship with Keynes. It provides an interpretation of his analysis of prices and income distribution placing it firmly within the classical approach but such as to be compatible with Keynes’s ideas. It also stresses Sraffa’s opposition to the marginalist approach and his critiques of its conceptual foundations and to various versions of it: Austrian, Marshallian, today’s mainstream macroeconomics relying on an aggregate notion of capital, and any theory of value and distribution that considers the wage and the profit rate as scarcity-determined prices of the factors of production, labour, and capital.
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Notes
- 1.
For a more extensive illustration of Sraffa’s life and writings, a fuller bibliography, and a more detailed interpretation of his thought, let me refer the reader to Roncaglia (2009). Unavoidably, some points in this chapter are taken from that book.
- 2.
When in 1967, I asked Paolo Sylos Labini to supervise my degree dissertation on Sraffa, he requested that I first read Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Ricardo’s Principles, and Marx’s Capital: no small assignment, but most useful advice.
- 3.
- 4.
On this, let me refer the reader once again to Roncaglia (2009: 35–40).
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
For a survey of these debates, see Harcourt (1972).
- 8.
Garegnani (1960) shows that Sraffa-type critiques apply to all the main exponents of the marginalist tradition, including Walras and Wicksell.
- 9.
The story is told in Naldi (1998).
- 10.
For an attempt in this direction, see Roncaglia and Tonveronachi (2014).
References
Main Works by Piero Sraffa
Sraffa, P. (1920). L’Inflazione Monetaria in Italia Durante e Dopo la Guerra. Milano: Scuola Tipografica Salesiana. English translation: ‘Monetary Inflation in Italy During and After the War’. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1993, 17(1): 7–26.
Sraffa, P. (1922a). ‘The Bank Crisis in Italy’. Economic Journal, 32(126): 178–197.
Sraffa, P. (1922b). ‘Italian Banking Today’. Manchester Guardian Commercial. The Reconstruction of Europe, Number 11, 7 December: 675–676.
Sraffa, P. (1925). ‘Sulle Relazioni fra Costo e Quantità Prodotta’. Annali di Economia, 2(1): 277–328. English translation (by J. Eatwell and A. Roncaglia): ‘On the Relations between Cost and Quantity Produced’. In L.L. Pasinetti (ed.) (1998) Italian Economic Papers. Volume 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 323–363.
Sraffa, P. (1926). ‘The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions’. Economic Journal, 36(144): 535–550.
Sraffa, P. (1930). ‘A Criticism’ and ‘A Rejoinder’. In Symposium on Increasing Returns and the Representative Firm. Economic Journal, 40(157): 89–92 and 93.
Sraffa, P. (1932). ‘Dr. Hayek on Money and Capital’ and ‘A Rejoinder’. Economic Journal, 42(165): 42–53, and 42(166): 249–251.
Sraffa, P. (ed.) (1951–1973). The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo. 11 volumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sraffa, P. (1960). Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities: Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Other Works Referred To
Garegnani, P. (1960). Il Capitale nelle Teorie della Distribuzione. Milano: Giuffrè.
Garegnani, P. (1981). Marx e gli Economisti Classici. Torino: Einaudi.
Garegnani, P. (1990). ‘Sraffa: Classical versus Marginalist Analysis’. Chapter 5 in K. Bharadwaj and B. Schefold (eds) Essays on Piero Sraffa. London: Unwin Hyman: 112–141.
Gramsci, A. (1975). Quaderni del Carcere. Edited by V. Gerratana. Four volumes. Torino: Einaudi.
Harcourt, G.C. (1972). Some Cambridge Controversies in the Theory of Capital. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hayek, F. von (1931). Prices and Production. London: Routledge.
Hume, D. (1740) [1938]. An Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature. With an introduction by J.M. Keynes and P. Sraffa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Keynes, J.M. (1923) [1971]. A Tract on Monetary Reform. Volume IV of The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan.
Keynes, J.M. (1930a) [1973]. A Treatise on Money, Volumes V and VI of The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan.
Keynes, J.M. (1930b). ‘Increasing Returns and the Representative Firm: A Symposium. Note by the Editor’. Economic Journal, 40(157): 79.
Keynes, J.M. (1932). Footnote number 2 on page 249 of ‘Money and Capital: A Reply’ by F.A. von Hayek, Economic Journal, 42(166): 237–249.
Keynes, J.M. (1936) [1973]. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Volume VII of The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes. London: Macmillan.
Marshall, A. (1890). Principles of Economics. London: Macmillan.
Marx, K. (1894). Das Kapital. Volume 3. Hamburg: O. Meissner. English translation: Capital (1946). Volume 3. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House.
Naldi, N. (1998). ‘Dicembre 1922: Piero Sraffa e Benito Mussolini’. Rivista Italiana degli Economisti, 3(2): 271–299.
Pantaleoni, M. (1889). Principii di Economia Pura. Florence: G. Barbèra.
Pasinetti, L.L. (1981). Structural Change and Economic Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ricardo D. (1817). On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. London: John Murray. Reprinted in volume 1 of Sraffa (1951–1973).
Robertson, D.H. (1930). ‘The Trees of the Forest’. Economic Journal, 40(157): 80–89.
Robinson, J.V. (1933) [1969]. The Economics of Imperfect Competition. Second edition. London: Macmillan.
Roncaglia, A. (1975). Sraffa e la Teoria dei Prezzi. Roma-Bari: Laterza. English translation: Sraffa and the Theory of Prices (1978). New York: Wiley.
Roncaglia, A. (1991). ‘The Sraffian Schools’. Review of Political Economy, 3(2): 187–219.
Roncaglia, A. (2005). The Wealth of Ideas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Roncaglia, A. (2009). Piero Sraffa. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Roncaglia, A. and M. Tonveronachi (2014). ‘Post-Keynesian, Post-Sraffian Economics: An Outline’. Chapter 3 in D.B. Papadimitriou (ed.) Contributions to Economic Theory, Policy, Development and Finance: Essays in Honor of Jan A. Kregel. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan: 40–64.
Sen A. (2003). ‘Sraffa, Wittgenstein, and Gramsci’. Journal of Economic Literature, 41(4): 1,240–1,255.
Sylos Labini P. (1984). The Forces of Economic Growth and Decline. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Wittgenstein L. (1921) [1922]. ‘Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung’. Annalen der Naturphilosophie, 14(3/4): 185–262. English edition with revisions and the German text, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922). London: Kegan Paul.
Wittgenstein L. (1953). Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G.E.M. Anscombe from Philosophische Untersuchungen. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
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Roncaglia, A. (2017). Piero Sraffa (1898–1983). In: Cord, R. (eds) The Palgrave Companion to Cambridge Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41233-1_27
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