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Sraffians, other Post-Keynesians, and the Controversy over Centres of Gravitation

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Book cover Sraffa and the Reconstruction of Economic Theory: Volume Three

Abstract

Over the last two decades, a number of Post-Keynesian methodologists have wondered whether the Sraffian school ought to be kept under the Post-Keynesian umbrella, many of them answering that indeed Sraffians ought to be ejected from the Post-Keynesian school if post-Keynesianism were to be methodologically coherent. This has been the position of, among others, Dow (1988), Gerrard (1989), Pratten (1996), Walters and Young (1997) and Dunn (2000, 2008). Stephen Dunn (2000, p. 350) claims that even Sraffians favourable to the project of keeping the Keynesian and Sraffian strands of Post-Keynesianism together have given up, writing that ‘Roncaglia (1995) has called for the abandonment of the project to integrate Sraffian and Post-Keynesian analysis’. Sheila Dow (2001, p. 18) makes an identical attribution, saying that ‘it has even been suggested that attempts to identify the Sraffian approach with Post Keynesianism should be discontinued’, citing the same Roncaglia (1995) paper in support of her claim.

A longer version of this paper was published in Lavoie (2011). I am very grateful for the discussion I had with Richard Arena during the conference, and for the comments provided later by Geoff Harcourt and Alessandro Roncaglia, as well as the extended comments made by Gary Mongiovi, although some disagreements still remain.

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  1. Marc Lavoie
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Lavoie, M. (2013). Sraffians, other Post-Keynesians, and the Controversy over Centres of Gravitation. In: Levrero, E.S., Palumbo, A., Stirati, A. (eds) Sraffa and the Reconstruction of Economic Theory: Volume Three. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137314048_3

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