Keynes,Ricardo and the classical theory of interest

Keynes made harsh and repeated attacks on the work of Ricardo, blaming him particulary for what Keynes called the ‘classical theory’ of interest. Garegnani and others argue that Keynes' criticisms of the classical theory of interest apply to later neoclassical writers, but not to Ricardo. This paper re-examines Keynes' criticisms. It argues that Keynes attacked Ricardoapos;s theory of interest despite his awareness that Ricardo did not hold the ‘classical theory’. Moreover, Keynes not only expressed sympathy for Ricardo's understanding of interest, but his criticisms which do apply to Ricardo do not address Ricardo's theory of interest.     

Reproduction and scarcity: the population mechanism in classicism in the ‘Jevonian revolution’

We argue that the shift from classicism to neoclassicism in nineteenth-century Britain can be seen as a change from a reproductive environment with internal scarcity, as in Malthus's population mechanism, towards a non-reproductive environment with external scarcity, as in Jevon's theoretical and applied economic work. We reconsider Jevon's use of seemingly classical concepts as well as the role of the population mechanism in Jevons's works.     

Beyond the principle of population: Malthus's Essay

Abstract

After an introductory section, this article reviews reasons and arguments establishing the invalidity of Malthus's construct of a ‘principle of population’. Section 3 propounds that Malthus's theory is located beyond the principle of population, with the oscillation figure as its centre. Section 4 takes note of the trajectory which the Essay describes between natural and moral science, assesses inequality and growth as the two focal points of Malthus's theory and eventually observes Malthus looking forward to a state beyond the dictates of growth.     

Problems of Modern Technology

This essay identifies a contradiction between the flourishing interest in the environmental economics of the classical period and a lack of critical parsing of the works of its leading representatives. Its focus is the work of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus. It offers a critical analysis of their contribution to environmental thought and surveys the work of their contemporary devotees. It scrutinizes Smith's contribution to what Karl Polanyi termed the "economistic fallacy," as well as his defenses of class hierarchy, the "growth imperative" and consumerism. It subjects to critical appraisal Malthus's enthusiasm for private property and the market system, and his opposition to market regulation. While Malthus's principal attraction to ecological economists lies in his having allegedly broadened the scope of economics, and in his narrative of scarcity, this article shows that he, in fact, narrowed the scope of the discipline and conceptualized scarcity in a reified and pseudo-scientific way.     

Krishna Bharadwaj's “Return to Classical Theory”: an attempt towards an archaeological reconstruction

Abstract

In the wake of Sraffa's ‘return to classical theory’, Krishna Bharadwaj undertook a critical reassessment of Marshall's claim to continuity with classical theory in general and Ricardo's ‘intensive margin’ in particular. Her analysis is based on an analytical separation between two distinct ways of economic reasoning: the ‘surplus based’ and the ‘demand and supply based’ theories. Calling it an ‘archaeological reconstruction’ of the history of economic theories, I will examine how such an interpretation of theoretical shifts clarifies both the presuppositions behind analysing at the ‘margin’, and hence its radical departure from the conceptual content of the classical theory.     

Say's involvement in the 1819 French edition of Ricardo's Principles and the issue of rent

This paper focuses on Say's contribution to the first French edition of Ricardo's Principles and on the analytical consequences of his involvement on the issue of rent. Part one investigates the “story” of this edition. It stresses Say's friendship with the translator, his involvement in this publication and his attitude toward Ricardo. Part two analyses how elements from Say's thought were introduced into Ricardo's theory of rent through this edition. These elements conveyed ideas which were definitely at odds with Ricardo's theory and misrepresented Ricardo's true concept of differential rent which was central to his theory.     

Marx on Ricardo: an explanation of some important misunderstandings

Ricardo's theory of value and distribution is reconstructed by proceeding along the lines of Marx's critique of Ricardo. It is thus an anti-critique of Marx's reading of Ricardo. The chapter ‘On Value’ in Ricardo's Principles is shown to be a consistent and rigorous treatment of the determinants of prices of production. According to Ricardo labor-values merely serve to approximate more elaborate standards of value. Marx's criticism is shown to rest crucially on his own misinterpretation of Ricardo's definitions and presupposes his own – faulty – theory of surplus value. Therefore Ricardo's theory can – contrary to Marx's theory of surplus value – still be regarded as a fruitful complement to Sraffa's model.     

The agents of production are the commodities themselves: On the classical theory of production,distribution and value

The paper discusses the classical theory of production, distribution and value as interpreted by Piero Sraffa in his published and unpublished work. The emphasis is on the characteristic features of the theory, including its objectivist orientation; its explanation of all property incomes in terms of the social surplus generated in production conceived of as a circular flow; and its treatment of wages either as paid out of social capital (given inventory wages) or as paid out of the surplus (a given share of wages). The latter concept is traced back to Ricardo's proportional wages.     

Tozer on machinery

This paper examines John Edward Tozer's mathematical treatment of the classical approach to the machinery problem and his discussion of some arithmetical examples that had been presented by Barton, Sismondi, McCulloch and Ricardo. It is shown that Tozer (1) made a genuine contribution to the contemporary debates on the machinery issue, (2) anticipated modern formulations of the problem of the choice of technique, and (3) revealed a puzzling inconsistency in Ricardo's argument in the famous chapter ‘On Machinery’.     

Ricardo's discovery of comparative advantage revisited: a critique of Ruffin's account

Abstract

In an influential paper, Ruffin has attempted to reconstruct the circumstances of Ricardo's discovery of the law of comparative advantage. Ruffin's paper has inspired a number of further contributions on the precise nature, logical structure, and analytical significance of Ricardo's formulation of the law of comparative advantage. This paper re-examines Ruffin's reconstruction, and in particular his interpretation of Ricardo's three letters of October 1816 and suggests that it lacks textual and contextual support.     

The age of the universal consumer: a reconsideration of Ricardo's politics *

This paper reconsiders Ricardo's political thought, its relationship with his political economy and, more generally, Ricardo's connection with the ‘philosophical radicalism’ of Bentham and James Mill. It is arguedinter alia, that Ricardo's politics were utilitarian and individualistic; that he developed a notion of a shared, homogeneous interest; that he believed that individuals should know their ‘real’ interests as a condition for their suffrage; and that he subscribed to a doctrine of virtual representation. It is also argued that Ricardo was considerably less ‘radical’ in his political views than some previous commentators have recognized.     

Reading Sraffa's Indices – a note *

Piero Sraffa took thirteen years to publish the General Indexto The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo.The Index is compared to others and is shown to be exceptional in that it leads the way to specific interpretations of Ricardo's life and theory. The choice of entries referring to theory is based on Ricardo's own concepts and carefully avoids neoricardian, Marxian and neoclassical terms. Examples discussed concern ‘comparative advantage’ and ‘value’ The entries referring to Ricardo's life are proof of Sraffa's broad historical interests and focus on certain characteristics of Ricardo.     

From bounties on exportation to the natural and market price of labour: Smith versus Ricardo

Abstract

The scope of this article is to examine the foundations of Smith's arguments and of Ricardo's criticisms on the issue of bounties on exportation. These criticisms are examined in the light of the counter-criticisms provided by a fictitious subject called Smith redivivus. These counter-criticisms highlight Ricardo's neglect of the differences between vérité de raison and vérité de fait and between the points of view of an individual and of society behind Smith's treatment of money vs. real, temporary vs. permanent and natural vs. market price of labour as labour and of commodities as products of labour.     

Tooke's approach to explaining prices

This paper examines the method of analysis and theoretical approach Thomas Tooke (1774–1858) employed in his empirical study of English prices. It is shown that Tooke adopted the “long period method” formulated by Adam Smith to analyse a capitalist society. It is shown that like most nineteenth-century classical economists, Tooke adopted a modified version of Adam Smith's “adding-up” approach to normal prices and distribution which incoporated Ricardo's theory of rent. The paper shows that based on this approach, Tooke explained short-run fluctuations in prices be reference to factors that disrupted the adjustment of supply to the “effectual” demand for commodities.     

A calm investigation into Mr Ricardo's principles of international trade

Abstract

This paper deals with some difficulties presented by Ricardo's texts on international trade, taking seriously Ricardo's account of the systematic interaction of real and monetary phenomena. After a brief reassessment of the main features of Ricardo's views on foreign trade, some basic questions are examined, concerning the method of analysis and the alleged invalidity of the labour theory of value at the international level. The enquiry goes on to state that, for Ricardo, there are no significant differences between domestic and international exchanges, and on this basis, proposes a simple and general rule explaining the flows of trade. The “principle of comparative advantage” and the “gains from trade” thus appear as simple unintended consequences of the decisions of agents in free markets. Finally, the characteristics of an international equilibrium and the nature and impact of destabilising shocks are analysed.     

Theological themes in Ricardo's papers and correspondence

Abstract

I review evidence from published and unpublished sources on Ricardo's theological ideas. The main focuses of interest are the existence of a natural morality independent of religious confessions, morality as the essence of religion, uselessness of theological speculation, justification of toleration for everybody, including atheists, and the miscarriage of any attempt at a philosophical theodicy. The paper explores also the connection between Ricardo's interest for theodicy and his views on the scope and method of political economy and suggests that his opinion that political economy should be a secular and value-free science close to mathematics depends precisely on theological reasons.     

Robert Torrens and the Ricardian model of dynamic equilibrium growth

This paper reconstructs Torrens's dynamic theory of distribution which is based on three notions of wages. In the early stages of growth, capital increases faster than population, so the actual wage rises above the minimum. Thereafter, the economy grows with a tendency for the population to increase faster than the capital while limiting the actual wage below the decreasing maximum until it enters a stationary state and the actual wage and profit rates are reduced to their minimum. Such a theory has been attributed to Ricardo by some scholars, but Torrens proposed a more fully developed account than Ricardo's.     

The Dutch and Portuguese-Jewish background of David Ricardo

This article deals with the Dutch and Portuguese-Jewish background of David Ricardo. The important pieces of information, found in the Amsterdam municipal archives, on the one hand correct, and on the other complement, the data presented by P. Sraffa. Recently, new evidence has been found on Ricardo's stay in Amsterdam in the years 1783?–?85. This evidence throws new light on Ricardo's relationship with his uncle Moses in Amsterdam. It is shown that his formal education was poor, but that his informal education may have been rich. The question of whether Ricardo visited the famous Talmud Tora in Amsterdam is settled in the negative.     

Breaking with Dogma: Unorthodox Consumption Patterns and Women's Labor Market Outcomes in Turkey

Using information about household consumption data from TURKSTAT's Household Surveys for 2007–13 as a sign of religious unorthodoxy, this study explores the effect of religion on women's labor force and educational participation in a Muslim-majority country, Turkey. A household is categorized as “unorthodox” if its members report that they consume goods that contradict conservative Sunni practices, such as alcohol. This information is then used in female labor force participation estimations. Results show that living in an unorthodox household has a positive and highly significant effect on the probability of married women's labor market participation. For single women, the estimations provide weaker evidence regarding the positive effect of unorthodoxy on the probability of participation in education and the labor force. The study concludes that protection of the rights to follow unorthodox practices in society may bear positive implications with regard to women's agency.