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Less Is More: Capital Theory And Almost Irregular-Uncontrollable Actual Economies

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  • THEODORE MARIOLIS
  • LEFTERIS TSOULFIDIS

Abstract

Capital theory and the price effects consequent upon changes in the distributive variables hold center stage when it comes to the internal consistency of both classical and neoclassical theories of value. This paper briefly reviews the literature and then focuses on the detected skew eigenvalue distribution of the vertically integrated technical coefficients matrices of actual economies. The findings prompt the use of the Schur triangularization theorem for the construction even of a single industry from the input–output structure of the entire economy. Such a hyper-basic industry, in combination with hyper-non-basic industries, embodies properties that may capture the behavior of the entire economic system. Thus, we can derive some meaningful results consistent with the available empirical evidence, which finally suggest that actual economies tend to respond as ‘irregular-uncontrollable’ systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Theodore Mariolis & Lefteris Tsoulfidis, 2018. "Less Is More: Capital Theory And Almost Irregular-Uncontrollable Actual Economies," Contributions to Political Economy, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 37(1), pages 65-88.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:copoec:v:37:y:2018:i:1:p:65-88.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mariolis, Theodore, 2019. "The location of the value theories in the complex plane and the degree of regularity-controllability of actual economies," MPRA Paper 96972, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Torres-González, Luis Daniel, 2022. "The Characteristics of the Productive Structure Behind the Empirical Regularities in Production Prices Curves," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 622-659.
    3. Ferrer-Hernández , Jacobo & Torres-González, Luis Daniel, 2022. "Some Recent Developments on the Explanation of the Empirical Relationship between Prices and Distribution," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP54, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    4. Tsoulfidis, Lefteris, 2022. "Effective Rank and Dimensionality Reduction: From Complex Disaggregation Back to a Simple World," MPRA Paper 113068, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 13 May 2022.
    5. Jacobo Ferrer-Hernández & Luis Daniel Torres-González, 2021. "Eigenvalues and Eigenlabors: On Iliadi’s, Mariolis’, Soklis’, and Tsoulfidis’ Explanation of the Empirical Regularities in Price Curves," Working Papers 2119, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    6. Lefteris Tsoulfidis & Ioannis Athanasiadis, 2022. "A new method of identifying key industries: a principal component analysis," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 11(1), pages 1-23, December.
    7. Floyd Mwansa, 2023. "Measuring Distribution of Wealth in Zambia Using Census Micro Data: An Application of Principal Component Analysis," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 13(3), pages 126-140, May.
    8. Luis Daniel Torres-González, 2020. "The Characteristics of the Productive Structure Behind the Empirical Regularities in Production Prices Curves," Working Papers 2016, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    9. Theodore Mariolis & Nikolaos Rodousakis & Apostolis Katsinos, 2019. "Wage versus currency devaluation, price pass-through and income distribution: a comparative input–output analysis of the Greek and Italian economies," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-23, December.
    10. Tsoulfidis, Lefteris, 2021. "Capital Theory Debates: New Developments and Direction," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP51, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".

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    JEL classification:

    • B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics
    • B51 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Socialist; Marxian; Sraffian
    • C67 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Input-Output Models
    • D46 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Value Theory
    • D57 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Input-Output Tables and Analysis

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