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Removing an 'insuperable obstacle' in the way of an objectivist analysis: Sraffa's attempts at fixed capital

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  • Heinz Kurz
  • Neri Salvadori

Abstract

The paper discusses Sraffa's consecutive attempts in the late 1920s and early 1940s to tackle a problem which endangered his objectivist, surplus-based approach to the theory of value and distribution aimed at reviving the standpoint of the classical economists. Whilst with circulating capital the value transfer to the product and the physical 'destruction' of the input are one and the same thing, with fixed capital this is not so. Sraffa eventually overcame the difficulty in terms of the joint products-method. This allowed him to explain relative prices and the rate of profits strictly in 'material terms'.

Suggested Citation

  • Heinz Kurz & Neri Salvadori, 2005. "Removing an 'insuperable obstacle' in the way of an objectivist analysis: Sraffa's attempts at fixed capital," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 493-523.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:12:y:2005:i:3:p:493-523
    DOI: 10.1080/09672560500240156
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Heinz Kurz & Neri Salvadori, 2005. "Representing the production and circulation of commodities in material terms: On Sraffa's objectivism," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 413-441.
    2. Heinz Kurz, 1998. "Against the current: Sraffa's unpublished manuscripts and the history of economic thought," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 437-451.
    3. Kurz, Heinz D. & Salvadori, Neri, 2003. "Fund-flow versus flow-flow in production theory: Reflections on Georgescu-Roegen's contribution," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 487-505, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Yoann Verger, 2015. "Sraffa and the environment," Working Papers hal-01186009, HAL.
    2. Biao Huang, 2019. "Revisiting fixed capital models in the Sraffa framework," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 36(2), pages 351-371, July.
    3. Attilio Trezzini, 2018. "Piero Sraffa’s Use of the History of Economic Thought in the Cambridge Lectures," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 4(1), pages 189-209, March.
    4. Yoann Verger, 2015. "Contre Husson," Working Papers hal-01199034, HAL.
    5. Trezzini, Attilio, 2019. "Sraffa on Marshall's Theory of Value in the Cambridge Lectures: Achievements in an Unfinished Criticism," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP34, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".

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