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

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  • Christian Gehrke

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Gehrke, 2015. "Ricardo's discovery of comparative advantage revisited: a critique of Ruffin's account," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(5), pages 791-817, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:22:y:2015:i:5:p:791-817
    DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2015.1074714
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    Cited by:

    1. Jorge Morales Meoqui, 2017. "Ricardo's Numerical Example Versus Ricardian Trade Model: a Comparison of Two Distinct Notions of Comparative Advantage," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 6(1), pages 35-55, March.
    2. Morales Meoqui, Jorge, 2012. "On the distribution of authorship-merits for the comparative-advantage proposition," MPRA Paper 35905, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Parrinello, Sergio, 2022. "On Some “New” Interpretations of Ricardo’s Principle of Comparative Advantages," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP60, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    4. Morales Meoqui, Jorge, 2023. "The Demystification Of David Ricardo’S Famous Four Numbers," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 447-466, September.
    5. Machado, Pedro S. & Trigg, Andrew B., 2021. "On absolute and comparative advantage in international trade: A Pasinetti pure labour approach," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 375-383.
    6. Gabriel Felbermayr & Benjamin Jung & Wilhelm Kohler & Philipp Harms & Jakob Schwab, 2017. "Ricardo – gestern und heute," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 70(09), pages 03-18, May.

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