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2010 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

12. Sraffa’s Standard Commodity: No Fulfillment of Ricardo’s Dream of an ‘Invariable Measure of Value’

verfasst von : Prof. Dr. Peter Flaschel

Erschienen in: Topics in Classical Micro- and Macroeconomics

Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

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Abstract

The construction of Sraffa’s Standard Commodity is often motivated by the claim that it allows to isolate the price-movements of any other commodity, so that they may be observed as in a vacuum. This chapter shows that (a) A specific and complete solution to the problem of finding the conditions for such a Standard is indeed available, yet that (b) Sraffa’s Standard does not fulfill this list of conditions. The source of Sraffa’s error is then isolated and the true set of ‘invariable measures’ is determined and shown to be devoid of economic content.

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Vorheriges Kapitel The Standard Commodity and the Theory of Income Distribution

Nächstes Kapitel Dressing the Emperor in a New Dynamic Outfit

I am very grateful to E. Nell and B. Schefold for critical and helpful comments. The following Sect. 12.2 – as should be stressed – owes much to the presentation given in Schefold (1976, pp. 221–5), though my original motivation to reexamine Sraffa’s Chaps. 3 and 4 and the conclusions reached differ very much from those of B. Schefold, see also the preceding chapter as well as Flaschel (1986a,b).

See however Schefold’s comments and my reply in the Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft, 142, 1986, 603ff. for a further discussion of the issues treated in this chapter.

All gross output levels are set equal to one here and in the following.

For further details, cf. Pasinetti (1977), Chap. 5.

cf. Flaschel (1984) and here Chap. 11.

Furthermore, it is simply not true that ‘the particular proportions of the Standard Commodity …aid in comprehension of the connection that exists between changes in the distribution of income and the system of relative prices’ as is argued in Roncaglia (1978, p. 75). With respect to our example this would mean that the expression

$$p = \left ( \frac{10 + r} {14 + 2r},\; \frac{12 + 3r} {14 + 2r}\right )$$

should give an aid in comprehending the originally given prices:

$$p = \left ( \frac{10 + r} {14 + 3r},\; \frac{12 + 3r} {14 + 3r}\right )$$

(pd = 1 in the first and p(e − Ae) = 1 in the second case).

For further (equivalent) properties, cf. Miyao (1977).

We neglect here minor problems of non-uniqueness (cf. Miyao (1977) in this regard).

This fact is ignored most explicitly in Bacha et al. (1977, p. 45), there leading to the absurd conclusion – not supported by Sraffa – that the price of the Standard Commodity is ‘completely independent of changes in income distribution.’

For consequences of this property, cf. Miyao (1977).

Following Miyao (1977) we shall assume for simplicity that A is irreducible.

Bacha, E., Carneiro, D. & Taylor, L. (1977). Sraffa and classical economics: Fundamental equilibrium relationships. Metroeconomica, 29, 39–53CrossRef

Burmeister, E. (1984). Sraffa, labor theories of value and the economics of real wage determination. Journal of Political Economy, 92, 508–526CrossRef

Flaschel, P. (1984). The standard commodity and the theory of income distribution. A critical note. Australian Economic Papers, 23, 123–129

Flaschel, P. (1986a). Sraffa’s standard commodity: No fulfillment of Ricardo’s dream of an ‘invariable measure of value’. Zeitschrift füer die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft, 142, 588–602

Flaschel, P. (1986b). The standard commodity as a tool of economic analysis: A reply to Schefold. Zeitschrift füer die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft, 142, 623–625

Miyao, T. (1977). A generalization of Sraffa’s standard commodity and its complete characterization. International Economic Review, 18, 151–162CrossRef

Pasinetti, L. (1977). Lectures on the theory of production. London: Macmillan

Roncaglia, A. (1978). Sraffa and the theory of prices. Chichester: Wiley

Samuelson, P. (1983). Durable capital inputs: Conditions for price ratios to be invariant to profit-rate changes. Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, 43, 1–20CrossRef

Sraffa, P. (1960). Production of commodities by means of commodities. London: Cambridge University Press

Sraffa, P. (1970). The works and correspondence of David Ricardo, I., London: Cambridge University Press

Schefold, B. (1976). P. Sraffa: Warenproduktion mittels Waren. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp

Schefold, B. (1986). The standard commodity as a tool of economic analysis: A comment on Flaschel. Zeitschrift füer die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft, 142, 603–622

Steedman, I. (1979). On an alleged inconsistency in Sraffa’s economics. Capital and class, 9, 71–74CrossRef

Titel: Sraffa’s Standard Commodity: No Fulfillment of Ricardo’s Dream of an ‘Invariable Measure of Value’
verfasst von: Prof. Dr. Peter Flaschel
Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Buch: Topics in Classical Micro- and Macroeconomics
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-00323-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-642-00324-0

Copyright-Jahr: 2010
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00324-0_12