Neo-Cardian School

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The neo-Ricardian school is an economics school, which sees itself in the tradition of the British economist David Ricardo and is based on the works of Piero Sraffa , in particular his commodity production by means of commodities .

Neoricardians include: B. Pierangelo Garegnani and Bertram Schefold .

The Neo- Cardian school distinguishes itself from the neoclassical by criticizing its concept of capital. Neoclassicism assumes a “real” world, consisting of production factors such as labor and capital , goods, production techniques, etc., from which monetary parameters such as prices, wages and interest can then be derived. This was criticized by the Neoricardians in the capital controversy. In their opinion, the interest rate cannot be determined as the marginal productivity of a real (in the sense of physically given) factor capital, rather the value of capital and the interest rate can only be determined simultaneously, whereby both quantities are dependent on one another. Consequently, the neoclassical approach is accused of circularity in determining the interest rate from the marginal productivity of capital .

In the simple case, every industry produces a good. This good can be supplied as input to other industries or it serves as a consumer good for the workers. The consumption of the capitalists is usually abstracted for simplicity. For each branch there is an equation which indicates which inputs are required to produce a unit of the output of the respective branch in accordance with the input-output coefficients assumed to be technically given . One has n equations for n branches, where n prices, the wage rate and the rate of profit are to be determined. It is believed that the general rate of profit is the same in all industries . One of the n prices is set as "Numéraire" equal to one. Mathematically, there is still a degree of freedom that can be inferred that either a subsistence minimum is specified for wages following classical economics , or an interest rate given by the central bank is assumed, to which the rate of profit adapts through competition between companies.

The neo-Cardian school distinguishes itself from Marxist economic theory by rejecting the labor theory of value. The prices are calculated immediately. A “ transformation ” of labor values ​​into prices is superfluous. In addition, the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall is held to be refuted via the Okishio theorem .

literature

  • Sraffa, Piero : Goods production by means of goods. Afterwords by Bertram Schefold (1976 [first published in 1960]), Suhrkamp-Verlag Frankfurt / Main

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