Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Method: a method is a procedure agreed on by participants of a discussion or research project. In the case of violations of a method, the comparability of the results is in particular questioned, since these no longer come from a set with uniformly defined properties of the elements._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Piero Sraffa on Method - Dictionary of Arguments
Kurz I 70 Method/Sraffa/Kurz: (…) Sraffa’s implicit methodology: the threefold relationship between ‘economic reality’, ‘the economist’ and ‘economic theory’. By ‘economic reality’ we mean the collection of human agents and material objects which constitute the human process of production and reproduction of commodities. By ‘the economist’ we mean the human agent who observes, classifies and analyses economic reality. By ‘economic theory’ we mean the main intellectual product emerging from the economist’s effort to analyse the economic reality under investigation. Our main results may be summarized as follows. In his published works of the 1920s and early 1930s Sraffa appears to consider economic reality as Kurz I 71 if it existed independently of the activity of observation and classification carried out by economists. >As if. Furthermore, he makes several empirical claims about economic reality as if they were self-evident or, at least, easily verifiable. Whereas Sraffa acknowledges that an element of human arbitrariness is unavoidable within economic theorizing, he also stresses that different quaesita may require different ‘points of view’ in the sense that, given a specific theoretical problem, one specific ‘point of view’ may prove to be best suited to analyse and solve the problem at hand. This implies the necessity of the choice of the ‘point of view’ by an economist. What matters to Sraffa is to detect what different economists/observers can consistently say about a given object or to build the analytic tools required to discover a given property of the object. Ontology/Sraffa/Kurz: While Sraffa’s ontology concerns his vision about ‘reality’ as an object which does or does not exist independently of its ‘observer’, Sraffa’s methodology concerns the rules the economist must abide by in the process of elaboration of economic theory. In particular, many Marshallian economists would have shared basically the same assumption about an independent reality (Signorino 2000a(1), 2000b(2), 2001b(3)). We claim that a characteristic of Sraffa’s methodology, not shared by the majority of his contemporaries, is how Sraffa makes use of these elements in his critical writings and in the elaboration of his own theory. Kurz I 75 Arbitrariness/Kurz: Sraffa’s acknowledgement of the problem of the arbitrariness of the economist raises (at least) two orders of questions: (i) What exactly is the source of the ‘arbitrariness’ of the economist? (ii) How does one cope with the problem of the arbitrariness of the economist, that is, what are, if any, its admissible boundaries? The problem of the arbitrariness of the economist lies at the very heart of Sraffa’s 1925-6 critique of the Marshallian theory of value and its inability to classify real world industries into the three ‘boxes’ of constant, increasing and diminishing returns. >Alfred Marshall. Method/SraffaVsMarshall, Alfred: In the opening section of the Italian paper, Sraffa asks (rhetorically) „whether the failing cannot be found in the very nature of the criterion according to which the classification should be conducted. In particular, it remains to be seen whether the fundamentum divisionis is formed by objective circumstances inherent in the various industries, or, instead, is dependent on the point of view of the person acting as observer;(…)“ (Sraffa 1998[1925]: 324)(4). Kurz I 76 Kurz: The aim of the 1925 paper is to show the tension, existing within the Marshallian theoretical framework, between an object, economic reality and its structural properties, and the point of view chosen by a subject, the economist/observer. Such a tension obliges Marshallian economists to introduce some further assumptions, such as external-internal scale economies, within their theoretical framework. As a consequence, the theoretical domain of Marshallian theory is drastically reduced: „The fact that the ‘external economies’ peculiar to an industry, which make possible the desired conciliation between scientific abstraction and reality, are themselves a purely hypothetical and unreal construction, is something that is often ignored.“ (Sraffa 1998 [1925]: 347)(4) For SraffaVsHayek see >Method/Hayek. Kurz I 77 Ontology/Method/Sraffa/Kurz: The ‘various forces at work’ and the ‘equilibrium resulting from their opposition’ constitute the economic reality investigated by the economist. The arbitrariness of the economist lies in the choice of the scheme of classification, that is to say, the way the economic forces may be grouped. Since different schemes may be selected, the criterion to follow for Sraffa, at least in the 1920s, is that of simplicity, ‘the most homogeneous manner’, which obliges the economist to choose the scheme best suited to highlight the influence of each force on the equilibrium position. Kurz I 78 Method/SraffaVsMarshall, Alfred/Kurz: The theoretical domain of Marshallian theory, once reconstructed in a logically consistent way, turns out to be too narrow: „Reduced within such restricted limits, the supply schedule with variable costs cannot claim to be a general conception applicable to normal industries; it can prove a useful instrument only in regard to such exceptional industries as can reasonably satisfy its conditions.“ (Sraffa 1926: 540)(5) Kurz: According to Sraffa, the Marshallian theory may gain logical consistency only by making recourse to unrealistic assumptions. 1. Signorino, R. (2000a) ‘The Italian debate on Marshallian (and Paretian) economics and the intellectual roots of Piero Sraffa’s “Sulle relazioni fra costo e quantita prodotta”: a note’, History of Economic Ideas 8: 143-57. 2. Signorino, R. (2000b) ‘Method and analysis in Piero Sraffa’s 1925 critique of Marshallian economics’, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 7: 569-94, reprinted in H. D. Kurz and N. Salvadori (eds) The Legacy of Piero Sraffa, 2 Vols, 2003, Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar. 3. Signorino, R. (2001a) ‘Piero Sraffa on utility and the subjective method in the 1920s: a tentative appraisal of Sraffa’s unpublished manuscripts’, Cambridge Journal of Sraffa, P. (1960) Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Italian edition: Produzione di Merci a Mezzo di Merci. Premesse a una Critica della Teoria Economica, Torino: Einaudi. 4. Sraffa, P. (1998) ‘On the relations between cost and quantity produced’, in L. L. Pasinetti (ed.) Italian Economic Papers, Vol. III, Bologna: il Mulino and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 323-63, reprinted in H. D. Kurz and N. Salvadori (eds) The Legacy of Piero Sraffa, 2 Vols, 2003, Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar, English translation of Sraffa (1925). 5. Sraffa, P. (1926) ‘The laws of returns under competitive conditions’, Economic Journal 36: 535–50, reprinted in H. D. Kurz and N. Salvadori (eds) The Legacy of Piero Sraffa, 2 Vols, 2003, Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar. Salvadori, Neri and Signorino, Rodolfo. 2015. „Piero Sraffa: economic reality, the economist and economic theory. An interpretation.“ In: Kurz, Heinz; Salvadori, Neri 2015. Revisiting Classical Economics: Studies in Long-Period Analysis (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics). London, UK: Routledge._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Sraffa I Piero Sraffa Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Cambridge 1960 Kurz I Heinz D. Kurz Neri Salvadori Revisiting Classical Economics: Studies in Long-Period Analysis (Routledge Studies in the History of Economics). Routledge. London 2015 |
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