Knowra Piero Sraffa Piero Sraffa Piero Sraffa (1898–1983) was an Italian economist whose work on production prices, income distribution, and the history of economic thought helped revive classical political economy.
Classical economics : A tradition of political economy associated with writers such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx. Sraffa reconstructed this tradition’s account of production, prices, and distribution.
Sraffian system : A set of simultaneous equations representing production, prices, wages, and profits across industries. It formalizes the price relations at the core of Sraffa’s book.
David Ricardo : A British political economist whose theories of value, rent, and distribution shaped classical economics. Sraffa edited Ricardo’s writings and helped restore his work to economic debate.
Cambridge capital controversy : A debate over whether aggregate capital can be measured independently of prices and distribution. Sraffa’s work supplied a central critique of neoclassical capital theory in this controversy.
Production of commodities by means of commodities : A framework in which commodities are produced using commodities, labor, and specified production methods. This is the title and central premise of Sraffa’s 1960 analytical system.
Production price : A price that gives producers a uniform rate of profit under specified production conditions. Sraffa’s equations determine production prices from techniques and distribution.
Ludwig Wittgenstein : An Austrian-British philosopher whose work transformed twentieth-century philosophy of language and mind. Sraffa’s conversations with Wittgenstein were later credited by Wittgenstein with challenging his thinking.
Marxian economics : Economic analysis based on or developed from Karl Marx’s theories of production, value, and class relations. Sraffa’s account of prices and surplus became a major resource for non-neoclassical Marxian economics.
Input-output model : A quantitative representation of how industries use one another’s outputs as inputs. Sraffa’s production equations express inter-industry requirements in a related input-output form.
Standard commodity : A constructed composite commodity whose proportions make it a convenient measure of distribution in Sraffa’s system. Sraffa devised it to separate the relation between wages and profits from price movements.
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