Ricardo and the Theory of Value Distribution and Growth

Abstract

Part 1: Value & Distribution 1. Scope And Method Of The Work 1.1 The renewed interest in Ricardo's theory 1.2 Scope of the work 1.3 The concept of natural equilibrium in the Ricardian context 2. Diminishing Returns and The Rate of Profit in Ricardo's Analysis 2.1. Ricardo's theoretical analysis and the problems of his time 2.2. Changes in real and money wages in Ricardo: distributive antagonism as a dynamic problem 2.3. Effects on profits of changes in wages: two possible interpretations 2.4. A theoretical framework for the analysis of price determination: a necessary prelude 2.5. The effects of a change in wages on the aggregate amount and on the share of profits: the first interpretation 2.6. The relation between money wages and the rate of profit: the second interpretation 2.7. Wages and prices: Ricardo's criticism of Smith's theory 2.8. The relation between the labour input in the production of corn and the rate of profit 2.9. The rate of profit in the Ricardian model 2.10 Technological improvements and the declining rate of profit Appendix Properties of the Ricardian price model * Existence and uniqueness of the solution * Inverse relation between r and n1 * Inverse relation between r and w * Effects on prices of a change in w 3. Sraffa's Standard Commodity and Ricardo's theory of value and distribution 3.1. Ricardo's search for an invariable standard of value 3.2. The requisites of the invariable measure of value 3.3. The invariable measure of value in the interpretation of Sraffa's 'Introduction' 3.4. Sraffa's standard commodity and Ricardo's invariable measure of value 3.5. The standard system 3.6. The intrinsic properties of the standard commodity 3.7. The properties of the standard commodity qua numeraire 3.8. The standard commodity and the analysis of price changes 3.9. The notion of invariance per se of the standard commodity 3.10 The existence of the standard commodity in the Ricardian model with fixed capital 3.11 The standard commodity and the requisites of Ricardo's invariable measure of value Appendix Changes in distribution and relative prices * The case of a generic numeraire * The case of standard commodity * A comparison with the results of the Ricardian price model Part 2: Growth And Distribution 4. Pasinetti's formulation of the Ricardian system 4.1. Introductory remarks 4.2. The concept of 'point natural equilibrium' used by Pasinetti 4.3. The hypotheses of the model 4.4. Distribution of output and Say's law 4.5. Natural and market equilibrium 4.6. The behaviour of distribution shares in the process of capital accumulation 5. A One-Sector Ricardian Model 5.1. Introductory remarks 5.2. The equilibrium model 5.3. The relation between the rates of growth of income and capital 5.4. Full employment as a necessary condition of equilibrium growth 5.5. Equilibrium growth with the production function N 5.6. Disequilibrium mechanisms 5.7. The wages-population interaction mechanism: the wages-fund theory 5.8. Disequilibrium dynamics on the hypothesis of the wages-fund theory 5.9. The possibility of unemployment in the Ricardian theory 5.10 The wage-population interaction mechanism: the bargaining-power hypothesis 5.11 Disequilibrium dynamics with the bargaining-power hypothesis 6. A Two-Sector Ricardian Model 6.1. General remarks 6.2. The equilibrium model 6.3. The growth rate of capital 6.4. The growth rate of production in value terms 6.5. Employment structure, distributive shares and technology 6.6. The growth rate of output at constant prices 6.7. Equilibrium growth with full employment 6.8. Final considerations on the equilibrium dynamics of the two-sector Ricardian model 6.9. Equilibrium growth 6.10 Disequilib