Sraffa after Marx: a new intepretation∗

Abstract

In the interpretation of Sraffa's work offered here the critique of the marginalist theory of value and distribution is considered an objective of secondary importance. Greater emphasis is placed on the attempt to criticize economic theory in general. Production of commodities is a ‘prelude to a critique of economic theory’ in the same way in which the first chapter of Marx's Capital is a prelude to the ‘critique of plitical economy’. This article shows how Sraffa works out a crucial theoretical problem in the Marxian analysis of the reproduction schemes: the problem of determining the ratios at which commodities are exchanged when the economy is in reproduction equilibrium. Marx was not completely aware of this problem, which, still, is the basis of the analysis of value. It is also shown that these difficulties originate from the existence of a strong Ricardian residue in the Marxian concept of value; and that Sraffa succeeds in overcoming them precisely because he breaks away from Ricardo more than Mar...