Sraffa on Marshall’s theory of value in the Cambridge lectures: achievements in an unfinished criticism

Abstract

In his Cambridge lectures, Sraffa criticised Marshall’s theory on the basis of the recognition of the incompatibility between classical political economy and marginalist economics. Preparing his lectures, Sraffa had also identified the need to determine prices and distribution simultaneously although some implications of this latter result were probably not yet fully evident to him. Sraffa still accepted the Marshallian thesis that classical political economy and marginalist economics identified two alternative “ultimate standards of value”. This position bears witness to Sraffa’s initial adherence to the Marshallian theoretical framework. The road towards Production of Commodities was open, but still unfinished.