Technical progress, capital accumulation and income distribution in Classical economics: Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx

Abstract

The paper discusses the analyses of technical progress, capital accumulation and income distribution elaborated by three major classical economists: Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx. The interpretation given is partly inspired by Piero Sraffa's studies in his hitherto unpublished papers. It will be argued that in the classical authors we encounter a sophisticated typology of different forms of technical change and an analysis of the different effects these have. These forms can be analysed in terms of shifts of the inverse relationship between the general rate of profits and wages, or wage frontier. The emphasis will be on Adam Smith's concept of the division of labour, Ricardo's analysis of the substitution of machine power for labour power, and Marx's adaptation of Ricardo's argument to his own analytical framework in terms of a rising organic composition of capital.