The Capital Theory Debate and the Almost Uncontrollability and Unobservability of Actual Economies

Abstract

Despite the fact that the actual economies are characterized by rather low degrees and numerical ranks of value controllability, the key stylized findings on empirical value–wage–profit rate curves point out that these economies cannot be coherently analysed in terms of the traditional value theory. Hence, on the one hand, the Sraffian theory is not only the most general to date, but is also empirically relevant. On the other hand, the actual economies constitute almost uncontrollable and unobservable systems, and this explains, in turn, the specific shape features of the empirical value–wage–profit rate curves that are at the heart of the capital theory debate.