Zero Measure Sraffian Economies: New Insights from Actual Input–Output Tables

Abstract

Abstract New theoretical and empirical evidence reveals that the actual input–output table economies of single production, which are usually studied in the value–capital theory literature, are almost similar to non-diagonalizable, triangular and both uncontrollable and unobservable (in the sense of Kalman) economies producing only one basic commodity and non-self-reproducing non-basics (in the sense of Sraffa), the immense majority of which are pure consumption commodities. Since (i) these basic commodities are the corresponding Sraffian Standard commodities of the original economies; (ii) the resulting empirical probabilities of non-monotonic price–profit rate curves and re-switching of techniques are by no means negligible; and (iii) systems and matrices are almost always completely controllable/observable and diagonalizable, respectively, it follows that the said actual input–output table economies are not only Sraffian but also of almost zero measure.