Rent as a Share of Product and Sraffa’s Price Equations

Fratini, Saverio M. (2013): Rent as a Share of Product and Sraffa’s Price Equations.

Abstract

The classical economists usually regarded rent in their analyses as a share of the gross product obtained from the use of land or a mine, which was indeed the way in which rent was treated in bargaining between landowner and tenant. The paper revives this view of rent, proceeding from its historical basis through Smith’s analysis to arrive at Sraffa’s equations, and also examines the case of the introduction of a tax conceived as a tithe, to which Sraffa referred very briefly

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Rent, Classical theory of distribution, Smith, Sraffa
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B1 - History of Economic Thought through 1925 > B12 - Classical (includes Adam Smith); B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches > B51 - Socialist ; Marxian ; Sraffian; D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D33 - Factor Income Distribution; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q15 - Land Ownership and Tenure ; Land Reform ; Land Use ; Irrigation ; Agriculture and Environment

References

Ballesteros, A.; Beato, P.; Jerison, M. & Oliu, J. 1976. ‘The Mathematics of Sraffa’s Model of Prices, Wage, and Rate of Profit’, Discussion Paper No. 76-77, Center for Economic Research, University of Minnesota

Bidard, C. 2004. Prices, Reproduction, Scarcity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Cannan, E. 1903. A History of the Theories of Production and Distribution in English Political Economy from 1776 to 1848, London: P.S. King & Son

Fratini, S.M. 2008. ‘Alcune Osservazioni sulla Teoria Classica della Rendita’, QA – Rivista dell’Associazione Rossi-Doria, (1), 131-158

Fratini, S.M. 2012. Capitale e Rendita. Due Saggi di Teoria Economica. Rome: Aracne

Gehrke, C. 2013. ‘Rent, as a share of produce, not governed by proportions’, in E.S. Levrero, A. Palumbo and A. Stirati (eds) Sraffa and the Reconstruction of Economic Theory. Volume Three, New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Kurz, H.D. and Salvadori, N. 2007. ‘On the collaboration between Sraffa and Besicovitch: The case of fixed capital and non-basics in joint production’, in H.D. Kurz and N. Salvadori (eds) Interpreting Classical Economics, London and New York: Routledge

Malthus, T.R. 1815. An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent, and the Principles by Which It Is Regulated, London: John Murray

Marx, K. 1909 [1867-1894]. Capital, 3 vols, Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Company

Mill, J.S. 1909. Principles of Political Economy With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy, London: Longmans, Green and Co

Quesnay, F. 1756, 57. ‘Fermiers’, in D. Diderot and J. D'Alembert (eds) Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers, par une Société de Gens de Lettres, Paris

Ravagnani, F. 2008. ‘Classical Theory and Exhaustible Natural Resources: Notes on the Current Debate’, Review of Political Economy, 20(1). pp. 79-93

Ricardo, D. 1951-1973. Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, P. Sraffa (ed.), 11 vol., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Schefold, B 1989. Mr. Sraffa on Joint Production and Other Essays, London: Unwin

Smith, A. 1976. The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Sraffa, P. 1960. Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Torrens, R. 1827. An Essay on External Corn Trade. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green

Turgot, A.R.J. [1770] 1898. Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Riches. New York: Macmillan