Sraffa and the ‘slogans not used’

Fratini, Saverio Maria and Ravagnani, Fabio (2023): Sraffa and the ‘slogans not used’.

Abstract

The two ‘slogans’ written by Sraffa in an early draft of the preface to his book (Sraffa Papers D3/12/43:1(3)) can be seen as the synthesis of a wider reasoning that he outlines in some manuscripts composed in 1955 and 1956. We rationalise this reasoning by three statements: A. The rate of profits manifests itself in the Standard system as the ratio of two well-defined quantities of Standard commodity; B. The rate of profits can be identified in the Standard system before knowing the prices of commodities; and C. The rate of profits emerging from the Standard system cannot be altered by ‘manipulations of prices’ and, for this reason, can be regarded as a non-price phenomenon. By discussing these statements in depth, we aim at shedding new light on the precise meaning of Sraffa’s slogans.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Sraffa; rate of profits; Standard commodity
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B2 - History of Economic Thought since 1925 > B24 - Socialist ; Marxist ; Sraffian; 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; D - Microeconomics > D4 - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design > D46 - Value Theory

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