Re: Heterodoxers are crackpots

[Leonardo Vera <lvera@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:01 p.m. 26/08/02 -0400, you wrote:
> At 02:32 PM 8/25/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>  "economic
>>" can be a little
>> different. Sraffians and many other post-keynesians
>> direct attention to the
>> process of accumulation and income distribution (I
>> would say neo-classicals
>> concentrate their attention in optimal allocation).
>
> the point being that Sraffa's Production of Commodities By means of
>Commodities is applicable to the classical system -- and I think Sraffa
>meant to show that the classical system contained errors even on its own
>playing field (this field has no relevance for the real entrepreneurial
>economy-- only for what Keynes called a cooperative economy).
>
>"""" of a special case and not a general theory.
>

Paul, I do not think that Sraffa main concern in Production of Commodites
by Means of Commodities was to show fatal errors in the classical system.
Sraffa was concerned with marginalist analysis becuse he thought it marked
a radical change of interest with respect to classical economics. For
Sraffians, the marginalists left aside the phenomenon of production to
study a model of pure exchange where rational behavior of individual
consumers took the main place. The process of production was merely an
adaptation of the consumer decisions framework. For Sraffa, sraffians and
classical economists the phenomenon of production is not a secondary event.
It is crucial... and It is a circular or repetitive process that involves
time. Production takes time in contrast with marginalism where you do not
have to link up the various periods of time because decisions are taken
once for all time. I think this conception of the production process offers
a basis for theoretical communication (integration?) of Sraffa and
post-keynesians. Both frame of references share the view that economic
phenomena should not be presupposed to be allocative.

In any sense I am ignoring the fact that Keynes and Post-Keynesians go even
further because they add within the time dimension the notion that firms
incur production cost and only later realize sales receipts. This step
further allow us to recognize the importance of expectations and
uncertainty. But look..it is not the replacement of one closed system by
another closed system that is required. I think we can move to an open
theoretical system without ignoring logic and coherence.

_____________________________
Leonardo  Vera
Universidad Central de Venezuela
FACES, Escuela de Economía
Caracas, 1050
Venezuela.
Tel. 753-5281 y 0416-6272401