Ricardo's Economics: A General Equilibrium Theory of Distribution and Growth

Description

Together with Marx's Economics and Walras' Economics this book completes a sequence by Professor Morishima on the first generation of scientific economists. The author concentrates on Ricardo's main work, The Principles, and shows that his economics is the prototype of mathematical economics without the symbols and formulae. Morishima then translates Ricardo's economics into mathematical language to find a general equilibrium system concealed within. The analysis contradicts the conventional view that marginalism emerged in opposition to classical economics, showing instead that Ricardian analysis is firmly based on marginalist principles, using prices, wages, and profits rather than labor values. The book ends with a discussion of the historical character of economic theory and an attempt to specify the epoch of Ricardian economics.

"...thought-provoking...Morishima challenges the conventional representations of the Ricardian system, but from a highly mathematical angle...His multi-sector model of an agricultural economy with different grades of land is a useful corrective to the simple agricultural production functions which have been used till now." Andrea Maneschi, History of Political Economy