Arrigo Opocher

Commodity Content in a General Input–Output Model

This technical paper provides a definition of ‘commodity content’ in extended von Neumann–Morishima models of production. Our definition admits as special cases the classical definition of ‘labour values’ in Leontief models, as well as Morishimas definition of ‘optimal values’ in a von Neumann model. Proper joint production, heterogeneous labour, durable consumption goods, household activities and disposal processes are all allowed for. We also propose a tentative mathematical criterion for defining bads and for distinguishing between unskilled and skilled labour.

The Future of the Working Classes: A Comparison Between J.S. Mill and A. Marshall

Abstract Both J. S. Mill and A. Marshall had a lifelong interest in the living conditions of the working classes and theorized the possibility of a new age, characterized by a widespread mental and moral cultivation. This paper compares the precise arguments put forward by them in the period ranging from Mills to Marshalls Principles, against the background of the evidence of social and human progress at their times. It is argued that, at different stages and with different specific arguments, their predictions relied on self-reinforcing mechanisms, in which a better life was the cause, no less than the effect, of progress. In order to make similarities and differences more transparent from a logical point of view, two simple mathematical formulations are proposed.

The industry supply curve: two different traditions

Abstract The present paper seeks to provide some new insights into the precise nature and the analytical foundations (or lack of them) of the familiar industry supply curve. We reconsider some fundamental phases of its historical evolution. Two different traditions are distinguished: one consists of the formalisations of Marshalls theory proposed by Barone and, later, by Pigou, Viner, Harrod and Robinson; the other consists of the models of Hicks and Allen, on the basis of ideas and criticism put forward by other London School of Economics scholars, like Kaldor and Robbins, in the mid-1930s. It is argued that the second tradition did not really remedy the weak aspects of the Marshallian theory of supply.

LONG-RUN RISING SUPPLY PRICE AND THE NUMÉRAIRE

When a set of industries is kept in long-run equilibrium, it is never possible to change just one price at a time. But when various (or all) prices are changing, the direction of change of any one price can depend on the numeraire adopted. What does it mean, then, to say that a long-run supply curve is upward (or downward) sloping? Can this qualitative property be independent of the numeraire in terms of which the product price is being measured? In general, it cannot.

'Interrelated prices' and Sraffa's critique of partial equilibrium

The early Marshallian literature recognized that, in most significant cases, long-period equilibrium analysis must consider families of interdependent markets which are in direct relation with each other. This perspective, which is different from both standard partial equilibrium and general equilibrium analysis, was developed mainly by two Italian authors, Maffeo Pantaleoni (1857–1924) and Marco Fanno (1878–1964). This paper is aimed at showing that this ‘interrelated prices’ literature has some points of contact with Piero Sraffas critique of partial equilibrium analysis. It is argued that Sraffa places the case of a Marshallian decreasing returns industry in a context (rivalry for the use of a common factor in fixed supply) which was familiar to Pantaleoni-Fanno: both maintain that the markets involved are interdependent, even though they evaluate differently the possibility of a sensible equilibrium analysis.

Recurrence: A Neglected Aspect of the Sraffian Critique of Marginalism

The significance of ‘reswitching’ - that great symbolic issue of the Cambridge capital debates - has sometimes been denied on the ground of a low probability. This article investigates the industry‐level return, in different equilibria, of the use of one or more (or all) inputs. Such phenomena, which we call ‘recurrence’, are generically far more probable than the return of a whole economy‐level technique and can be triggered, not only by a change in the interest rate, but also by a change in relative primary input prices. Since recurrence alone, without reswitching, is damaging to standard marginalist conceptions, one should not attribute too much importance to any low ‘probability of reswitching’.

Unconventional Results with Surrogate Production Functions

Starting from Samuelsons famous 1962 Surrogate Production Function, we show that some such functions are perfectly consistent with a ‘return of the machine type’. This is so when we introduce a distinctly conventional possibility - that of machine–labour substitution - instead of Samuelsons fixed proportions, within every technique. We also show that, in the presence of two primary inputs, the surrogate model can give distinctly unconventional primary input use/input price relations at the level of the consumer good industry, even if the rate of interest is identically null.

Symposium on Arrigo Opocher and Ian Steedman (

After an editorial that motivates the symposium on the book by Arrigo Opocher and Ian Steedman, there are comments by five scholars (in alphabetical order). These deal with capital theoretic issues (Bellino), the labour demand curve (Bidard), the zero‐excess‐profit position in alternative theories of value (Fratini), the role of intermediate as opposed to final products in the setting of prices (Harcourt) and the role of time in the analysis (Yoshihara). Then follows a response by Opocher and Steedman.

Measuring productivity increase by long-run prices: the early analyses of G.R. Porter and R. Giffen

Abstract The nineteenth-century economic commentators did not possess a formal measure of the rate at which productivity was increasing during the industrial take-off. Yet they did develop an intuitive method based on the comparative change in long-period prices and wages. This paper reviews the contributions of G.R. Porter and R. Giffen and, in the light of some modern contributions, presents an assessment of their rationality and improvability under current standards. It is argued that a proper measure of industrial productivity increase based on long-run prices is the mathematical dual of a Solovian measure of the industrial total factor productivity growth.