21201274-1 - STORIA DEL PENSIERO ECONOMICO

The course aims to present the main theories of value and distribution in their historical development. This should be understood in two senses. On the one hand, the course focuses on the reconstruction of the strictly analytical problems that have gradually arisen within the Classical and the Neoclassical (marginalist) theories of value and distribution in their traditional formulations. In this way students are offered the tools to look with greater awareness at the form in which those approaches present themselves today. On the other hand, the authors who will be considered in the course will be placed in their respective historical context, with a view to highlighting the nature of social science proper to political economy. In this regard, particular attention will be given to the drastic change of approach that took place in economic theory in the period immediately following Ricardo, and for which it seems difficult to find an explanation on exclusively analytical grounds.
teacher profile | teaching materials

Fruizione: 21201506-1 STORIA DEL PENSIERO ECONOMICO in Economia L-33 CICCONE ROBERTO

Programme

Birth of Marginalism: Jevons and Menger: utility as the foundation of the value of goods; Walras: the system of general economic equilibrium; difficulties connected with the treatment of capital.
Alfred Marshall: specific aspects of Marshall's value theory; claim to continuity with Ricardo's theory.
Spreading marginalism and alternative lines of thought (mention). Development of the marginalist approach between the end of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century. Two fundamental break points of the prevalence of marginalism: Keynes and Sraffa.
Walras' social-political conceptions: distributive equity and social justice; Walras' criticism of Marx's value theory.
Ricardo's 'macroeconomics': level of social product and Say's law; quantitative theory of money; public debt and taxation.


Core Documentation

1. Appunti sulla teoria della distribuzione e del valore negli economisti classici (limited to chaps. 2-6, pp. 7-62), available at the copyshop "Copyando", via Osiense 457/d, Roma;
2. R. Ciccone, Materiale didattico per il corso di Storia del Pensiero Economico, available at the copyshop "Copyando", via Ostiense 457/d, Roma.