Property and Prices

Property and Prices provides the missing theoretical link between Sraffa's Production of Commodities and Debreu's Theory of Value.

Andre Burgstaller (Author)

9780521134064, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 March 2010

256 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.38 kg

This book provides the missing theoretical link between Sraffa's Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities and Debreu's Theory of Value. Its thesis is that both classical and neoclassical value theory operate through arbitrage and speculation in the financial markets. Key among those markets is the bourse or stock market. Once a stock market is incorporated into general-equilibrium theory, the classical analysis of value (à la Ricardo, Marx and Sraffa) and the neoclassical theory of price (descending from Walras, Hicks and Arrow-Debreu) can be seen to possess the same mathematical structure. Thus the theory of arbitrage pricing in financial markets is capable of bringing together the two great rival schools of economic thought.

Introduction
Part I. Reproducible Resources: 1. Von Neumann I: A basics-only economy
2. Stockmarket arbitrage, intertemporal price coordination, and the Arrow-Debreu model: some theoretical issues
3. Other Von Neumann models: basics and nonbasics
4. Marx-Sraffa: labor and the struggle over the surplus
Part II. Primary Resources: 5. Ricardo: basics, nonbasics and land
6. Ramsey-Slow-Uwaza: basics, nonbasics and primary labor
7. Walras and capital: basics-only economies with multiple primary resources
8. Walras and exchange: nonbasics only economies with multiple primary resources
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Economic theory & philosophy [KCA]