Zero Measure Sraffian Economies: New Insights from Actual Input–Output Tables†. (13th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mariolis, Theodore; Veltsistas, Panagiotis
• Is Part Of: Contributions to political economy. Volume 41(2022)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 28
• Publication Date: 2022-05-13
• Subjects: Economics -- Periodicals; Economics -- History -- Periodicals; 330.05
• DOI: 10.1093/cpe/bzac003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-5921

Abstract

Abstract: New theoretical and empirical evidence reveals that the actual input–output table economies of single production, which are usually studied in the value–capital theory literature, are almost similar to non-diagonalizable, triangular and both uncontrollable and unobservable (in the sense of Kalman) economies producing only one basic commodity and non-self-reproducing non-basics (in the sense of Sraffa), the immense majority of which are pure consumption commodities. Since (i) these basic commodities are the corresponding Sraffian Standard commodities of the original economies; (ii) the resulting empirical probabilities of non-monotonic price–profit rate curves and re-switching of techniques are by no means negligible; and (iii) systems and matrices are almost always completely controllable/observable and diagonalizable, respectively, it follows that the said actual input–output table economies are not only Sraffian but also of almost zero measure.