SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDIES IN THE REAPPRAISAL OF THE SURPLUS APPROACH

Department of Economics, Roma Tre University, 6-14 July 2018

Objective of the School

The School’s purpose is to provide participants with a deeper understanding of the surplus approach as taken up and developed by Piero Sraffa and subsequent authors. Participants will therefore be introduced to the analyses of the Classical economists and to the modern research conducted within the reappraisal of their theoretical framework. The activity will embrace different topics, ranging from the theory of value and distribution to the study of economic growth, also dealing with applied analyses and policy issues. In addition, the School aims to stimulate participants into developing their own research by fostering contacts and scientific exchange between young researchers and expert scholars. To this purpose, a selected number of papers by young scholars will be presented and discussed in a specific session.

Organizing Committee

Roberto Ciccone, Saverio M. Fratini, E. Sergio Levrero, Antonella Palumbo, Daria Pignalosa, Antonella Stirati, Paolo Trabucchi, Attilio Trezzini.

Lecturers

Aldo Barba (“Federico II” University of Naples)
Enrico Bellino (Catholic University of Milan)
Sergio Cesaratto (University of Siena)
Roberto Ciccone (Roma Tre University)
Manfredi De Leo (Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance)
Saverio M. Fratini (Roma Tre University)
E. Sergio Levrero (Roma Tre University)
Cristina Marcuzzo (Sapienza University of Rome)
Carlos Aguiar de Medeiros (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro)
Antonella Palumbo (Roma Tre University)
Riccardo Pariboni (Roma Tre University)
Fabio Petri (University of Siena)
Daria Pignalosa (Roma Tre University)
Massimo Pivetti (Sapienza University of Rome)
Fabio Ravagnani (Sapienza University of Rome)
Antonella Stirati (Roma Tre University)
Paolo Trabucchi (Roma Tre University)
Attilio Trezzini (Roma Tre University)

Organization of the School

The activity is organized at two intertwined levels: lectures designed for a post graduated audience will be held in the morning, and afternoon sessions will be devoted to seminars at a more advanced level on topics that may suggest research subjects for young scholars. In addition, a specific session will be dedicated to presentations by young participants, which will be commented by a discussant chosen among the senior scholars, and followed by a general discussion open to floor.
The lectures will introduce participants to the foundations of the main lines of research within the modern revival of Classical theory and are organized in four modules:

• CLASSICAL THEORY AND MARGINALIST (OR NEOCLASSICAL) THEORY: THEIR DIFFERENT ANALYTICAL STRUCTURES (INTRODUCTORY MODULE);
• THE CRITIQUE OF NEOCLASSICAL THEORY (MODULE A);
• THE SURPLUS APPROACH TO VALUE AND DISTRIBUTION (MODULE B);
• THE CLASSICAL-KEYNESIAN APPROACH TO OUTPUT DETERMINATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH (MODULE C).

Programme

Friday 6th July 2018

9:00–09:15 Registration
9:15–09:30 Presentation of the School
9:30–11:00 Ciccone - INTRODUCTORY MODULE - The structure of classical theory; the notion of social surplus.
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–13:00 Ciccone - INTRODUCTORY MODULE - The structure of marginalist theory; the role of substitutability between ‘productive factors’; direct and indirect substitutability.
13:00–14:15 Lunch
14:15–16:15 Fratini - MODULE A - Capital and profit in the classical/Marxian approach; the neoclassical/marginalist theory of distribution: the factors of production; marginal productivity and income distribution: an introduction.
16:15–16:45 Coffee break
16:45–18:45 Fratini - MODULE A - Capital in Solow’s model (one commodity); capital in Swan’s model (two commodities); the Wicksell effect.

Saturday 7th July 2018

9:30–11:00 Trabucchi - MODULE A - Many capital goods: factor substitutability and reproducibility.
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–13:30 Trabucchi - MODULE A - Capital aggregation: the average period of production.
13:30–14:45 Lunch
14:45–16:15 Trabucchi - MODULE A - Samuelson’s surrogate production function; re-switching.

Monday 9th July 2018

9:00–11:00 De Leo - MODULE B - The problem of value in the surplus theories and the limits of the measurement in labour embodied.
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–13:30 Pignalosa - MODULE C - The open nature of the classical theories of distribution with respect to the theory of output. Keynes’s principle of effective demand and its relationship with neoclassical theory.
13:30–14:45 Lunch
14:45–16:45 Palumbo - MODULE C - Keynes’s method of analysis. The role of the determinants of investment. The neo-classical synthesis. The principle of effective demand and the classical theory of value and distribution as building blocks of the Classical-Keynesian approach.
16:45–17:15 Coffee break
17:15–18:15 SEMINAR: Ravagnani – Classical theory and exhaustible natural resources

Tuesday 10th July 2018

9:00–11:00 Ciccone - MODULE B - Sraffa’s analysis of the price system and the wage-profit relation.
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–13:30 Stirati - MODULE B - Subsistence wage, surplus wage and Sraffa’s hint to a monetary determination of distribution.
13:30–14:45 Lunch
14:45–18:15 SEMINARS:
14:45–15:45 Ciccone – On the tendency of market prices towards natural prices: a generalization of Smith's analysis
15:45–16:45 Fratini – The gravitation of market prices as a stochastic process
16:45–17:15 Coffee break
17:15–18:15 Bellino – Gravitation of market prices towards normal prices: some new results

Wednesday 11th July 2018

9:00–11:00 Ciccone - MODULE C - Saving-investment relation in the long run. The role of demand expansion in the accumulation process: endogeneity of the creation of productive resources.
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–13:30 Cesaratto - MODULE C - The Sraffian supermultiplier: the role of the autonomous components of aggregate demand.
13:30–14:45 Lunch
14:45–18:15 SEMINARS:
14:45–15:45 Pivetti – On the interest-profit relationship in the light of actual experience
15:45–16:45 Stirati – The revival of the classical approach and current debates on income distribution
16:45–17:15 Coffee break
17:15–18:15 Levrero – The Taylor Rule and its aftermath: critical elements for an interpretation along Classical-Keynesian lines

Thursday 12th July 2018

9:00–11:00 Levrero - MODULE B - The ‘standard commodity’ and the linear wage-profit relation.
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–18:15 SEMINARS:
11:30–12:30 Medeiros – Growth and technical progress
12:30–13:30 Medeiros – Growth and industrial policies
13:30–14:45 Lunch
14:45–15:45 Trabucchi – Capital, competition and equilibrium. Value and Capital and the foundations of the Neowalrasian approach
15:45–16:45 Marcuzzo – On alternative notions of change and choice. Krishna Bharadwaj's legacy
16:45–17:15 Coffee break
17:15–18:15 Barba – Varieties of Keynesianism and varieties of Keynesian multipliers

Friday 13th July 2018

9:00–11:00 Levrero - MODULE B - The reduction of prices to ‘dated’ quantities of labour and the movement of relative prices in response to changes in distribution.
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–13:30 Trezzini - MODULE C - The Classical-Keynesian approach: flexible utilization of capacity and the determinants of investment.
13:30–14:45 Lunch
14:45–18:15 SEMINARS:
14:45–15:45 Petri – History and criticism of the theory of aggregate investment from Keynes to recent neoclassical models
15:45–16:45 Pariboni – Autonomous demand and the investment share
16:45–17:15 Coffee break
17:15–18:15 Palumbo – Growth, fluctuations, and the determinants of investment

Saturday 14th July 2018

9:15–13:15 Young scholars’ presentations

Participants

Syed Mohib Ali (Kingston University)
Ramiro Eugenio Álvarez (University of Siena)
Fabrizio Antenucci (Roma Tre University)
Giacomo Bracci (University of Trento)
Claudio Cantaro (Roma Tre University)
Nicola Caravaggio (Roma Tre University)
Claudia Condemi (Roma Tre University)
Maria Chiara Cucciniello (Roma Tre University)
Giacomo Cucignatto (Roma Tre University)
Lorenzo Di Domenico (Roma Tre University)
Jacobo Ferrer Hernández (The New School for Social Research)
Santiago J. Gahn (Roma Tre University)
Michael Gaul (Université Paris 1)
Greta Giovannini (Roma Tre University)
Keerthi Gowkanapalli (Azim Premji University)
Francesca Iafrate (Roma Tre University)
Guido Ianni (University of Buenos Aires)
Giancarlo Infantino (University of Macerata)
Simone Lombardini (University of Genova)
Federico Navarra (University of Tor Vergata)
Joseph Magloire Nyobe (University of Douala)
José Guido Pelagatti (Catholic University of Milan)
Fernando Pellerano (Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo)
Matteo Pepe (Roma Tre University)
José Antonio Pérez Montiel (Universitat de les Illes Balears)
Krithika Raghavan (Azim Premji University)
José Bruno Ramos Torres Fevereiro (Open University)
Davide Romaniello (Roma Tre University)
Luigi Salvati (Roma Tre University)
Chiara Salvatori (Roma Tre University)
Luca Sandrini (University of Padova)
Cosimo M. Sciarra Catholic (University of Milan)
Pedro Siqueria Machado (Open University)
Ludovica Spinola (University of Siena)
Giulia Stievano (University of Siena)
Oriol Vallès Codina (The New School for Social Research)
Giuliano Toshiro Yajima (La Sapienza University)
Sara Zengarini (University of Macerata)
Fabrizio Zulli (Roma Tre University)

Young scholars’ presentations

S.M. Ali – Keynes's methods and the two routes to effective demand
S.G. Gahn – Is capacity utilisation stationary? A critique of the Kaleckian model
M. Gaul – The classical theories of international trade from a Sraffian point of view: Absolute advantages, comparative advantages and the effect of input trade on profit rates
J. Ferrer Hernández – On the Statistical Equilibrium of Capital Compositions
G. Ianni – Determination of the pattern of specialization as a cost-minimizing system. A note on the importance of distributive closures in open economy models of value and distribution
P. Siqueira Machado – Mill: like father, like son


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