These two books reflect very different attitudes to classical economics: O'Brien writes from a neoclassical standpoint, Napoleoni from a Marxist one. Two questions deserve consideration. Is anything worthwhile to be gained by devoting attention to the works of the classical economists (and of...

The purpose of this note is to supplement the author’s earlier remarks on the unsatisfactory nature of the neoclassical account of how the return on capital is determined. (See Strathclyde Discussion Paper 12-03: “The Marginal Productivity Theory of the Price of Capital: An Historical...

In his new book Professor Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank founder and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, proposes a novel strategy for the elimination of poverty worldwide. This strategy relies on the presumed effectiveness of what he calls “social business” in transforming the nature of the...

Although it might have been expected that, by this point in time, the unacceptability of the marginal productivity theory of the return on capital would be universally agreed, that is evidently not the case. Popular textbooks still propound the dogma to the innocent. This note is presented in...

In a recent paper Chandra & Sandilands (2006) put forward three contentious propositions concerning the 'mechanics' of the process of economic growth: these propositions are to the effect (1) that 'pecuniary external economies' should not be considered instances of market failure; (2) that...

Does an apparent (minor) anomaly, said to occur not infrequently in elementary expositions of supply and demand theory, really imply – as seems to be suggested – that there is something a bit odd about Marshall’s diagrammatic handling of demand and supply? On investigation, we find some...

This note looks into the issue of whether or not Sraffa had any significant influence on Keynes’s thinking in the period of preparation of the General Theory. Questioning the view recently expressed by Pasinetti (2007), we suggest there is reason to surmise that Sraffa may have pointed Keynes...