Yes Mark,
But there is also the question of whether an empirical retort is suitable
for a logical critique.
In some circumstances, it is: for example, the 'Friedmanian retort' (which
itself is probably not true, of course) that Galileo ignored air resistance
when developing a theory of the effect of gravity, which of course Friedman
'answers' by saying that air resistance is negligible in the circumstances
of his experiment.
I don't believe the same can be said of this topic, since it goes to the
logical foundations of the analysis--and especially the theory of income
distribution.
If it can, then there's another equally devastating logical critique which
could then also be said to legitimately dismiss a logical critique on the
ground of empirical evidence: the labor theory of value.
There are at least some modern-day proponents of that theory (Paul
Cockshott, Allin Cottrell and perhaps a few others) who argue that the
logical critiques of the LTV are irrelevant, since on their statisticalr
research, embodied labor values are better predictors of relative prices
that Sraffian or other input-output derived imputed prices.
So if some economists are willing to excuse the reswitching controversy
(and the other aspects of Sraffa's 1960 critique, including the income
distribution and capital measurement challenges) on the basis of empirical
irrelevance, are they also willing to accept that the labor theory of value
could be valid, on the basis of the empirical irrelevance of the
transformation problem?
Cheers,
Steve Keen
At 01:35 PM 6/8/01 Friday, you wrote:
>----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
>Yes, any attempt to bypass the reswitching conundrum by purely theoretical
>arguments must obviously fail. The only argument,as I have endlessly but
>fruitlessly contended, is an empirical one:noone has ever shown that
>reswitching actually occurs in any even quasi-realistic model. The analogy
>with positively sloped demand curves is perfect!
>
>Mark Blaug
>
>------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------
>For information, send the message "info HES" to lists@eh.net.
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