From: Jerry Levy (Gerald_A_Levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Tue Feb 27 2007 - 09:38:05 EST
> I would be interested in knowing what Solow had to say. Hi Ajit: I didn't take notes and am not sure I remembered all of the points he made or can recount them accurately. (He spoke for quite a while, at least as long as those who were making presentations.) Perhaps Gary and/or Riccardo can fill-in or correct the following points: i) he was surprised (and humored) by the attention which Sraffa's archives has drawn. ii) he recounted discussions he had with PS and his impressions of him which were generally favorable. Clearly, he respected PS as a peer and scholar. iii) he criticized the assumption of a equal rate of surplus (value) as not having a real base. In other words, it was assumed for reasons of mathematical convenience. He also discussed the issue of the amounts of unknowns in Sraffa's theory and the choices that were made about limiting the quantity of unknowns. iv) he criticized the point on the wage-rate of profit frontier where the rate of profit equals zero. At that point, he claimed 'exploitation' had no meaning. He did add, though, that he was not opposed to a claim that there is exploitation in the real world. (*) In solidarity, Jerry (*) iii and iv could be seen as similar objections in the sense that both imply that Sraffa's theory over-simplified the subject matter for reasons of mathematical expedience. A fair criticism perhaps, but from someone who developed a one-sector growth model? In solidarity, Jerry
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Feb 28 2007 - 00:00:08 EST