From: Ian Wright (wrighti@ACM.ORG)
Date: Mon May 07 2007 - 16:20:24 EDT
> von Neumann does track growth of capital stocks in a similar model of ** > proportionate ** growth using non-unitary matrices, so I infer that the same thing could > be done with Sraffa's. Yes it can. But the non-unitary matrix employed in proportionate growth models (e.g., Pasinetti in his Lectures on the Theory of Production) is merely the result of the representational choice of an open model. One can just as easily model proportionate growth in terms of a closed model with a unitary matrix. In this case, as before, a surplus is produced, its scale grows exponentially over time, but its distribution to households is specified. Per-capital consumption is constant. Proportionate growth is symmetry-preserving: prices are invariant under this kind of growth. It is a special case which avoids the necessity to formulate dynamic equations. It also lends itself to the unfortunate Physiocratic image that the "surplus" is always a physical surplus of additional commodities. The interesting case is non-proportionate growth that necessarily results in temporary out-of-equilibrium matrices that are non-unitary. In self-replacing equilibrium, and symmetry-preserving generalisations such as proportionate growth, there is conservation of costs and revenues. A closed model with a dominant eigenvalue of 1 makes this explicit. An open model hides this.
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