Abstract

KURZ, Heinz D.. Sraffa's Contributions to Economics: Some Notes on his Unpublished Papers. Inv. Econ [online]. 2007, vol.66, n.260, pp.15-47. ISSN 0185-1667.

The article provides a brief overview of Piero Sraffa's unpublished papers, explains his main contributions to economics and why they represent one of the major challenges to marginalist economics developed in the last century. Sraffa effectively refuted the conventional interpretation of the history of economic thought as a one way avenue and also built a coherent reformulation of the classical approach to the theory of value and distribution. The purpose of the paper is to excite an interest in Sraffa's work by providing some evidence of the fecundity and originality of his thinking, although no thorough discussion of his arguments can be provided here. The article dispels some widespread, but untenable opinions and myths about Sraffa's contributions. Perhaps this is one of the most valuable aspects of this paper since, for the first time, an opportunity to scrutinize the available interpretations on the basis of his hitherto unpublished manuscripts is provided. Sraffa's questioning and critical bent did not come to a halt not only when he discussed the marginalist theory of value and distribution or Keynes's theory, but even when his own ideas were under scrutiny.

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