Summaries Of My Research Program

1.0 Summary In A Single Sentence

An analysis of structural economic dynamics in post-Sraffian models shows how reswitching and capital-reversing, for example, can be brought about or taken away by technical change, variation in relative markups among industries, or variations in requirements for use.

2.0 Descriptive Keywords

• Cambridge capital controversy
• Choice of technique
• Fixed capital
• Income distribution
• Joint production
• Labor market
• Leontief Input-Output models
• Markup pricing
• Natural Resources
• Rent
• Sraffian economics
• Structural dynamics

3.0 Summary In A Single Paragraph

Researchers in post-Sraffian price theory have constructed models for the analysis of the choice of technique. Fluke switch points can be identified by considering perturbations of parameters in such models. Parameters considered here characterize technology, relative rates of profits among industries, and requirements for use - also known as net output or final demand. Parameter spaces are partitioned by fluke cases. This analysis identifies how reswitching, capital-reversing, the recurrence of processes comprising a technique, and the reverse substitution of labor, for example, can appear and vanish. Single production, fixed capital, extensive and intensive rent, and joint production in general are explored. Results are presented by means of numerical examples, with many tables and figures.

4.0 Summary In Multiple Paragraphs

If workers successfully push for higher wages, will firms tend to hire less labor? Is land that receives a higher rent per acre more fertile? If firms extend the economic life of machinery, are they adopting a more capital-intensive technique? If firms in some industry impose barriers to entry and achieve rates of profits persistently higher than others, will the answer to these questions change?

Researchers in price theory, in the tradition of the pioneering work of Piero Sraffa, have found surprising answers for these questions and more, in a rediscovery of the classical theory of value and distribution. My work extends such work by examining the effects of perturbing model parameters. Innovation in technology is represented by decreases in coefficients of production. Changes in market structure are depicted by persistent variations in relative rates of profits among industries. Variations in final demand are explored in models with long-lasting machinery, non-produced means of production, and general joint production.

Fully-specified numerical examples illustrate how parameter spaces are partitioned into regions among which qualitative behavior changes, while remaining invariant within each region. Many graphs provide unique transparency and visualization into aspects of price theory.

5.0 Comments

I have tried to summarize what I have been doing several times before.