What Remains of the Cambridge Critique? On Professor Schefold's Theses

Fabio Petri ()
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Fabio Petri: University of Siena

No CSWP50, Centro Sraffa Working Papers from Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa"

Abstract: Professor Bertram Schefold’s recent papers on capital theory and the Cambridge critique argue that the very low likelihood of reswitching and reverse capital deepening that appears to emerge from empirical input-output tables is confirmed by theoretical results; these results, he concludes, largely rehabilitate traditional neoclassical views on capital and show that the Sraffian critics’ insistence on reverse capital deepening as a fundamental criticism of neoclassical theory is misplaced. The present paper raises doubts about these arguments. In particular Professor Schefold does not give adequate consideration to the ‘supply-side’ problems with the measurability and the given endowment of the traditional notion of capital as a single factor. On the empirical evidence based on input-output tables, I agree with Professor Kurz that it suffers from very serious weaknesses. The more recent argument for an extremely low likelihood of double switching, advanced in Schefold (2016) and (2017), appears criticisable too.

Keywords: capital theory; Cambridge critique; random matrices; aggregate production function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B13 B51 E25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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