Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T14:49:35.470Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

WICKSELL ON WALRAS’S EARLY TREATMENT OF CAPITAL AND INTEREST

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2018

Andrea Imperia ,
Vincenzo Maffeo  and
Fabio Ravagnani
Andrea Imperia
Affiliation:
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy;
Vincenzo Maffeo
Affiliation:
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy;
Fabio Ravagnani*
Affiliation:
Sapienza University of Rome, Italy;
*
†correspondence address: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper we examine the criticism that Knut Wicksell advanced against Léon Walras’s treatment of capital and interest at the end of the nineteenth century, as well as the views of two distinguished followers of Walras concerning the points raised by the Swedish economist. As regards the first aspect, it should be noted that the criticism put forward by Wicksell at that time refers to the earlier editions of the Éléments, in which circulating capital is excluded from the analysis. We thus endeavor to clarify Wicksell’s remarks on the consequences of that exclusion for both the representation of the social production process and the determination of the interest rate. As to the second aspect, our discussion indicates that the appropriate way of treating the capitalistic element of production was an unsettled issue within the small circle of Walras’s followers at the end of the nineteenth century.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 41 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This is a revised and extended version of the paper presented at the 7th Conference of the International Walras Association held in Lyon in September 2010 and published in French in the conference proceedings; cf. Diemer and Potier (2013). We wish to thank R. Arena, A. Campus, A. Lazzarini, F. Petri, M. Pivetti, P. Trabucchi, and two anonymous referees for useful comments on earlier drafts. The usual disclaimer applies. We are particularly grateful to E. Nylander, Head of Cultural Heritage Collections, University of Lund, for the permission to reproduce Barone’s letter to Wicksell, dated November 23, 1895.

References

REFERENCES

Barone, Enrico. 1895. “Sopra un libro del Wicksell.” Giornale degli Economisti 5 (11): 524–539.Google Scholar
Barone, Enrico. 1896. “Studi sulla distribuzione.” Giornale degli Economisti 6 (12): 107–155, 235–252.Google Scholar
Diemer, Arnaud, and Potier, Jean-Pierre, eds. 2013. Léon Walras: un siècle après (1910–2010) . Bruxelles: P.I.E. Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Dvoskin, Ariel, and Lazzarini, Andrés. 2013. “On Walras’s Concept of Equilibrium.” Review of Political Economy 25 (1): 117–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garegnani, Pierangelo. 2008. “On Walras’s Theory of Capital (Provisional draft 1962).” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 30 (3): 367–384.Google Scholar
Jaffé, William. [1942] 1983. “Léon Walras’s Theory of Capital Accumulation.” In Walker, Donald A., ed., William Jaffé’s Essays on Walras. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 139–150.Google Scholar
Jaffé, William, ed. 1965. Correspondence of Léon Walras and Related Papers. Volume II. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
Jaffé, William. [1980] 1983. “Walras’s Economics as Others See It.” In Walker, Donald A., ed., William Jaffé’s Essays on Walras. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 343–370.Google Scholar
Pareto, Vilfredo. 1896. Cours d’Économie Politique. Volume I. Lausanne: Rouge.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1954. History of Economic Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stigler, George J. 1948. Production and Distribution Theories. New York: The Macmillan Company.Google Scholar
Uhr, Carl G. 1962. Economic Doctrines of Knut Wicksell. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Van Daal, Jan, and Jolink, Albert. 1993. The Equilibrium Economics of Léon Walras. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Walker, Donald A. 1996. Walras’s Market Models. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Walras, Léon. 1889. Éléments d’Économie Politique Pure ou Théorie de la Richesse Sociale. Lausanne: F. Rouge.Google Scholar
Walras, Léon. 1954. Elements of Pure Economics or the Theory of Social Wealth. Translated and edited by Jaffé, William. London: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Walras, Léon. 1988. Éléments d’Économie Politique Pure . In Dockès, Pierre, Goutte, Pierre-Henri, Hébert, Claude, Mouchot, Claude, Potier, Jean-Pierre, and Servet, Jean-Michel, eds., Auguste et Léon Walras. Œuvres Economiques Complètes. Volume VIII. Paris: Economica.Google Scholar
Wicksell, Knut. 1892. “Kapitalzins und Arbeitslohn.” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik 59: 852–874.Google Scholar
Wicksell, Knut. 1893. Über Wert, Kapital und Rente nach den neuren nationalökonomie Theorien. Jena: Fisher, G.. Translated as Value, Capital and Rent. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954.Google Scholar
Wicksell, Knut 1897. “V. Pareto, Cours d’Économie Politique.” First part. Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung 6: 159–166. Translated as “Vilfredo Pareto’s Cours d’Économie Politique,” in Wicksell, Knut, Selected Papers on Economic Theory, edited by Lindhal, Erik. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958, pp. 141–158.Google Scholar
Wicksell, Knut. 1911. Föreläsningar i nationalekonomi, Häft I. Lund: Berlingska Boktryckeriet.Google Scholar
Wicksell, Knut. 1913. “V. Pareto, Manuel d’Économie Politique.” Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung, 22: 132–151. Translated as “Vilfredo Pareto’s Manuel d’Économie Politique,” in Wicksell, Knut, Selected Papers on Economic Theory, edited by Lindhal, Erik. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958, pp. 159–175.Google Scholar
Wicksell, Knut. 1923. “Realkapital och kapitalränta.” Ekonomisk Tidskrift 25: 145–180. Translated as “Real Capital and Interest,” in Wicksell, Knut, Lectures on Political Economy. Volume I: General Theory, edited by Robbins, Lionel. London: Routledge, 1934, pp. 258–299.Google Scholar