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On Composition of Demand and Income Distribution In Classical Economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Samuel Hollander
Samuel Hollander
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Extract

In several reviews of my Classical Economics (1987; henceforth CE) a criticism recurs relating to my proposition that distribution in Ricardian economics is dependent upon the pattern of final demand. Anthony Brewer, who is convinced by the demonstration in the book of ‘a fundamentally important core of general equilibrium economics accounting for resource allocation in terms of the rationing function of relative prices,’ has stated the objection fairly and his formulation invites and deserves a response:

[Hollander] does overstate his case at times. For example, he claims that, in Ricardo's theory, changes in the pattern of demand should react on the demand for labour, and thus on wages, while admitting that ‘Ricardo himself never formally made’ this extension [CE, p. 104]. He later uses exactly this interaction of demand and wages to support his interpretation of Ricardo against Dobb [CE, p. 360]. Surely, the fact that Ricardo did not ‘formally make’ this point (i.e., did not make it at all) is an argument against Hollander's reading, not for it (1988, p. 555).

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , Fall 1989 , pp. 216 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

REFERENCES

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