Piero Sraffa.

Piero Sraffa (1898-1983) was an influential Italian economist. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (444x658, 118 KB)http://ase. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (444x658, 118 KB)http://ase. ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... An economist is an individual who studies, develops, and applies theories and concepts from economics, and writes about economic policy. ...

Biography

He was born in Turin, Italy, the son of Angelo Sraffa, a Professor in commercial law, and Irma. He studied in his town and graduated at the local university with a work on inflation in Italy during and after WWI. Notably, his tutor was Luigi Einaudi, one of the most important Italian economists and later a president of the Italian Republic. Turin (Italian: ; Piedmontese: Turin) is a major industrial city in north-western Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the west bank of the Po River. ... Commercial law or business law is the body of law which governs business and commerce and is often considered to be a branch of civil law and deals both with issues of private law and public law. ... Western Illinois University A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctorate) in a variety of subjects. ... WWI may be an acronym for: World War I World Wrestling Industry This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Luigi Einaudi (1874 - 1961) was an Italian political figure. ...

From 1921 to 1922 he studied in London at the London School of Economics. In 1922 he was appointed as Director of the provincial labour department in Milan, then as Professor in Political economy first in Perugia, and later in Cagliari, Sardinia. Here he met Antonio Gramsci (the most important leader of Italian Communist Party). They became close friends, partly due to their shared ideological views - Sraffa was at this time a radical marxist (see [1]). He also was already in contact with Filippo Turati, perhaps the most important leader of Italian Socialist Party, whom he allegedly met and frequently visited in Rapallo, where his family had a holiday villa. 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The London School of Economics and Political Science, often referred to as the London School of Economics or simply the LSE, is a specialist university and a constituent college of the federal University of London, located on Houghton Street in Central London, off the Aldwych and next to the Royal... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Milan (Italian: Milano; Milanese: Milán) is the main city of northern Italy, and is located in the plains of Lombardy, the most populated and developed region in Italy. ... Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... Perugia is the capital city in the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the Tiber river, and the capital of the province of Perugia. ... Càgliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. ... Sardinia [[]] (Sardegna in Italian, Sardigna or Sardinna in the Sardinian language, is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (Sicily is the largest), between Italy, Spain and Tunisia, south of Corsica. ... Antonio Gramsci Antonio Gramsci (January 22, 1891 – April 27, 1937) was an Italian writer, politician, leader and theorist of Socialism, Communism and Anti-Fascism. ... The Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI) or Italian Communist Party emerged as Partito Comunista dItalia or Communist Party of Italy from a secession by the Leninist comunisti puri tendency from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) during that bodys congress on 21 January 1921 at Livorno. ... Marxism is the philosophy, social theory and political practice based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century German socialist philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary. ... Filippo Turati (1857- ) was an Italian Socialist leader, born at Canzo (Como). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This is about a Ligurian commune, see Rapallo for a resort on the Adriatic coast. ...

In 1925 he wrote about returns to scale and perfect competition, underlining some doubtful points of Alfred Marshall's theory of the firm. This work was completed in an article he published the following year. 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Alfred Marshall Alfred Marshall (July 26, 1842–July 13, 1924), born in Bermondsey, London, England, became one of the most influential economists of his time. ... The theory of the firm consists of a number of economic theories which describe the nature of the firm (company or corporation), including its behaviour and its relationship with the market. ...

In 1927, his as yet undiscussed theory of value, but also his risky political ideas, his compromising friendship with Gramsci (who had already been imprisoned under Fascism - notably, Sraffa had brought him the materials, literally pens and paper, with which Gramsci would write his "Quaderni dal Carcere"), brought John Maynard Keynes to prudentially invite Sraffa to the University of Cambridge, where he was initially assigned a lectureship. After a few years, Keynes created ex novo for him the charge of Marshall Librarian. Sraffa joined the so-called "cafeteria group", together with Frank P. Ramsey and Ludwig Wittgenstein, a sort of informal club that discussed of Keynes' theory of probability and Friedrich Hayek's theory on business cycles. At this time, also due to Keynes' influence, Sraffa began his research into the life and work of David Ricardo, which he undertook with an extraordinary degree of conscientiousness: George Stigler was to write later "Ricardo was a fortunate man... And now, 130 years after his death, he is as fortunate as ever : he has been befriended by Sraffa." 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... See also Cost-of-production theory of value Marginal theory of value Labor theory of value Categories: Stub ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... John Maynard Keynes (right) and Harry Dexter White at the Bretton Woods Conference John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, CB (pronounced kānz / kAnze) (June 5, 1883 – April 21, 1946) was a British economist whose ideas had a major impact on modern economic and political theory as well as on... The University of Cambridge (often called Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Frank Plumpton Ramsey (February 22, 1903 – January 19, 1930) was a British mathematician, philosopher, and economist. ... Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (IPA: ) (April 26, 1889 – April 29, 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who contributed several ground-breaking works to contemporary philosophy, primarily on the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind. ... Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an Austrian economist and political philosopher, noted for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought in the mid-20th century. ... {{Infobox_Biography subject_name = David Ricardo | image_name = David_ricardo. ... George Joseph Stigler (1911 - 1991) was a U.S. economist. ...

His "Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities" was an attempt to perfect Classical Economics' theory of value, as originally developed by David Ricardo and others. He aimed to demonstrate flaws in the mainstream neoclassical theory of value and develop and alternative analysis. In particular, Sraffa's technique of aggregating capital as dated inputs of labour led to the Cambridge capital controversy. See also Cost-of-production theory of value Marginal theory of value Labor theory of value Categories: Stub ... {{Infobox_Biography subject_name = David Ricardo | image_name = David_ricardo. ... Neoclassical economics refers to a general approach (a metatheory) to economics based on supply and demand which depends on individuals (or any economic agent) operating rationally, each seeking to maximize their individual utility or profit by making choices based on available information. ... The capital controversy refers to a debate in economics concerning the nature and role of capital goods (or means of production) that occurred during the 1960s, largely between economists such as Joan Robinson and Piero Sraffa at the University of Cambridge in England and economists such as Paul Samuelson and...

There was and remains controversy about whether Sraffa's work truly constituted a refutation of neoclassical economics. Many post-Keynesian economists use Sraffa's critique as justification for abandoning neoclassical analysis and exploring other models of economic behavior. Others see his work as compatible with neoclassical economics, as developed in modern general equilibrium models. Nonetheless, Sraffa's work, particularly his interpretation of Ricardo and his "The Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities", is seen as the starting point of the Neo-Ricardian school in the 1960s. Post-Keynesian economics is a school of thought which is based on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. ... General Equilbrium (linear) supply and demand curves. ... The neo-Ricardian school is an economic school that derives from the close reading and interpretation of David Ricardo by Piero Sraffa, and from Sraffas critique of Neoclassical economics as presented in his The Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, and further developed by the neo-Ricardians in...

Notably, Sraffa was associated with Ludwig Wittgenstein, who credited him with making important insights into his Philosophical Investigations. Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (IPA: ) (April 26, 1889 – April 29, 1951) was an Austrian philosopher who contributed several ground-breaking works to contemporary philosophy, primarily on the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind. ...

Sraffa was described as a very intelligent man, with a proverbial shyness and a real devotion for study and books. His famous library contained more than 8,000 volumes, now partly in the Trinity College Library.

In 1972 he was awarded a honorary doctorate by Paris' university (Sorbonne), and in 1976 he received another one from Madrid's university. 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1972 calendar). ... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city For other uses, see Paris (disambiguation). ... The Sorbonne, Paris, in a 17th century engraving The historic University of Paris (French: Université de Paris) first appeared in the second half of the 12th century, but was in 1970 reorganized as 13 autonomous universities (University of Paris I–XIII). ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1976 calendar). ... Madrid is the capital and the largest city in Spain, as well as in the province and the autonomous community of the same name. ...

He became rich after a long-term investment on Japanese government bonds, made the day after the nuclear bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; a popular story tells that he'd received a huge amount of money which for more than a decade he'd refused to invest, waiting for a "safe" opportunity. He correctly reasoned that Japan wouldn't remain a poor country for long.

External links

• Profile of Piero Sraffa at the History of Economic Thought website.
• Piero Sraffa Archives homepage at Trinity College, Cambridge. Contains an online catalogue of Sraffa's personal and professional papers.