Sraffa and Modern Economics, Volume I

Stability in classical and neoclassical theories*

Franklin Serrano

Introduction

In this paper, I want to make a brief comparative evaluation of the question of stability in classical (or Sraffian) and neoclassical (or marginalist) theories. The emphasis will be on the concepts of stability that are relevant for these different theories and on the implications of certain theoretical results. No new formal stability results will be presented.

The discussion is organised around three main questions that I believe summarise well the most common current reaction towards the Sraffian criticism, not only from the followers of neoclassical theory but also among economists who otherwise tend to be quite critical of the latter approach. The questions are: ...