Synopses & Reviews
This book offers a new account of David Ricardo's political economy that is both scholarly and accessible. It provides an up to date overview of the secondary literature on Ricardo, and discusses alternative perspectives on his work, including those of Marxians, neoclassicals and Sraffians. The book makes a critical assessment of the 'new views' of Ricardo's politics, his macroeconomics and his theory of wages, and links his writings to current controversies on fiscal and monetary policy, including 'Ricardian equivalence', fiscal austerity and the case for an independent central bank. Successive chapters deal with Ricardo's life and times; his vision, including his philosophical and political ideas; his theory of value and distribution; international trade and the case against protection; Ricardo's macroeconomics, focusing on Say's Law, money and banking, and structural unemployment; his approach to fiscal policy, monetary policy, the relief of poverty and classical liberalism; his editors and critics, 1823-2013; and the alternative interpretations of Ricardo's economics of Marx, Marshall and Sraffa. There is a comprehensive bibliography.
Review
To come
About the Author
John E. King is Professor of Economics at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, where he has taught since 1988. His principal research interests are in the history of heterodox economic thought, with particular reference to Marxian political economy and Post Keynesian economics. His recent publications include The Rise of Neoliberalism in Advanced Capitalism: a Materialist Analysis (with M.C. Howard) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), Nicholas Kaldor (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) and The Microfoundations Delusion (Elgar, 2013). He is also the editor of The Elgar Companion to Post Keynesian Economics (second edition, 2012).
Table of Contents
PART I: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DAVID RICARDO
1. The Importance of Ricardo
2. Ricardo's Life
3. Ricardo's England: the Economy
4. Ricardo's England: Society and Politics
PART II: RICARDO'S VISION
5. Philosophy, History, Society
6. Ricardo's Method and Style
7. Ricardo's Politics
8. Ricardo's Works
9. Appendix: The Principles
PART III: VALUE AND DISTRIBUTION
10. Ricardo's Problem
11. Profits and Rent
12. Wages
13. The Theory of Value
PART IV: INTERNATIONAL TRADE
14. The Theory of Comparative Advantage
15. Ricardo on the Corn Laws
16. Ricardo and his Critics
17. The Politics of Trade
18. Ricardo's Trade Theory in the 21st Century
PART V: RICARDO'S MACROECONOMICS
19. Growth and the Stationary State
20. 'Say's Law'
21. Money and Banking
22. 'On Machinery'
PART VI: RICARDO ON ECONOMIC POLICY
23. Fiscal Policy
24. Monetary Policy
25. Social Policy, Labour and the Poor
26. Ricardo, Laissez-Faire and Classical Liberalism
PART VII: EDITORS AND CRITICS
27. 1823-1870: the First two Generations
28. 1870-1936: Ricardo and the 'Marginalist Revolution'
29. 1936-1975: Ricardo and the 'Keynesian Revolution'
30. After 1975: Ricardo in the Age of Neoliberalism
PART VIII: THE THREE RICARDOS
31. The Marxian Ricardo
32. The Neoclassical Ricardo: Marshall to Hollander
33. Piero Sraffa's Ricardo
34. Ricardo's Legacy