Post-Keynesian

Figure 1: Switch Points Varying with Time1.0 Introduction This post presents a perturbation of a fluke switch point. At this switch point, the wage curves for four techniques are tangent. In the jargon I have been inventing, this is another four-technique, local pattern. In other words, a perturbation of appropriately selected parameters - for example, coefficients of production - changes the sequence of wage curves and switch points on the wage frontier. The perturbation can be viewed as...

I have been looking at patterns of switch points. A pattern is a configuration of switch points helpful for perturbation analysis for the choice of technique. I am curious how the switch points and the wage curves along the wage frontier can alter with parameters, in a model of the production of commodities. Such a parameter can be a coefficient of production; time, where a number of parameters are functions of time; or the markup in an industry or a number of industries. A normal form...

Figure 1: Variation in Switch Points with the Markup in the Iron Industry1.0 Introduction I finally use the tools of pattern analysis that I have been inventing to tell a practical story. I build on the example which I began in my previous post. Workers would be better off if an increase in wages led to greater employment, not less. A long-period change in relative markups among industries can result in firms in some industries obtaining a greater rate of profits at the expense of firms...

Figure 1: The Wage Frontier at a Four-Technique Patterns1.0 Introduction This post presents another numerical example of one technique replacing another, along the wage frontier, with a perturbation of a model parameter. In a previous post, I identified three sequences of patterns of switch points in which the wage curves for one technique replaces the wage curve of another. In one of these sequences, a three-technique pattern removes the middle technique from three techniques with wage...

Figure 1: One Way One Technique Can Replace Another The wage-rate of profits frontier (or wage frontier) is calculated with prices of production, given the techniques of production, available in the economy, for producing a given output. Suppose at one point in time, the techniques that lie along the wage frontier consist of the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma techniques, in order of an increasing rate of profits. As time passes, technical innovation alters coefficients of production, including for...

Marx can be read as both a continuation and a critique of classical economics. A not-too-radical reading might emphasize his claim to find distinctions in economic theory glossed over by classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo. According to Marx, classical economists (as opposed to vulgar economists such as Frédéric Bastiat, Jean-Baptiste Say, and and Nassau William Senior) penetrated beneath surface phenomena to reveal the anatomy of capitalism. A more radical reading...

Figure 1: Wage Curves for a Reswitching Example1.0 Introduction This post illustrates another fluke case. In this example economy, two techniques exist for producing a net output of corn. The wage curves for the two techniques have two switch points. One switch point is on the wage axis, corresponding to a rate of profits of zero. The other is on the axis for the rate of profits, corresponding to a wage of zero. This example is a fluke in two ways. In the jargon I have been inventing, it...

I am thinking of maybe buying one of these: Roger E. Backhouse (2017). Founder of Modern Economics: Paul A. Samuelson: Volume 1: Becoming Samuelson, 1915-1948 Robert Leonard (2012). Von Neumann, Morgenstern and the Creation of Game Theory: From Chess to Social Science, 1900-1960 Philip Mirowski and Edward Nik-Khan (2017). The Knowledge We Have Lost in Information: The History of Information in Modern Economics Angela Penrose (2017). No Ordinary Woman: The Life of Edith Penrose Yanis...

Figure 1: Partition of the Parameter Space1.0 Introduction I here provide some notes on a perturbation of an example from Salvadori and Steedman (1988). Consider an economy in which n commodities are produced in n industries. In each industry, a single commodity is produced from inputs of labor and the services of previously produced capital goods. Suppose the technology can be represented in each industry by a continuously-differentiable production function. The wage-rate of profits...

For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of deserving, the idea of earning, and you will begin to be able to think. -- Ursula K. Le Guin (21 October 1929 -...