Robert Vienneau: Thoughts Economics

Figure 1: Wage Curves for the Example1.0 Introduction The Cambridge Capital Controversy (CCC) applies to models both of competitive industries and of non-competitive industries. Around a switch point exhibiting capital-reversing, a higher wage is associated with greater employment per unit of net output produced. It is not merely a question of what technology is available. It is also a matter of the power of firms among industries to extract value from their workers, their upstream...

I have a working paper at the Centro Sraffa. Abstract: This article considers structural economic dynamics, in models with fixed capital and a choice of technique, of the production of commodities. Fluke switch points are described and cataloged. For fluke switch points, parameter perturbations create a qualitative change in how the choice of technique varies with distribution. Techniques are presented for visualizing partitions of parameter spaces such that the analysis of the choice of...

[embedded content]An Introduction to Algebraic Geometry I have been looking for fluke switch points in certain parameter spaces of coefficients for polynomial equations. Bertram Schefold has pointed out to me that I may want to look into algebraic geometry. This may be beyond me. I consider what I have been doing as exploratory mathematics, and I have been relying on numerical algorithms. I started with thinking that there is a parallel to bifurcation theory. But Barkley Rosser convinced me...

He had been droning along about 'value,' comparing the Marxist theory with the orthodox 'use' theory. Mr. Dubois had said, 'Of course, the Marxian definition of value is ridiculous. All the work one cares to add will not turn a mud pie into an apple tart; it remains a mud pie, value zero. By corollary, unskillful work can easily subtract value; an untalented cook can turn wholesome dough and fresh green apples, valuable already, into an inedible mess, value zero. Conversely, a great chef...

[embedded content]The Banach-Tarski ParadoxThe Hahn-Banach theorem is related to how mainstream economics model perfect competition. The video above is mind-bending math. The Mountain Goat blog. A profile of some economists at Berkeley, some of who I have read when they collaborated with Thomas Piketty or A. Dube. I have read deLong, as well, of course. If you cannot name 'capitalism', 'neoliberalism', or 'neoclassical economics', it is difficult to criticize them. Here is a popular...

Figure 1: Isoquants For The Production Function1.0 Introduction I often assume a discrete technology in my demonstrations that what many mainstream economists teach is mostly incoherent balderdash. Some incompetents have told me that such well-established results "just show that the particular production functions that you have chosen don't work. This is not a generic result." So, for my amusement, I will go through a simple example here to explain how any continuously differentiable...

I sometimes wonder if most mainstream economists think that most of what they were taught, teach, and research are some combination of false, incoherent, and useless for understanding actually existing capitalism. But they go along out of some sense of professionalism and a belief that their colleagues do not share their views. That is many privately think they are a minority of one, but publically espouse the orthodoxy. As far as professionalism goes, I suppose some believe that those...

"The labor supply curve slopes upward, reflecting differences in workers’ reservation wages (as driven by outside opportunities related, perhaps, to leisure, home production, and economic assistance that can be received while out of work). The labor demand curve slopes downward, tracing out the relationship between the quantity of labor employed and the marginal revenue product of that labor. This, in turn, reflects the assumption of a constant price (due, perhaps, to a perfectly...

Maybe, perhaps, that is a bit hyperbolic. But it has been known for at least half a century that, even in competitive markets, wages and employment cannot be explained by the interaction of well-behaved supply and demand curves for labor. If you do not want to read me, check out, for example, Garegnani (1970) or Opocher and Steedman (2015). Shove (1933) illustrates how far awareness of the difficulties go. White (2001) is a demonstration that I am not the only one to draw practical...

What is neoclassical economics? (This post draws on something I wrote on Usenet more than a decade ago.) I believe I might have introduced this list of three key assumptions, as noted by Roy Weintraub, into the wikipedia article on the topic: People have rational preferences between outcomes that can be identified and associated with values. Individuals maximize utility and firms maximize profits. People act independently on the basis of full and relevant information. One should recognize...