Piero Sraffa

The book presents the author’s interpretation of Piero Sraffa’s thought. It illustrates his life and his influence on politicians, economists and philosophers such as Antonio Gramsci, John Maynard Keynes and Ludwig Wittgenstein. His theoretical contributions are illustrated and evaluated, from the critique to the Marshallian theory of the firm to his revival and reinterpretation of the classical approach through his editon of David Ricardo’s Works and Correspondence, up to his celebrated short book on Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, which provides both the solution to the problems left open by the classical theory of value and the foundation for a critique of marginalist-neoclassical theory of capital and distribution. The book shows how Sraffa aimed at a complete turn-around of economic theory, from the dominant neoclassical-marginalist approach to a classical-Keynesian one, and discusses present trends of research within this latter approach, the full impact of which has not been understood by mainstream economics.