Rodolfo Signorino
Biographic Data
| ID | 981699 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rodolfo Signorino |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rodolfo |
| FAMILY NAME | Signorino |
| SIGNATURE | SIGNORINO R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Palermo |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7122-1762 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Piero Sraffa’s ‘The Laws of Returns Under Competitive Conditions’ at 100: A Retrospective Article
This retrospective article provides an overall assessment of Piero Sraffa’s 1926 paper, ‘The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions’ (LR), published a century ago in The Economic Journal. In the early 1930s, LR was generally interpreted as a seminal contribution to the literature on imperfect competition, while, at present, it is a key reference in relation to the issues of external economies, increasing returns and the Marshallian theory o…
The paper never written: Sraffa, the isoquant and the marginal shepherd
This paper examines a previously unexplored episode in the early history of the isoquant. In some of his unpublished manuscripts of the late 1920s, Piero Sraffa proposed the use of indifference curves within production theory. He found Marshall’s response to Hobson (Citation1909), and more broadly Marshall’s wage theory based on marginal magnitudes, unconvincing. In Sraffa’s view, this approach obscured the relationship between the marginal produ…
“The principles of political economy, though often quoted, are little understood.” Fleeming Jenkin on trade unions and the law of supply and demand
The paper proposes a rational reconstruction of Fleeming Jenkin’s 1868 analysis of wage determination in labour markets characterised by the presence of trade unions. Jenkin intended to show that the supply and demand theory of market price determination did not support the thesis sustained by the opponents of trade unions that the latter are unable to permanently achieve a market-clearing wage higher than that which would be obtained in their ab…
Piero Sraffa and Counterfactuals: A View from Sraffa's Unpublished Papers in the Late 1920s
This article reconstructs Sraffa's position with regard to counterfactual reasoning in the second half of the 1920s as documented by his up until now unpublished papers. While Sraffa did not use the term "counterfactual," it is precisely this concept he had in mind when examining certain non-purely-observational propositions and discussing responses to "what if?" questions. He did so with respect to different contexts, but his attention focused p…
Was It a "Fatal Error"? Sraffa and Samuelson on Marshall's Partial Equilibria Method
Sraffa's "On the Relations between Cost and Quantity Produced" (1925) and Samuelson's "An Exact Hume-Ricardo-Marshall Model of International Trade" (1971) presented a strikingly similar analytical argument regarding the theoretical domain of Marshallian partial equilibrium models. Yet they reached radically different conclusions from their analyses. This article addresses this theoretical puzzle and proposes a plausible solution. To this end, the…
Back to Agriculture
Malthus's main economic argument against free corn trade in his Essay on Population concerned the issue of structural change triggered by international trade. Malthus claimed that, in the long run, agricultural countries will develop their domestic industrial sectors and cut both their corn exports and their imports of foreign industrial goods. We critically assess Malthus's views and compare them with Torrens 1815 and Ricardo 1822. We argue that…
Is Food Self-Sufficiency Conducive to Long-Term Growth? An Assessment of Malthus (1803) on the International Corn Trade
We reconstruct the arguments employed by Malthus in the second edition of An Essay on the Principle of Population (1803) concerning the superiority of a balanced growth pattern, and we show their theoretical consistency with Malthus's food self-sufficiency policy proposal in his 1815 pamphlet, Grounds of an Opinion. Malthus (1803) argued that the contemporary British unbalanced and manufacturing export-led growth pattern was not sustainable in th…
Edward Hastings Chamberlin (1899–1967)
Volume I contains original biographical profiles of many of the most important and influential economists from the seventeenth century to the present day. These inform the reader about their lives, works and impact on the further development of the discipline. The emphasis is on their lasting contributions to our understanding of the complex system known as the economy. The entries also shed light on the means and ways in which the functioning of…
Defense versus Opulence? An Appraisal of the Malthus-Ricardo 1815 Controversy on the Corn Laws
This article proposes a rational reconstruction of the arguments of Malthus and Ricardo in their 1815 essays, Grounds of an Opinion and An Essay on Profits, whereby a policy of free corn trade was repudiated and endorsed, respectively. Malthus envisaged defense and (trade-induced) opulence as two mutually alternative options and, if required to make a choice, he had no hesitation in choosing the former. By contrast, Ricardo excluded any such trad…
The Classical Notion of Competition Revisited
This article seeks to fill a lacuna within classical economics concerning the process of market price determination in situations of market disequilibrium. To this aim, first we distinguish the classical notion of free competition from the Walrasian notion of perfect competition and we argue that the latter is beset with some theoretical difficulties alien to the former. Second, we reconstruct in some detail Smith's and Marx's views concerning ma…
Piero Sraffa's lectures on the advanced theory of value 1928–31 and the rediscovery of the classical approach
Sraffa's Lectures on the Advanced Theory of Value 1928–1931 and his two preparatory Notes of summer and November 1927 provide a wealth of material, up to now unpublished, for a reconstruction of the early stage of his inquiry into the cognate fields of pure economic theory and its history. The three manuscripts show that in the late 1920s Sraffa rejected the Marshallian constant-cost interpretation of classical economics, an interpretation to whi…
An appraisal of Piero Sraffa's 'The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions'
The paper proposes a new interpretation of Sraffa's 1926 Economic Journal article, 'The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions', according to which the latter derives from the same strategy of research which underlies its 1925 Italian precursor, 'Sulle relazioni fra costo e quantita prodotta'. Sraffa tested the explanatory power of a Marshallian monopolistic partial equilibrium model and concluded that that model is able to treat one source…
Piero Sraffa on utility and the 'subjective method' in the 1920s: A tentative appraisal of Sraffa's unpublished manuscripts
The paper reconstructs Sraffa's assessment of utility‐based and individualistic explanations of demand in Marshallian economics in the light of some fresh evidence provided by Sraffa's unpublished manuscripts of the 1920s. It is shown that Sraffa criticised the standard Marshallian explanation of individual consumption choices, emphasised the independent measurement requirement in explanation, lacked enthusiasm for the heuristic potentialities of…
On the Limits to the Long-Period Method in Classical Economics: A note
On a first reading of Theory of Production, Kurz & Salvadori (1995) appear to confine the empirical domain of the long-period models of the classical theory of value and distribution to stationary economies with non-constant returns to scale and to growing economies with constant returns to scale. Such a reading is shown to be untenable since it merges the two levels of exploring the extension of a model and of testing a theoretical hypothesis. C…
Method and analysis in Piero Sraffa's 1925 critique of Marshallian economics
This paper provides an analysis of the logical structure and analytical content of Piero Sraffa's 1925 Italian paper, 'Sulle relazioni fra costo e quantita prodotta'. It shows that Sraffa's criticism of the supply side of Marshall's theory of value in a competitive partial equilibrium model involves analytical and methodological issues. Endorsing an agressive methodology Sraffa logically reconstructs Marshall's model on variable returns to determ…
Defense versus Opulence? An Appraisal of the Malthus-Ricardo 1815 Controversy on the Corn Laws
This article proposes a rational reconstruction of the arguments of Malthus and Ricardo in their 1815 essays, Grounds of an Opinion and An Essay on Profits, whereby a policy of free corn trade was repudiated and endorsed, respectively. Malthus envisaged defense and (trade-induced) opulence as two mutually alternative options and, if required to make a choice, he had no hesitation in choosing the former. By contrast, Ricardo excluded any such trad…
The Classical Notion of Competition Revisited
This article seeks to fill a lacuna within classical economics concerning the process of market price determination in situations of market disequilibrium. To this aim, first we distinguish the classical notion of free competition from the Walrasian notion of perfect competition and we argue that the latter is beset with some theoretical difficulties alien to the former. Second, we reconstruct in some detail Smith's and Marx's views concerning ma…
Was It a "Fatal Error"? Sraffa and Samuelson on Marshall's Partial Equilibria Method
Sraffa's "On the Relations between Cost and Quantity Produced" (1925) and Samuelson's "An Exact Hume-Ricardo-Marshall Model of International Trade" (1971) presented a strikingly similar analytical argument regarding the theoretical domain of Marshallian partial equilibrium models. Yet they reached radically different conclusions from their analyses. This article addresses this theoretical puzzle and proposes a plausible solution. To this end, the…
Piero Sraffa's lectures on the advanced theory of value 1928–31 and the rediscovery of the classical approach
Sraffa's Lectures on the Advanced Theory of Value 1928–1931 and his two preparatory Notes of summer and November 1927 provide a wealth of material, up to now unpublished, for a reconstruction of the early stage of his inquiry into the cognate fields of pure economic theory and its history. The three manuscripts show that in the late 1920s Sraffa rejected the Marshallian constant-cost interpretation of classical economics, an interpretation to whi…
Piero Sraffa and Counterfactuals: A View from Sraffa's Unpublished Papers in the Late 1920s
This article reconstructs Sraffa's position with regard to counterfactual reasoning in the second half of the 1920s as documented by his up until now unpublished papers. While Sraffa did not use the term "counterfactual," it is precisely this concept he had in mind when examining certain non-purely-observational propositions and discussing responses to "what if?" questions. He did so with respect to different contexts, but his attention focused p…
Is Food Self-Sufficiency Conducive to Long-Term Growth? An Assessment of Malthus (1803) on the International Corn Trade
We reconstruct the arguments employed by Malthus in the second edition of An Essay on the Principle of Population (1803) concerning the superiority of a balanced growth pattern, and we show their theoretical consistency with Malthus's food self-sufficiency policy proposal in his 1815 pamphlet, Grounds of an Opinion. Malthus (1803) argued that the contemporary British unbalanced and manufacturing export-led growth pattern was not sustainable in th…
Method and analysis in Piero Sraffa's 1925 critique of Marshallian economics
This paper provides an analysis of the logical structure and analytical content of Piero Sraffa's 1925 Italian paper, 'Sulle relazioni fra costo e quantita prodotta'. It shows that Sraffa's criticism of the supply side of Marshall's theory of value in a competitive partial equilibrium model involves analytical and methodological issues. Endorsing an agressive methodology Sraffa logically reconstructs Marshall's model on variable returns to determ…
An appraisal of Piero Sraffa's 'The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions'
The paper proposes a new interpretation of Sraffa's 1926 Economic Journal article, 'The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions', according to which the latter derives from the same strategy of research which underlies its 1925 Italian precursor, 'Sulle relazioni fra costo e quantita prodotta'. Sraffa tested the explanatory power of a Marshallian monopolistic partial equilibrium model and concluded that that model is able to treat one source…
Piero Sraffa on utility and the 'subjective method' in the 1920s: A tentative appraisal of Sraffa's unpublished manuscripts
The paper reconstructs Sraffa's assessment of utility‐based and individualistic explanations of demand in Marshallian economics in the light of some fresh evidence provided by Sraffa's unpublished manuscripts of the 1920s. It is shown that Sraffa criticised the standard Marshallian explanation of individual consumption choices, emphasised the independent measurement requirement in explanation, lacked enthusiasm for the heuristic potentialities of…
On the Limits to the Long-Period Method in Classical Economics: A note
On a first reading of Theory of Production, Kurz & Salvadori (1995) appear to confine the empirical domain of the long-period models of the classical theory of value and distribution to stationary economies with non-constant returns to scale and to growing economies with constant returns to scale. Such a reading is shown to be untenable since it merges the two levels of exploring the extension of a model and of testing a theoretical hypothesis. C…
Piero Sraffa's lectures on the advanced theory of value 1928–31 and the rediscovery of the classical approach
Sraffa's Lectures on the Advanced Theory of Value 1928–1931 and his two preparatory Notes of summer and November 1927 provide a wealth of material, up to now unpublished, for a reconstruction of the early stage of his inquiry into the cognate fields of pure economic theory and its history. The three manuscripts show that in the late 1920s Sraffa rejected the Marshallian constant-cost interpretation of classical economics, an interpretation to whi…
The Classical Notion of Competition Revisited
This article seeks to fill a lacuna within classical economics concerning the process of market price determination in situations of market disequilibrium. To this aim, first we distinguish the classical notion of free competition from the Walrasian notion of perfect competition and we argue that the latter is beset with some theoretical difficulties alien to the former. Second, we reconstruct in some detail Smith's and Marx's views concerning ma…
Defense versus Opulence? An Appraisal of the Malthus-Ricardo 1815 Controversy on the Corn Laws
This article proposes a rational reconstruction of the arguments of Malthus and Ricardo in their 1815 essays, Grounds of an Opinion and An Essay on Profits, whereby a policy of free corn trade was repudiated and endorsed, respectively. Malthus envisaged defense and (trade-induced) opulence as two mutually alternative options and, if required to make a choice, he had no hesitation in choosing the former. By contrast, Ricardo excluded any such trad…
Edward Hastings Chamberlin (1899–1967)
Volume I contains original biographical profiles of many of the most important and influential economists from the seventeenth century to the present day. These inform the reader about their lives, works and impact on the further development of the discipline. The emphasis is on their lasting contributions to our understanding of the complex system known as the economy. The entries also shed light on the means and ways in which the functioning of…
Is Food Self-Sufficiency Conducive to Long-Term Growth? An Assessment of Malthus (1803) on the International Corn Trade
We reconstruct the arguments employed by Malthus in the second edition of An Essay on the Principle of Population (1803) concerning the superiority of a balanced growth pattern, and we show their theoretical consistency with Malthus's food self-sufficiency policy proposal in his 1815 pamphlet, Grounds of an Opinion. Malthus (1803) argued that the contemporary British unbalanced and manufacturing export-led growth pattern was not sustainable in th…
Back to Agriculture
Malthus's main economic argument against free corn trade in his Essay on Population concerned the issue of structural change triggered by international trade. Malthus claimed that, in the long run, agricultural countries will develop their domestic industrial sectors and cut both their corn exports and their imports of foreign industrial goods. We critically assess Malthus's views and compare them with Torrens 1815 and Ricardo 1822. We argue that…
Was It a "Fatal Error"? Sraffa and Samuelson on Marshall's Partial Equilibria Method
Sraffa's "On the Relations between Cost and Quantity Produced" (1925) and Samuelson's "An Exact Hume-Ricardo-Marshall Model of International Trade" (1971) presented a strikingly similar analytical argument regarding the theoretical domain of Marshallian partial equilibrium models. Yet they reached radically different conclusions from their analyses. This article addresses this theoretical puzzle and proposes a plausible solution. To this end, the…
“The principles of political economy, though often quoted, are little understood.” Fleeming Jenkin on trade unions and the law of supply and demand
The paper proposes a rational reconstruction of Fleeming Jenkin’s 1868 analysis of wage determination in labour markets characterised by the presence of trade unions. Jenkin intended to show that the supply and demand theory of market price determination did not support the thesis sustained by the opponents of trade unions that the latter are unable to permanently achieve a market-clearing wage higher than that which would be obtained in their ab…
Piero Sraffa and Counterfactuals: A View from Sraffa's Unpublished Papers in the Late 1920s
This article reconstructs Sraffa's position with regard to counterfactual reasoning in the second half of the 1920s as documented by his up until now unpublished papers. While Sraffa did not use the term "counterfactual," it is precisely this concept he had in mind when examining certain non-purely-observational propositions and discussing responses to "what if?" questions. He did so with respect to different contexts, but his attention focused p…
Piero Sraffa’s ‘The Laws of Returns Under Competitive Conditions’ at 100: A Retrospective Article
This retrospective article provides an overall assessment of Piero Sraffa’s 1926 paper, ‘The Laws of Returns under Competitive Conditions’ (LR), published a century ago in The Economic Journal. In the early 1930s, LR was generally interpreted as a seminal contribution to the literature on imperfect competition, while, at present, it is a key reference in relation to the issues of external economies, increasing returns and the Marshallian theory o…
The paper never written: Sraffa, the isoquant and the marginal shepherd
This paper examines a previously unexplored episode in the early history of the isoquant. In some of his unpublished manuscripts of the late 1920s, Piero Sraffa proposed the use of indifference curves within production theory. He found Marshall’s response to Hobson (Citation1909), and more broadly Marshall’s wage theory based on marginal magnitudes, unconvincing. In Sraffa’s view, this approach obscured the relationship between the marginal produ…
Economic Theory and Institutions (12 works) · Economics (12 works) · Economic Theory and Policy (11 works) · Neoclassical economics (11 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (10 works) · Mathematical economics (5 works) · Mathematics (5 works) · Law (4 works) · Microeconomics (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works)