Some notes on Piero Sraffa’s theoretical contribution

Abstract

This work consists of a general and preliminary review of some fundamental elements present in Sraffa's 1960 book, with special emphasis on his basic internal critique of the neoclassical theoretical framework. This criticism is based on the problem of ordering techniques in response to distributive changes with heterogeneous capital. We made a brief review of the so-called “wage-profit curve”, used as a theoretical framework to determine the choice of techniques, therefore their ordering. Preliminary examples will be analyzed, from an economy that produces only one basic good, through the production of a non-basic good and then the case of more than one basic good. We start with the hypothetical case of homogeneous capital, introducing then the general case of heterogeneous capital, concluding the article with the basic elements of Sraffa's critique of the neoclassical notion of capital.