Ricardo's Volte-Face on Machinery
Journal of Political Economy
1986
A formal restatement of the numerical example Ricardo invoked to explain his change of mind on the feasibility of the depressing effect of technology on labor underlines the analytical difficulty that he could not overcome and thus explains his inconclusive results. This difficulty is basically due to the absence of a clearly perceived demand theory--demands for goods, factor services, and money--characteristic of him and of classical economics in general. Since the focus of the technology labor issue is on the expected change of demand for labor in response to technical change, the failure of classical economists and of Ricardo to propose a relevant theory was inevitable.
- DOI
- 10.1086/261391
- Volume
- 94 (3, Part 1)
- Pages
- 595-613
- Language
- en
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