A discussion with Vernon Smith on the Classics, Marx, and Sraffa

Abstract

This paper is a revised version of a discussion with Nobel laureate Vernon Smith on the limits of neoclassical theory and on the opportunity to recover the alternative approach of classical economists and Marx. Vernon Smith is certainly right to insist on the heuristic force of the classical concept of “price discovery”. However, his interpretation of the classical theory of prices remains in many respects undetermined, unless it is clearly anchored to Sraffa.

Keywords

• Vernon Smith
• Neoclassical approach
• Classical approach
• Sraffa
• price discovery
• theory of prices