Written on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Piero Sraffa's Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, the papers selected and contained in Sraffa and the Reconstruction of Economic Theory account for the work completed around the two central aspects of his contribution to economic analysis, namely the criticism of the neoclassical (or marginalist) theory of value and distribution, and the reconstruction of economic theory along the lines of the Classical approach. Divided into three volumes, Sraffa and the Reconstruction of Economic Theory debates the most fruitful routes for advancement in this field and their implications for applied and policy analysis. This second volume focuses on the theory of output and growth as developed in the modern classical approach on the basis of the extension to the long run of the Keynesian principle of effective demand, and on the implications of the revival of the classical approach for policy analysis and for understanding the evolution of the international economic order in the last few decades.

Investigates implications of domestic debt on consumption and growth, and studies separation of debt and monetary management.

Over the past decades, economists have witnessed with growing uneasiness their failure to explain the ballooning of public debt in most countries. This book provides an alternative orientation that explains why concepts of public debt that are relevant for authoritarian regimes are not relevant for democratic regimes. Using methodological individualism and micro-economics, this book overcomes flaws inherent in the standard macro approach, according to which governments manipulate public debt to promote systemic stability. This unique analysis is grounded in the writings of Antonio de Viti de Marco, injecting current analytical contributions and formulations into the framework to offer a forthright insight into public debt and political economy.

How have the most influential political economists of the past three centuries theorized about sovereign borrowing and shaped its now widespread use? That important question receives a comprehensive answer in this original work, featuring careful textual analysis and illuminating exhibits of public debt empirics since 1700. Beyond its value as a definitive, authoritative history of thought on public debt, this book rehabilitates and reintroduces a realist perspective into a contemporary debate now heavily dominated by pessimists and optimists alike.

The last time global sovereign debt reached the level seen today was at the end of the Second World War, and this shaped a generation of economic policymaking. International institutions were transformed, country policies were often draconian and distortive, and many crises ensued. By the early 1970s, when debt fell back to pre-war levels, the world was radically different. It is likely that changes of a similar magnitude -for better and for worse - will play out over coming decades. Sovereign Debt: A Guide for Economists and Practitioners is an attempt to build some structure around the issues of sovereign debt to help guide economists, practitioners and policymakers through this complicated, but not intractable, subject. Sovereign Debt brings together some of the world's leading researchers and specialists in sovereign debt to cover a range of sub-disciplines within this vast topic. It explores debt management with debt sustainability; debt reduction policies with crisis prevention policies; and the history with the conjuncture. It is a foundation text for all those interested in sovereign debt, with a particular focus real world examples and issues.

What are the central questions of economics and how do economists tackle them? This book aims to answer these questions in 100 essays, written by economists and selected from "The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics". It shows how economists deal with issues ranging from trade to taxation.

High public debt often produces the drama of default and restructuring. But debt is also reduced through financial repression, a tax on bondholders and savers via negative or belowmarket real interest rates. After WWII, capital controls and regulatory restrictions created a captive audience for government debt, limiting tax-base erosion. Financial repression is most successful in liquidating debt when accompanied by inflation. For the advanced economies, real interest rates were negative 1⁄2 of the time during 1945–1980. Average annual interest expense savings for a 12—country sample range from about 1 to 5 percent of GDP for the full 1945–1980 period. We suggest that, once again, financial repression may be part of the toolkit deployed to cope with the most recent surge in public debt in advanced economies.

David Ricardo on Public Debt provides a comprehensive view of the topic of public debt from the Ricardian standpoint. It shows how and why Ricardo's analysis of public debt connects to other themes and issues in Ricardian economics. With extensive reference to Ricardo's own words Churchman demonstrates that his writings and speeches on the subject of public debt provide an interesting exploration of issues still very relevant today. In addition, they furnish us with a rich source of evidence regarding topics of interest to all Ricardian scholars, including his theories of resource allocation and economic growth, the quality of his applications of analysis to practical questions, and the motives behind both his abstract reasoning and policy recommendations.

Arguably one of the most important economists who has lived, Ricardo's impact on the economics profession is immense. This unique and comprehensive Companion elucidates his significance and continuing legacy. Ricardo made major contributions to all fields of the subject, from monetary issues to value and income distribution, from capital accumulation, technical progress and economic growth to foreign trade and international specialisation, and from taxes to public debt. What he called the main problem of political economy, the distribution of income and wealth, is again back on the political and economic agenda with a vengeance. Leading experts in the field explore his influence and offer novel interpretations of received doctrines.