Università Roma Tre

The course aims to present the main theories of value and distribution in their historical development. This should be understood in two senses. On the one hand, the course focuses on the reconstruction of the strictly analytical problems that have gradually arisen within the Classical and the Neoclassical (marginalist) theories of value and distribution in their traditional formulations. In this way students are offered the tools to look with greater awareness at the form in which those approaches present themselves today. On the other hand, the authors who will be considered in the course will be placed in their respective historical context, with a view to highlighting the nature of social science proper to political economy. In this regard, particular attention will be given to the drastic change of approach that took place in economic theory in the period immediately following Ricardo, and for which it seems difficult to find an explanation on exclusively analytical grounds.