Garegnani and the surplus approach

The article reviews Garegnani’s 2024 book (Capital Theory, the Surplus Approach, and Effective Demand: An Alternative Framework for the Analysis of Value, Distribution and Output Levels, Springer), collecting his most important essays, carefully edited by Roberto Ciccone. Pierangelo Garegnani (1930-2011) was one of the main exponents of the surplus approach. The review article recalls his important contributions to the critique of the marginalist theory of value and distribution, and provides a critical overview of his contributions to the construction of a Classical-Sraffian approach based on the notions of a ‘core’ of economic theory and of ‘long-period positions’, suggesting the possibility of an alternative Sraffian-Keynesian construction.