Abstract

FERRER RAMIREZ, Salvador. The role of consumption and the State in reproduction A formalization of the Torrens-Benetti theory. Polít. cult. [online]. 2018, n.50, pp.227-254. ISSN 0188-7742.

Robert Torrens, contemporary classical economist of David Ricardo, has a theory of reproduction with a high degree of instability. In this vision there is a special structure where the inputs in each of the sectors of the economy are proportional to production. A system with this structure is what Torrens calls the “good proportions”. This author assigns him an important role because it is the only case in which the system reproduces in the long term; in any other situation the system tends to the crisis of overproduction. In order for the system to resume a path of growth Torrens proposes the intervention of a central agent. In this work we build a mathematical model, supported by Carlo Benetti's formalization of the concept of effective demand, in which we incorporate the action of a central agent that through consumption and a tax in kind eliminates the surplus in production with the objective that the economy can resume a path of growth.

Keywords : crisis; reproduction; effective demand; consumption; intervention.