Fabian Balardini | Borough of Manhattan Community College (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Fabian Balardini

Routledge eBooks, Mar 16, 2017

International Journal of Social Economics, 2018

Purpose Teaching complex economic theories can be made relevant through everyday life experiences... more Purpose Teaching complex economic theories can be made relevant through everyday life experiences and current economic, social, and environmental crises can be used as vehicles for student learning. The purpose of this paper is to help students understand that the economy should be seen as a social system that evolves over time driven by conflictive and contradictory forces and enable them to develop the critical thinking skills needed to make better choices for a more equitable and sustainable future. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews the historical role played by neoliberalism on education in general and on the teaching of economics in particular. A historical/critical/action-learning approach discusses five pedagogical teaching methods that have been implemented in undergraduate economics courses and demonstrates how teaching social economics can be made possible by bringing the real world into the classroom and taking the classroom into the real world. Findings There...

International Journal of Social Economics , 2018

The article reviews the historical role played by neoliberalism on education in general and on th... more The article reviews the historical role played by neoliberalism on
education in general and on the teaching of economics in particular. A historical/critical/action-learning
approach discusses five pedagogical teaching methods that have been implemented in undergraduate
economics courses and demonstrates how teaching social economics can be made possible by bringing the
real world into the classroom and taking the classroom into the real world.
Findings – There is an urgent need to rethink the teaching of economics and the economics curriculum from
one that stresses self-interest, profit maximization and cost minimization, to one that stresses cooperation,
collaboration, fairness, and ethical values rather than economic value, as ways of satisfying society’s needs
and addressing systemic issues of inequality, power and greed. Bringing teachers and students together in
collaborative learning environments, thereby learning from the mistakes of the past and minimizing the
impacts of the present so that future generations can also participate, is the much-needed change in how
social economics can be taught post-financial crisis.

Handbook of Marxian Economics (Routledge), 2017

Marx presented his theory of rent in what are considered to be two of his most mature economic wo... more Marx presented his theory of rent in what are considered to be two of his most mature economic works: Theories of Surplus Value (henceforth, TSV) and Capital. In TSV, written during 1862–3, Marx investigated the historical development of the concept of rent by examining the related theoretical challenges, contributions of, and errors committed by previous thinkers. In Capital, written throughout the 1860s, 1870s, and early 1880s, the theory of rent was presented in a detailed manner within the context of what Marx calls the general laws of value of commodities and of capitalist production. In what follows, we present Marx's theory of rent based on these two major works. More specifically, we summarize his critique of earlier thinkers on the subject; provide a description of the fully developed theory of rent he advanced as a result of this critique; and finally present an overview of the various interpretations and debates of this theory that have been proposed within the Marxian economic tradition up through the first fifteen years of the 21 st century. Critique of the Physiocrats and Adam Smith Marx began his analysis of rent in TSV by stating that " all economists share the error of examining surplus-value not as such, in its pure form, but in the particular forms of profit and rent " (Marx 1975, I: 40). Following this assessment, Marx began his investigation of the historical development of the concepts of surplus-value, profit, and rent by identifying the Physiocrats as the first thinkers to make significant contributions to our understanding of these economic categories. Writing in the early 1700's, the Physiocrats argued that agriculture is the sector of the economy where surplus-value is created, since " the sum total of the means of subsistence which the laborer consumes … is smaller than the sum total of the means of subsistence which he produces " (Marx 1975, I: 46). Having defined surplus-value as the excess of use-values produced over and above the use-values consumed by agricultural workers, the Physiocrats defined rent as the appropriation of this surplus of use-values by landlords.

This article presents a detailed analysis of a numerical example used by Marx in Theories of Surp... more This article presents a detailed analysis of a numerical example used by Marx in Theories of Surplus Value to criticize David Ricardo's and Adam Smith's theories of rent. The objective of this analysis is to show: i.) that the interpretation of Marx's theory of rent by the Marxist tradition has committed the same theoretical mistakes that Marx identified in Ricardo and Smith; ii) that in order to overcome the theoretical mistakes identified by Marx a different interpretation of Marx's theory of rent is required in which demand in conjunction with production conditions are identified as the dominant forces in the formation of the market-value of commodities.

Razon Y Revolucion, Sep 13, 2013

Este artículo presenta un análisis detallado de un ejemplo numérico que Marx utilizo en Teorías s... more Este artículo presenta un análisis detallado de un ejemplo numérico que Marx utilizo en Teorías sobre la Plusvalía como parte de su crítica a las teorías de la renta de David Ricardo y Adam Smith. El objetivo de este análisis es demonstrar lo siguiente: i) que la interpretación de la teoría de la renta de Marx por la tradición Marxista ha cometido los mismos errores teóricos que Marx identificó en Ricardo y Smith; ii) que para superar los errores que Marx identificó en Ricardo y Smith se requiere una interpretación de la teoría de la renta de Marx en la cual la demanda, junto con las condiciones de producción, juegan un rol determinante en el proceso de formación del valor de mercado de las mercancías.