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  4. Spring 2019
  5. Retrospectives: Ricardo on Machinery

Journal of Economic Perspectives

ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)

Retrospectives: Ricardo on Machinery

  • Samuel Hollander
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 33, no. 2, Spring 2019
(pp. 229–42)
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Abstract

We are currently experiencing an outpouring of concern both popular and professional regarding technological unemployment. I shall be discussing an apparent about-turn on the subject by David Ricardo (1772-1823), who at different times, even in different chapters of the same book, and, indeed, even at different places in the same chapter, seemed to be on both sides of the argument as to whether technological unemployment should be a matter for concern. In a chapter entitled "On Machinery," added to the third edition of his Principles of Political Economy (1821), which comprises volume 1 of his Collected Works (1951-73), Ricardo announced that he had become concerned about the possibility, even likelihood, of technical change detrimental to labour's interests. However, in the very same "On Machinery" chapter, Ricardo also outlined qualifications to show that there was little need for concern. Ricardo's opposing messages are reflected in contrasting reactions to the chapter "On Machinery." Some readers—including Thomas Robert Malthus and J. R. McCulloch—understood it as supporting working-class opposition to machinery. Others—including John Stuart Mill and Sir John Hicks—find therein the answer to such opposition.

Citation

Hollander, Samuel. 2019. "Retrospectives: Ricardo on Machinery." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33 (2): 229–42. DOI: 10.1257/jep.33.2.229

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • B12 History of Economic Thought: Classical (includes Adam Smith)
  • B31 History of Economic Thought: Individuals
  • E24 Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
  • J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
  • J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
  • O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
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