ABSTRACT
The Cambridge controversies of the late 1960s to which Geoffrey Harcourt prominently contributed were mostly understood at the time as a critique of neoclassical economic theory. However, these debates also gave rise to streams of economic theorizing which attempted to produce alternative theoretical frameworks. One direction of non-neoclassical theory concentrated on the analysis of structural economic dynamics (see, e.g. Pasinetti 1981 and 1993; Lowe 1976; Quadrio-Curzio 1986). The present paper is a short sketch of a contribution to positive production analysis which emphasizes organizational issues and the fact that actual forms of production organization are always compromises in the fulfilment of a range of ‘efficiency’ criteria. We believe that the framework presented (we call it the ‘T-F-M approach to production analysis’, combining the analysis of tasks, funds and materials in process) is conducive to the study of structural change in actual economies.
