Abstract
Abstract:
Kei Shibata （1902―1986）, a creative theoretical economist, was the first Japanese economist to gain international recognition. One of his most famous works is an attempt to synthesize Walrasian/Casselian General Equilibrium Theory with Marxian Economic Theory. Most of his economic theories were first published in Keizaironso and were later included in his first book, Rironkeizaigaku （meaning theoretical economics） published in 1935 and 1936.
After completing this book, Shibata turned to investigating new economic principles be-yond capitalism. Shibataʼs investigation had some byproducts. The most remarkable was an attempt to generalize Böhm-Bawerkʼs concept of the average period of production （APP）, which is defined as the length of the roundabout production process, whereby capital goods are first produced and then employed in the production of the final consumer good. This con-cept was criticized because it can only be applied in the case of a single linear stage pattern of production, but not in the case of an autoregressive pattern of input―output structure. Later studies reveal that the concept is destined to fail because as the roundabout period of produc-tion reaches an infinite value, the APP also reaches an infinite value.
However, Shibata presented a mathematical way of determining the APP using an autoregressive pattern of the input―output structure. In addition, he concluded that in such cases, the APP has a finite value. His investigation is connected to the concept of the so-called capital intensity in modern economics and the organic composition of capital in Marx-ian economics. Therefore, his findings require further research. Hence, the present study aims to re-examine Shibataʼs contribution to the generalization of Böhm-Bawerkʼs theory of the APP.
JEL classification numbers: B 41, B 53, D 24.
