Organisations and institutions in Sraffa’s thinking

The choice of the production process depends on the rate of profit and the rate of wage, which is the result of a conflict between social classes, each of which exerts pressure to obtain favourable policy choices from the political elite. While political institutions and policy measures, determining the distribution of income, derive from conscious choices of social and political actors, economic institutions evolve spontaneously and incrementally. This evolution, of which individuals grasp the implications only ex-post, favours the emergence of institutions that generally do not ensure the efficient allocation of resources. There are, however, historical experiences that show that, in some circumstances, it is possible to consciously establish economic institutions that allow to improve the allocation of resources compared to those which rise spontaneously.