I was very saddened to hear of Anwar Shaikh’s passing. Anwar was one of the most important Marxian economists of his generation, perhaps together with David Gordon and Duncan Foley, at least in the US, both his colleagues at the New School.* He spent his career defending and developing the surplus approach in the broadest sense, against both mainstream economics and much of heterodox economics.
I disagreed with him on many things. On the theory of value, on Marx’s law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, on Say’s Law, and particularly on the determination of real exchange rates and purchasing power parity. In fact, an entire chapter of my PhD dissertation was devoted to his theory of exchange rates, which I regarded then, and still regard, as the main Marxist approach to the subject. The thesis was also critical of both mainstream and Post Keynesian theories of exchange rate determination, btw. I also disagreed with him on a number of policy questions, including the causes of inflation in many Latin American countries. These were not minor differences.
I also think that some of his work was creative and important in many respects, and closer to my views (not just issues of conflictive distribution associated to the surplus approach). His critique of comparative advantage influenced my understanding of the topic (also here). His work on the welfare state is something I often cite and use in classes. And his paper on the humbug production function was perhaps his most famous work.
Whether I agreed or disagreed with him, that never diminished my respect for him. Anwar was intellectually honest, genuinely pluralistic, and always willing to engage seriously with arguments with which he disagreed. That is rarer than it should be in economics. He believed deeply that alternative traditions in political economy had to be developed rigorously and confronted with both theory and evidence.
His work kept alive a broad classical and Marxian tradition centered on production, distribution, competition and the social surplus. The questions he insisted on asking were important ones, and his willingness to argue about them openly made heterodox economics better. He will be greatly missed.
PS: Bard College has an archive with his papers that is worth exploring.
* Sam Bowles would be another possible name, but I don't think he considers himself a Marxist anymore (and he might be right). I would also not put analytical or post-modern Marxists at this level. These are obviously debatable views.
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