Formalising Wieser's theory of distribution: consistent imputation in alternative theoretical perspectives

Wieser’s theory of value and distribution has been formalized and interpreted mainly in the framework of efficient allocation of scarce resources. To this end, the mathematical techniques of linear programming have been used by such authors as Samuelson and Uzawa. This paper presents briefly what may be called the Knight–Samuelson–Uzawa formalization and supplements it with different proposed formalizations of some further aspects consistently developed in Wieser’s works. The formalization that we propose concerns Wieser’s theory of interest and his theory of value for ‘cost goods’. It is argued that in such cases the produced means of production, and not the endowments of scarce resources, are at the centre of Wieser’s analysis. It is shown that some appropriately specified models in the Sraffa–von Neumann–Leontief tradition can very usefully be employed in order to strengthen Wieser’s intuitive arguments and give them a sound analytical structure.