Giuseppe Curreri

This paper deals with unemployment crises linked to the so-called general glut problem studied in classical economic theory. Its aim is to compare the main authors who analyzed the issue in order to highlight the differences in their approaches. On the one hand, some economists, such as Ricardo and Say himself, believed in Say’s Law, at the same time taking into consideration the emergence of temporary unemployment, due to technological constraints. On the other hand, Sismondi and Malthus focused their analysis on the role of the demand for goods and on excess production. In particular, the latter outlined a seminal distinction between product innovation and process innovation.