Classical Labor Values: Properties of Economic Reproduction

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World Review of Political Economy

Volume 11, Issue 3

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Classical Labor Values: Properties of Economic Reproduction

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Author(s): David Zachariah , Paul Cockshott

Publication date (Print): 1 October 2020

Journal: World Review of Political Economy

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: value, labour value, prices of production

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Abstract

We consider economic value as a property that renders heterogeneous goods and services commensurable. Starting from the basic division of output between workers and non-workers, we are able to derive value as a property of systems of economic reproduction. We show its relation to value in classical political economy and in Sraffian economic theory. We go on to discuss the applicability of the derivation and its relevance for analyzing distribution, productivity and employment in a wide range of economies.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50005553

Journal ID (jcode): worlrevipoliecon

Title: World Review of Political Economy

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 2042-891X

ISSN: 2042-8928

Publication date (Print): 1 October 2020

Volume: 11

Issue: 3 ( doiID: 10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.11.issue-3 )

Pages: 388-414

Article

Publisher ID: worlrevipoliecon.11.3.0388

DOI: 10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.11.3.0388

SO-VID: c119bf62-59f6-4d81-aafa-e994835f2458

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lang eng

ScienceOpen disciplines: Political economics

Keywords: value,labour value,prices of production

References

Arena, M. V., H. Pung, C. R. Cook, J. P. Marquis, J. Riposo, and G. T. Lee. 2005. The United Kingdom's Naval Shipbuilding Industrial Base: The Next Fifteen Years. Technical Report, DTIC Document.
Bacon, R., and W. Eltis. 1978. Britain's Economic Problem: Too Few Producers. London: Macmillan.
Brody, A. 1970. Prices, Proportions and Planning: A Mathematical Restatement of the Labour. London: North-Holland Publishing Co.
Cockshott, P. 2009. “Hilbert Space Models Commodity Exchanges.” In International Symposium on Quantum Interaction, edited by P. Bruza, D. Sofge, W. Lawless, K. van Rijsbergen, and M. Klusch, 299–307. Saarbrücken: Springer.
Cockshott, P., and A. Cottrell. 1998. “Does Marx Need to Transform?” In Marxian Economics: A Reappraisal, vol. 2, edited by R. Bellofiore, 70–85. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cockshott, P., and A. Cottrell. 2004. Values Law Values Metric. Technical Report, University Library of Munich, Germany.
Cockshott, P., and D. Zachariah. 2006. “Hunting Productive Work.” Science & Society 70 (4): 509–527.
Dupertuis, M. S., and A. Sinha. 2009. “A Sraffian Critique of the Classical Notion of Centre of Gravitation.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 33 (6): 1065–1087.
Edgerton, D. 2011. Britain's War Machine: Weapons, Resources, and Experts in the Second World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eurostat. 2008. “Eurostat Manual of Supply, Use and Input-Output Tables.” Methodologies and Working Papers.
Farjoun, E. 1984. “The Production of Commodities by Means of What?” In Ricardo, Marx, Sraffa, edited by E. Mandel and A. Freeman, 11–41. London: Verso.
Farjoun, E., and M. Machover. 1983. Laws of Chaos: A Probabilistic Approach to Political Economy. London: Verso.
Foley, D. K. 2000. “Recent Developments in the Labor Theory of Value.” Review of Radical Political Economics 32 (1): 1–39.
Friedman, N. 2015. The British Battleship: 1906–1946. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing.
Friedman, N., and A. D. Baker. 2009. British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing.
Fröhlich, N. 2010. Dimensional Analysis of Price-Value Deviations. Technical Report from Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany.
Heinrich, M. 2012. An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Hooper, W., and H. Ash. 1935. Cato and Varro on Agriculture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Keynes, J. M. 2010. “How to Pay for the War.” In Essays in Persuasion, by J. M. Keynes, 367–439. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kurz, H. D., and N. Salvadori. 1997. Theory of Production: A Long-Period Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lenzen, M., and J. M. Rueda-Cantuche. 2012. “A Note on the Use of Supply-Use Tables in Impact Analyses.” Statistics and Operations Research Transactions 36 (2): 139–152.
Marx, K. 1865. “Value, Price and Profit.” Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/index.htm.
Marx, K. 1867. Capital, vol. 1. Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/index.htm.
Marx, K. 1868. “Letter to Kugelmann in Hanover.” Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1868/letters/68_07_11-abs.htm.
Marx, K. 1885. Capital, vol. 2. Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1885-c2/index.htm.
Marx, K. 1894. Capital, vol. 3. Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/index.htm.
Marx, K. 1970. “Marginal Notes to the Programme of the German Workers' Party.” In Marx and Engels Selected Works, vol. 3, 13–30. Moscow: Progress Publishers.
Marx, K. 1999. Theories of Surplus Value: Books I, II, and III. New York: Prometheus Books/Humanity Books.
Mazzucato, M. 2018. The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. London: Penguin Books.
Mirowski, P. 1989. More Heat than Light: Economics as Social Physics, Physics as Nature's Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Onishi, H. 2019. “A Proof of Labor Theory of Value Based on Marginalist Principle.” World Review of Political Economy 10 (1): 85–94.
Pasinetti, L. 1979. Lectures on the Theory of Production. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ricardo, D. 1817. The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/ricardo/tax/.
Rubin, I. I. 1978. “Abstract Labour and Value in Marx's System.” Capital and Class 2 (2): 107–109.
Shaikh, A. 2016. Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, A. 1776. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-adam/works/wealth-of-nations/.
Sraffa, P. 1960. Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Steedman, I. 1977. Marx after Sraffa. London: NLB.
Steele, D. R. 1981. “Posing the Problem: The Impossibility of Economic Calculation under Socialism.” Journal of Libertarian Studies 5 (1): 7–22.
Thompson, G. L., and R. L. Weil. 1971. “Von Neumann Model Solutions Are Generalized Eigensystems.” In Contributions to the Von Neumann Growth Model, edited by G. Bruckmann and W. Weber, 139–154. Vienna: Springer.
Valle Baeza, A. 2010. “Dimensional Analysis of Price-Value Correspondence: A Spurious Case of Spurious Correlation.” [In Spanish.] Investigacion Economica 60 (274): 119–130.
von Neumann, J. 1945. “A Model of General Economic Equilibrium.” Review of Economic Studies 13 (1): 1–9.
von Neumann, J. 1955. Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Wright, I. 2015. “The Law of Value: A Contribution to the Classical Approach to Economic Analysis.” PhD thesis, The Open University.
Zachariah, D. 2006. “Labour Value and Equalisation of Profit Rates.” Indian Development Review 4 (1): 1–21.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Arena, M. V., H. Pung, C. R. Cook, J. P. Marquis, J. Riposo, and G. T. Lee. 2005. The United Kingdom's Naval Shipbuilding Industrial Base: The Next Fifteen Years. Technical Report, DTIC Document.

[2] Bacon, R., and W. Eltis. 1978. Britain's Economic Problem: Too Few Producers. London: Macmillan.

[3] Brody, A. 1970. Prices, Proportions and Planning: A Mathematical Restatement of the Labour. London: North-Holland Publishing Co.

[4] Cockshott, P. 2009. “Hilbert Space Models Commodity Exchanges.” In International Symposium on Quantum Interaction, edited by P. Bruza, D. Sofge, W. Lawless, K. van Rijsbergen, and M. Klusch, 299–307. Saarbrücken: Springer.

[5] Cockshott, P., and A. Cottrell. 1998. “Does Marx Need to Transform?” In Marxian Economics: A Reappraisal, vol. 2, edited by R. Bellofiore, 70–85. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

[6] Cockshott, P., and A. Cottrell. 2004. Values Law Values Metric. Technical Report, University Library of Munich, Germany.

[7] Cockshott, P., and D. Zachariah. 2006. “Hunting Productive Work.” Science & Society 70 (4): 509–527.

[8] Dupertuis, M. S., and A. Sinha. 2009. “A Sraffian Critique of the Classical Notion of Centre of Gravitation.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 33 (6): 1065–1087.

[9] Edgerton, D. 2011. Britain's War Machine: Weapons, Resources, and Experts in the Second World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[10] Eurostat. 2008. “Eurostat Manual of Supply, Use and Input-Output Tables.” Methodologies and Working Papers.

[11] Farjoun, E. 1984. “The Production of Commodities by Means of What?” In Ricardo, Marx, Sraffa, edited by E. Mandel and A. Freeman, 11–41. London: Verso.

[12] Farjoun, E., and M. Machover. 1983. Laws of Chaos: A Probabilistic Approach to Political Economy. London: Verso.

[13] Foley, D. K. 2000. “Recent Developments in the Labor Theory of Value.” Review of Radical Political Economics 32 (1): 1–39.

[14] Friedman, N. 2015. The British Battleship: 1906–1946. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing.

[15] Friedman, N., and A. D. Baker. 2009. British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing.

[16] Fröhlich, N. 2010. Dimensional Analysis of Price-Value Deviations. Technical Report from Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany.

[17] Heinrich, M. 2012. An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx's Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.

[18] Hooper, W., and H. Ash. 1935. Cato and Varro on Agriculture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[19] Keynes, J. M. 2010. “How to Pay for the War.” In Essays in Persuasion, by J. M. Keynes, 367–439. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

[20] Kurz, H. D., and N. Salvadori. 1997. Theory of Production: A Long-Period Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[21] Lenzen, M., and J. M. Rueda-Cantuche. 2012. “A Note on the Use of Supply-Use Tables in Impact Analyses.” Statistics and Operations Research Transactions 36 (2): 139–152.

[22] Marx, K. 1865. “Value, Price and Profit.” Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/index.htm.

[23] Marx, K. 1867. Capital, vol. 1. Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/index.htm.

[24] Marx, K. 1868. “Letter to Kugelmann in Hanover.” Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1868/letters/68_07_11-abs.htm.

[25] Marx, K. 1885. Capital, vol. 2. Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1885-c2/index.htm.

[26] Marx, K. 1894. Capital, vol. 3. Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/index.htm.

[27] Marx, K. 1970. “Marginal Notes to the Programme of the German Workers' Party.” In Marx and Engels Selected Works, vol. 3, 13–30. Moscow: Progress Publishers.

[28] Marx, K. 1999. Theories of Surplus Value: Books I, II, and III. New York: Prometheus Books/Humanity Books.

[29] Mazzucato, M. 2018. The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy. London: Penguin Books.

[30] Mirowski, P. 1989. More Heat than Light: Economics as Social Physics, Physics as Nature's Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[31] Onishi, H. 2019. “A Proof of Labor Theory of Value Based on Marginalist Principle.” World Review of Political Economy 10 (1): 85–94.

[32] Pasinetti, L. 1979. Lectures on the Theory of Production. New York: Columbia University Press.

[33] Ricardo, D. 1817. The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/ricardo/tax/.

[34] Rubin, I. I. 1978. “Abstract Labour and Value in Marx's System.” Capital and Class 2 (2): 107–109.

[35] Shaikh, A. 2016. Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[36] Smith, A. 1776. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Accessed June 1, 2020. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-adam/works/wealth-of-nations/.

[37] Sraffa, P. 1960. Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[38] Steedman, I. 1977. Marx after Sraffa. London: NLB.

[39] Steele, D. R. 1981. “Posing the Problem: The Impossibility of Economic Calculation under Socialism.” Journal of Libertarian Studies 5 (1): 7–22.

[40] Thompson, G. L., and R. L. Weil. 1971. “Von Neumann Model Solutions Are Generalized Eigensystems.” In Contributions to the Von Neumann Growth Model, edited by G. Bruckmann and W. Weber, 139–154. Vienna: Springer.

[41] Valle Baeza, A. 2010. “Dimensional Analysis of Price-Value Correspondence: A Spurious Case of Spurious Correlation.” [In Spanish.] Investigacion Economica 60 (274): 119–130.

[42] von Neumann, J. 1945. “A Model of General Economic Equilibrium.” Review of Economic Studies 13 (1): 1–9.

[43] von Neumann, J. 1955. Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

[44] Wright, I. 2015. “The Law of Value: A Contribution to the Classical Approach to Economic Analysis.” PhD thesis, The Open University.

[45] Zachariah, D. 2006. “Labour Value and Equalisation of Profit Rates.” Indian Development Review 4 (1): 1–21.