Trends in Value Theory since 1881

Freeman, Alan (2010): Trends in Value Theory since 1881. Published in: World Review of Political Economy , Vol. 1, No. 4 (30 December 2010): pp. 567-605.

Abstract

Abstract: This is a prepublication version of an article which originally appeared in the World Review of Political Economy. Please cite as Freeman, A. 2010. ‘Trends in Value Theory since 1881’, World Review of Political Economy Volume 1 No. 4, Fall 2010. pp567-605.

The article surveys the key ideas and currents of thinking about Marx’s value theory since he died. It does so by studying their evolution, in their historical context, through the lens of the Temporal Single System Interpretation (TSSI) of Marx’s ideas, an approach to Marx’s theory of value which has secured significant attention in recent years. The article explains the TSSI and highlights the milestones which led to the evolution of its key concepts.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: theory of value; Marxian economics; TSSI; New Solution; temporalism
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B2 - History of Economic Thought since 1925 > B24 - Socialist ; Marxist ; Sraffian; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B3 - History of Economic Thought: Individuals; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches > B50 - General

References

Arthur, C. (2005) “The Myth of Simple Reproduction.” http://marxmyths.org/chris-arthur/article2.htm

Böhm-Bawerk, E. von. (1949) [1896] “Karl Marx and the Close of His System,” in P. Sweezy, ed., (1984) [1949], Karl Marx and the Close of His System: Böhm-Bawerk’s Criticism of Marx. New York: Augustus M. Kelley.

—— (1960) [1914] Value and Price. South Holland: Libertarian Press, an extract from Book III of Volume III (Positive Theory of Capital) of Capital and Interest.

—— (1984) [1907] “On the Correction of Marx’s Fundamental Theoretical Construction,” translated and reprinted in P. Sweezy, ed., (1984) [1949], Karl Marx and the Close of His System. New York: Augustus M. Kelley. German edition “Zur Berichtigung der grundlengenden theoretischen Konstruktion von Marx im dritten Band des Kapital,” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Serie 3, Band XXIV, July 1907.

Bortkiewicz, L. von. (1952) [1906, 1907] “Value and Price in the Marxian System” (part I), in International Economic Papers, 1952: 2. Originally published in two parts in German as “Wertrechnung und Preisrechnung im Marxschen System” (part I), Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, Band XXIII (I), July 1906; (parts II and III) Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, Band XXV, July and September 1907.

Bronfenbrenner, M. (1968) “Das Kapital for the Modern Man,” in D. Horowitz, ed., (1968), Marx and Modern Economics. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Carchedi, G. (1984) The Logic of Prices as Values. Economy and Society 13, 4.

—— (1996) Non-equilibrium market prices. In Freeman and Carchedi (1996) (eds) Marx and Non-Equilibrium Economics.

Colander, D., H. Foellmer, A. Haas, M. Goldberg, K. Juselius, A. Kirman, et al. (2008) “The Financial Crisis and the Systemic Failure of Academic Economics.” www.ifw-members.ifw-kiel.de/publications/the-financial-crisis-and-the-systemic-failure-of-academic-economics/KWP_1489_ColanderetalFinancialCrisis.pdf

Day, R. B. (1981) Crisis and the Crash: Soviet Studies of the West, 1917–1939. Berlin: Schocken Books.

Dobb, M. (1973) Theories of Value and Distribution since Adam Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Duménil, G. (1980) De la Valeur aux Prix de Production: Une réinterprétation de la transformation. Paris: Economica.

—— (1983) “Beyond the Transformation Riddle: A Labor Theory of Value,” Science & Society 47, 4: 427–450.

Ernst, J. R. (1982) “Simultaneous Valuation Extirpated: A Contribution to the Critique of the Neo-Ricardian Concept of Value,” Review of Radical Political Economics 14, 2: 85–94.

Foley, D. K. (1982) “The Value of Money, the Value of Labor Power and the Marxian Transformation Problem,” Review of Radical Political Economics 14, 2: 37–47.

—— (1986) Understanding Capital: Marx’s Economic Theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Freeman, A. (1995) Marx Without Equilibrium. Capital and Class 56, Summer 1995. pp49-81.

Freeman, A. (1996) “Price, Value and Profit—A Continuous, General, Treatment,” in A. Freeman and G. Carchedi, eds., (1996), Marx and Non-equilibrium Economics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

—— (1998) “The Indeterminacy of Price-Value Correlations: A Comment on Papers by Simon Mohun and Anwar Shaikh,” in R. Bellofiore, ed., (1998), Conference Proceedings of Marxian Economics: A Centenary Appraisal. London: Macmillan.

—— (2007) “Heavens Above: What Equilibrium Means for Economics,” in V. Mosini, ed., Equilibrium in Economics: Scope and Limits. London: Routledge.

—— (2009a) “What Makes the US Profit Rate Fall?” http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/14147/1/MPRA_paper_14147.pdf

—— (2009b) “The Economists of Tomorrow: The Case for a Pluralist Subject Benchmark Statement for Economics,” International Review of Economics Education 8, 2: 23–41.

—— (2010a) “Marxism Without Marx,” Capital and Class 34 (1), January 2010 pp 84-97.

—— (2010b) “Crisis and ‘Law of Motion’ in Economics: A Critique of Positivist Marxism,” Research in Political Economy 26, pp211-250.

Freeman, A., and G. Carchedi (eds.) (1996) Marx and Non-equilibrium Economics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

Freeman, A., and A. Kliman (2008) “Simultaneous Valuation vs. The Exploitation Theory of Profit: A Summing Up,” Capital & Class 32, 1: 107–117.

Freeman, A., A. Kliman, and J. Wells (eds.) (2004) The New Value Controversy and the Foundations of Economics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

Friedman, M. (1953) “The Methodology of Positive Economics,” in Essays in Positive Economics. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Gattei, G. (1982) “Les Chaires ‘Ratées’ de Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz,” Revue Européenne des Sciences Sociales 20, 62.

Giussani, P. (1991) “The Determination of Prices of Production,” International Journal of Political Economy 21 (Winter 1991/92): 67–87.

Harcourt, G. C. (1972) Some Cambridge Controversies in the Theory of Capital. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hawkins, D., and H. A. Simon (1949) “Note: Some Conditions of Macroeconomic Stability,” Econometrica 17: 245–54.

Heidegger, M. (1993) (14th ed) Sein und Zeit. Berlin: Niemeyer.

Hicks, J. R. (1937) “Mr Keynes and the Classics,” Econometrica (April). Reprinted in J. R. Hicks (1982) Money, Interest and Wages: Collected Essays on Economic Theory, vol. 2. Blackwell. pp. 100–115.

Hodgson, G. (1980) “A Theory of Exploitation without the Labor Theory of Value,” Science and Society 44, 3: 257–273.

Hollander, S. (1981) “Marxian Economics as General Equilibrium Theory,” History of Political Economy 13, 1.

Hunt, E. K., and M. Glick (1987) “Transformation Problem,” in J. Eatwell et al., eds., (1990), The New Palgrave: Marxian Economics. London: Macmillan; New York: W. W. Norton.

Jaffé, W. (ed.) (1965) Correspondence of Léon Walras and Related Papers. Amsterdam: North Holland.

Johnston, W. M. (1983) The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History, 1848–1938. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Kliman, A. (1988) “The Profit Rate Under Continuous Technologi¬cal Change,” Review of Radical Political Economics 20, 2/3.

—— (2001) “Simultaneous Valuation vs. The Exploitation Theory of Profit,” Capital & Class 73: 97–112.

—— (2004) “Spurious Value-Price Correlations: Some Additional Evidence and Arguments,” Research in Political Economy 21: 223–238.

—— (2005) “Reply to Cockshott and Cottrell,” Cambridge Journal of Economics 29, 2: 317–323.

—— (2007) Reclaiming Marx’s Capital: A Refutation of the Myth of Inconsistency. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

—— (2010a) “The Disintegration of the Marxian School,” Capital and Class 34 (1), January 2010. pp61-68.

—— (2010b) The Persistent Fall in Profitability Underlying the Crisis: New Temporalist Evidence. New York: Marxist-Humanist Initiative.

Kliman, A., and A. Freeman (2006) “Replicating Marx: A Reply to Mohun,” Capital & Class 88: 117–126.

—— (2008) “Simultaneous Valuation vs. The Exploitation Theory of Profit: A Summing Up,” Capital & Class 32, 1: 107–117.

Kliman, A., and T. McGlone (1988) “The Transformation non Problem and the non Transformation Problem,” Capital & Class 35 (Summer): 56–83.

Kuhn, R. (2007) Henryk Grossman and the Recovery of Marxism. Illinois: University of Illinois Press.

Kuhn, T. (1970) [1962] The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2nd ed., enlarged. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Kurz, H., and N. Salvadori (1995) Theory of Production: A Long-Period Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Laibman, D. (2004) “Rhetoric and Substance in Value Theory: An Appraisal of the New Orthodox Marxism,” in A. Freeman, A. Kliman, and J. Wells, eds., (2004), The New Value Controversy in Economics. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.

Lee, Chai-On (1993) “Marx’s Labour Theory of Value Revisited,” Cambridge Journal of Economics 17, 4: 463–478.

Maldonado-Filho, E. (1994) “Release and Tying up of Productive Capital and the ‘Transformation Problem,’” URPE conference at the ASSA, Fall. Available at www.iwgvt.org

Mandel, E. (1974) Late Capitalism. London: Verso.

Mandel, E. and A. Freeman (1984) (eds) Marx, Ricardo and Sraffa. London: Verso

Marshall, A. (1890) Principles of Economics. London: Macmillan and Co.

Marx, K. (1972) Theories of surplus value, Volume III. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

—— (1973), Grundrisse: Foundations of the critique of political economy. London: Penguin.

—— (2004) Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. I. The Process of Capitalist Production. London: Penguin; New York: Vintage.

—— (2006a) Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. II. The Process of Circulation of Capital. London: Penguin; New York: Vintage.

—— (2006b) Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. III. The Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole. London: Penguin; New York: Vintage.

May, K. (1948) “Value and Price of Production: A Note on Winternitz Solution,” Economic Journal 58.

Meek, R. (1979) Studies in the Labour Theory of Value. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

Mohun, S. (2003a) “On the TSSI and the Exploitation Theory of Profit,” Capital & Class 81: 85–102.

—— (2003b) “The Australian Rate of Profit, 1965–2001,” Journal of Australian Political Economy 52.

Mohun, S., and R. Veneziani (2007) “The Incoherence of the TSSI: A Reply to Kliman and Freeman,” Capital & Class 92: 139–145.

Morishima, M. (1973) Marx’s Economics: A Dual Theory of Value and Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Moseley, F. (1993a) “Marx’s Logical Method and the ‘Transformation Problem,’” in F. Moseley, ed., (1993b), pp. 157–183.

—— (ed.) (1993b) Marx’s Method in Capital: A Re-examination. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.

Moszkowska, N. (1979) [1925] El Sistema de Marx: Un aporte para su construcción. México: Pasado y Presente.

Murray, R. (1973) “Productivity, Organic Composition and the Falling Rate of Profit,” Bulletin of the Conference of Socialist Economists, Spring: 53–56.

Naples, M. I. (1985) “Dynamic Adjustment and Long-run Inflation in a Marxian Model,” Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics, 8, 1.

—— (1989) “A Radical Economic Revision of the Transformation Problem,” Review of Radical Political Economics 21, 1/2: 137–158.

—— (1996) “Time, Money, Equilibrium: Methodology and the Labour Theory of the Profit Rate,” in A. Freeman, and G. Carchedi, eds., (1996), Marx and Non-equilibrium Economics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. pp95-115.

Ochoa, E. M. (1984) “Labor-Values and Prices of Production: An Interindustry Study of the United States Economy, 1947–1972.” PhD dissertation, Department of Economics, New School for Social Research, New York.

O’Driscoll, Jr., G. P., and M. J. Rizzo (1996) The Economics of Time and Ignorance. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

Okishio, N. (1961) “Technical Changes and the Rate of Profit,” Kobe University Economic Review 7.

Osuna, G. R. (2003) “Un Modelo Secuencial para el Cálculo de Precios. El caso Español 1986–1994.” PhD dissertation, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia UNED, Spain.

Pasinetti, L. (1979) Lectures on the Theory of Production. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Prychitko, D. L. (1998) Why Economists Disagree: An Introduction to the Alternative Schools of Thought. New York: State University of New York Press.

Ramos-Martínez, A. (1991) “Competencia y Reproducción Capitalista: Una Interpretación de la Transformación de Valores en Precios de Producción,” Ciencias Económicas 11, 1/2: 53–79 (Costa Rica). Reprinted, with some changes, in Realidad Económica 105/106 (1992): 191–212 (Buenos Aires).

____(1996) ‘The Monetary Expression of Labor: An interpretation of the relation between value-substance and value-form.’ Paper presented at the Eastern Economic Association conference, Boston, March.

—— (1998–99) “Value and Price of Production: New Evidence on Marx’s Tranformation Procedure,” International Journal of Political Economy 28, 4, pp55–81.

—— (2004) “Labour, Money, Labour-Saving Innovation, and the Falling Rate of Profit,” in A. Freeman, A. Kliman, and J. Wells, eds., (2004), The New Value Controversy and the Foundations of Economics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, pp. 67–84.

Ramos-Martinez, A., and A. Rodriguez-Herrera (1996) “The Transformation of Values into Prices of Production: A Different Reading of Marx’s Text,” in A. Freeman and G. Carchedi, eds., (1996), Marx and Non-equilibrium Economics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

Reuten, G. (2004) “‘Zirkel vicieux’ or Trend Fall? The Course of the Profit Rate in Marx’s Capital III,” History of Political Economy 36, 1: 163-186.

Roemer, J. E. (1989) Free to Lose: Introduction to Marxist Economic Philosophy. 2nd ed. Radius.

Rosdolsky, R. (1989) The Making of Marx’s “Capital.” London: Pluto.

Ryaboshlyk, V. A. (2006) “Dynamic Input–Output Model with Explicit New and Old Technologies: An Application to the UK,” Economic Systems Research 18, 2: 183–203.

Samuelson, P. (1971) “Understanding the Marxian Notion of Exploitation: A Summary of the So-called ‘Transformation Problem’ between Marxian Values and Competitive Prices,” Journal of Economic Literature 9, 2: 399–431.

Samuelson, P., and D. Nordhaus (1989) Economics. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Seton, F. (1957) “The ‘Transformation Problem,’” Review of Economic Studies 24: 149–160.

Shaikh, A. (1984) “The Transformation from Marx to Sraffa,” in Mandel and Freeman (eds.) 1984, pp. 43–84.

—— (1998) “The Empirical Strength of the Labor Theory of Value,” in R. Bellofiore, ed., (1998), Conference Proceedings of Marxian Economics: A Centenary Appraisal. London: Macmillan.

Sowell, T. (1974) Classical Economics Reconsidered. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Sraffa, P. (1960) Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities: Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

Steedman, I. (1981) [1977] Marx after Sraffa. London: New Left Books.

Stigler, G. J. (1965) “Textual Exegesis as a Scientific Problem,” Economica 32, 128: 447–450.

Sweezy, P. M. (1970) [1942] The Theory of Capitalist Development: Principles of Marxian Political Economy. New York: Modern Reader Paperbacks.

—— (ed.) (1984) [1949] Karl Marx and the Close of his System. Philadelphia: Orion Editions. Originally published by London: Merlin, and New York: Augustus M. Kelley.

Todaro, M. P., and S. C. Smith (2009) Economic Development. 10th ed. Harlow, England: Addison-Wesley.

Walras, L. (1984) [1876] Elements of Pure Economics or the Theory of Social Wealth. Philadelphia: Orion Editions. Translation by W. Jaffé, of Éléments d’Économie politique pure.

Winternitz, J. (1948) “Values and Prices: A Solution of So-called Transformation Problem,” Economic Journal 58.

Wolff, R., A. Callari, and B. Roberts (1984) “A Marxian Alternative to the Traditional ‘Transformation Problem,’” Review of Radical Political Economics 16, 2/3: 115–135.

Wolff, R., B. Roberts, and A. Callari (1982) “Marx’s (not Ricardo’s) ‘Transformation Problem’: A Radical Reconceptualization,” History of Political Economy 14, 4: 564–582.