Classical labour values – properties of economic reproduction

Zachariah, David and Cockshott, Paul (2018): Classical labour values – properties of economic reproduction.

Abstract

We attempt to clarify and generalize the meaning of economic value as conceptualized in classical political economy. Using a modern formalism, we show that value can be derived as a basic property of systems of economic reproduction. The applicability of the concept is discussed and its relation to inequality, productivity, employment, and unproductive activities are demonstrated.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: classical political economy, labour theory of value
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B0 - General; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C6 - Mathematical Methods ; Programming Models ; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling > C67 - Input-Output Models; P - Economic Systems > P1 - Capitalist Systems > P16 - Political Economy

References

[Arena et al., 2005] Arena, M. V., Pung, H., Cook, C. R., Marquis, J. P., Riposo, J., and Lee, G. T. (2005). The united kingdom’s naval shipbuilding industrial base: The next fifteen years. Technical report, DTIC Document.

[Bacon and Eltis, 1978] Bacon, R. and Eltis, W. (1978). Britain’s economic prob- lem: too few producers, volume 2. Springer.

[Cockshott, 2009] Cockshott, P. (2009). Hilbert space models commodity ex- changes. In International Symposium on Quantum Interaction, pages 299–307. Springer.

[Cockshott et al., 2004] Cockshott, P., Cottrell, A., et al. (2004). Values law values metric. Technical report, University Library of Munich, Germany.

[Cockshott and Zachariah, 2006] Cockshott, P. and Zachariah, D. (2006). Hunting productive work. Science & Society, 70(4):509–527.

[Edgerton, 2011] Edgerton, D. (2011). Britain’s war machine: weapons, resources, and experts in the Second World War. Oxford University Press.

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

[Foley, 2000] Foley, D. K. (2000). Recent developments in the labor theory of value. Review of Radical Political Economics, 32(1):1–39.

[Friedman, 2015] Friedman, N. (2015). The British Battleship: 1906-1946. Naval Institute Press.

[Friedman and Baker, 2009] Friedman, N. and Baker, A. D. (2009). British De- stroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Seaforth.

[Heinrich, 2012] Heinrich, M. (2012). An Introduction to the Three Volumes of Karl Marx’s Capital. Monthly Review Press.

[Hooper and Ash, 1935] Hooper, W. and Ash, H. (1935). Cato and Varro on agri- culture. Loeb Classical Library, (283).

[Keynes, 2010] Keynes, J. M. (2010). How to pay for the war. In Essays in per- suasion, pages 367–439. Springer.

[Marx, 1865] Marx, K. (1865). Wages, Price and Profit.

[Marx, 1867] Marx, K. (1867). Capital, volume 1.

[Marx, 1868] Marx, K. (1868). Letter to Kugelmann in Hanover.

[Marx, 1885] Marx, K. (1885). Capital, volume 2.

[Marx, 1894] Marx, K. (1894). Capital, volume 3.

[Marx, 1970] Marx, K. (1970). Marginal Notes to the Programme of the German Workers’ Party [Critique of the Gotha Programme]. Marx and Engels Selected Works, 3.

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

[Mirowski, 1989] Mirowski, P. (1989). More Heat Than Light: Economics as Social Physics, Physics as Nature’s Economics. Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics. Cambridge University Press.

[Pasinetti, 1979] Pasinetti, L. (1979). Lectures on the Theory of Production. Pal- grave Macmillan UK.

[Ricardo, 1817] Ricardo, D. (1817). The Principles of Political Economy and Tax- ation.

[Rubin, 1978] Rubin, I. I. (1978). Abstract labour and value in marx’s system. Capital & Class, 2(2):107–109.

[Schwartz, 1961] Schwartz, J. (1961). Lectures on the Mathematical Method in Analytical Economics. Gordon and Breach.

[Smith, 1776] Smith, A. (1776). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.

[Sraffa, 1960] Sraffa, P. (1960). Production of commodities by means of commodi- ties. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

[Steele, 1981] Steele, D. R. (1981). Posing the problem: the impossibility of eco- nomic calculation under socialism. Journal of Libertarian Studies, 5(1):7–22.

[Wright, 2017] Wright, I. (2017). The general theory of labour value. In Input- Output and Multisec- toral Analysis: Theory and Applications.