A Critical Marxist Approach to Capital Theory

Cavalieri, Duccio (2013): A Critical Marxist Approach to Capital Theory.

Abstract

This essay provides a critical Marxist reformulation, internal to the cultural tradition of Western Marxism, of Marx’s theoretical treatment of value and capital. It implies the abandonment of the ‘pure’ labour theory of value of the young Marx in favour of a ‘mixed’ labour-and capital theory of value reflecting the different theoretical perspective shown by the mature Marx, after his epistemological break described by Althusser. The accounting practice of defining and measuring income and capital is criticized, for its disregard of the financial cost of invested capital. Foley’s ‘New Interpretation’ of Marx’s theoretical system and its main variants are refused for their acritical endorsement of Marx’s assumption of a ‘new-value equality’ between the net product of the economy and the living labour employed in the production of gross output. A different method for converting quantities of labour-time in terms of money, which accounts for explicit and implicit costs, is proposed.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: value; labour; capital; money; income; capital theory; Marx; critical Marxism; scientific Marxism; surplus approach; net value equality; new interpretation; single-system interpretations; MEV; MELT.
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B1 - History of Economic Thought through 1925 > B12 - Classical (includes Adam Smith); B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B2 - History of Economic Thought since 1925 > B22 - Macroeconomics; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches > B51 - Socialist ; Marxian ; Sraffian; D - Microeconomics > D2 - Production and Organizations > D24 - Production ; Cost ; Capital ; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity ; Capacity; D - Microeconomics > D4 - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design; D - Microeconomics > D4 - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design > D46 - Value Theory; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E1 - General Aggregative Models > E11 - Marxian ; Sraffian ; Kaleckian; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E2 - Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy > E22 - Investment ; Capital ; Intangible Capital ; Capacity; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E4 - Money and Interest Rates > E41 - Demand for Money; G - Financial Economics > G0 - General > G00 - General; G - Financial Economics > G3 - Corporate Finance and Governance > G31 - Capital Budgeting ; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies ; Capacity

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