Marx's Concept of Prices of Production: Long-Run Center of Gravity Prices

2000

This paper is an introduction to my recent book Money and Totality: A Macro-Monetary Interpretation of Marx’s Logic in Capital and the End of the “Transformation Problem” (Brill 2016). My book emphasizes two main aspects of Marx’s logical method in Capital: (1) Marx’s theory is primarily a macroeconomic theory of the total surplus-value produced in the economy as a whole; and (2) Marx’s theory is a monetary theory from beginning to end and the circuit of money capital – M - C … P … C’ - M’ – is the logical framework of Marx’s theory. It follows from this 'macro-monetary' interpretation that, contrary to the prevailing view, there is no 'transformation problem' in Marx’s theory; Marx’s theory of prices of production in Part 2 of Volume 3 of Capital is logically consistent and complete. The first two sections of this introduction discuss in turn these two key aspects of Marx’s logical method. The third section presents an algebraic summary of this macro-monetary interpretation. And the final two sections discuss the textual evidence for and against the monetary aspect of Marx’s method. It is hoped that reading this introduction will generate interest in reading the book.

1980

These comments refer to Anwar Shaikh's description of Marx's law of the tendency of the general rate of profit to fall. Shaikh's micro-foundation of such a tendency is found to be not fully convincing. Shaikh emphasises lower unit costs as su,icient for a competitive advantage, although this usually goes along with a rising capital-output ratio, which implies a falling rate of proct. He mentions, but cnally does not deal with the problem whether on the basis of a now lower rate of proct production capacities can still be raised enough to out-produce the competition. In this article, in order to get the result of a falling rate of proct, an approach is presented that assumes not only the lowering of unit costs but also the continuous replacement of labour input by machines, which goes along with a falling rate of growth of productive employment. These assumptions also include the behaviour of individual crms and thus provide a micro-foundation for the tendency of the rate of proct to fall. Keywords Anwar Shaikh's " Capitalism " – micro-foundation of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall-Okishio theorem-socially necessary labour time-labour value – transformation problem – steady-state growth model – labour saving technical progress In his analysis of Marx's law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall Anwar Shaikh uses a Sra´an 1 framework. Techniques are decned by input-output coe´cients. In Sra´an models the wage rate is decned by a basket of consumption goods per unit of labour input. Under the assumption that prices of products are constant over time, and that a common rate of proct, which is the maximum possible one, emerges, it is possible to compute the common general rate of proct and these prices, if one price is cxed as a numéraire. It is also possible to compute the production shares in total output of the di,erent sectors. For simpliccation it is assumed that all wages are spent on consumption goods and all profits on investment goods. Profits equal savings, which equal investment. Wages equal demand for consumption. A justiccation for this assumption is that in comparison consumption of capitalists is negligible. Even if large per capitalist, it is still small in total due to the small number of capitalists. An additional reasoning is that luxury consumption cannot become too abundant, because this

Essays in the Revival of Political Economy, 1980

Consecutio Rerum no. 5, 2019

Marx’s labour theory of value cannot be understood without the critique of the value theories of classical political economy, especially that of Adam Smith and David Ricardo. It is therefore by necessity inflicted with the presupposition of its own intellectual context. Presupposition however is not only central to the formation of the labour theory of value as «analogous to Newton’s Laws in mechanics» (Duncan Foley) in the realm of social science. Presupposition, a strong Hegelian topos, also basically informs the level of Marx’s critique as the critique of the forms, and hence, the fetish-character of value, as they appear within the bourgeois economic horizon. However, it is precisely the unfolding of the presuppositions of «simple exchange», «money», «profit» etc. that puts Marx’s method in contrast to the apotheosis of given data that informs «economics» today. First, I will first recapitulate the aporias in the theories of value of the classics to show how Marx developed the original labour theory of value. Second, the demand of “presuppositionlessness” and the “proof ” of the LTV that has (mis)informed approaches in Marxian value recently, will be critically targeted.

Handbook of Marxian Economics (Routledge), 2017

Marx presented his theory of rent in what are considered to be two of his most mature economic works: Theories of Surplus Value (henceforth, TSV) and Capital. In TSV, written during 1862–3, Marx investigated the historical development of the concept of rent by examining the related theoretical challenges, contributions of, and errors committed by previous thinkers. In Capital, written throughout the 1860s, 1870s, and early 1880s, the theory of rent was presented in a detailed manner within the context of what Marx calls the general laws of value of commodities and of capitalist production. In what follows, we present Marx's theory of rent based on these two major works. More specifically, we summarize his critique of earlier thinkers on the subject; provide a description of the fully developed theory of rent he advanced as a result of this critique; and finally present an overview of the various interpretations and debates of this theory that have been proposed within the Marxian economic tradition up through the first fifteen years of the 21 st century. Critique of the Physiocrats and Adam Smith Marx began his analysis of rent in TSV by stating that " all economists share the error of examining surplus-value not as such, in its pure form, but in the particular forms of profit and rent " (Marx 1975, I: 40). Following this assessment, Marx began his investigation of the historical development of the concepts of surplus-value, profit, and rent by identifying the Physiocrats as the first thinkers to make significant contributions to our understanding of these economic categories. Writing in the early 1700's, the Physiocrats argued that agriculture is the sector of the economy where surplus-value is created, since " the sum total of the means of subsistence which the laborer consumes … is smaller than the sum total of the means of subsistence which he produces " (Marx 1975, I: 46). Having defined surplus-value as the excess of use-values produced over and above the use-values consumed by agricultural workers, the Physiocrats defined rent as the appropriation of this surplus of use-values by landlords.

2011

Page 1. 04/06/2012 1 David Ricardo on Natural and Market Prices Rodolfo Signorino The distinction between the natural and market prices of commodities is one of the hallmarks of Classical economic theory.