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LABOR VALUES AND THE IMPUTATION OF LABOR CONTENTS *
Author(s) -
Duménil Gérard,
Lévy Dominique
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
metroeconomica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.256
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-999X
pISSN - 0026-1386
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-999x.1989.tb00448.x
Subject(s) - economics , formalism (music) , imputation (statistics) , value (mathematics) , econometrics , productivity , production (economics) , general equilibrium theory , microeconomics , mathematical economics , macroeconomics , mathematics , statistics , art , musical , missing data , visual arts
In a recent article ( Econometrica 1983), Peter Flaschel presented an empirical procedure for the calculation of labor values in joint production. This procedure was based on a disaggregation of production processes. The concept of «market value» (average value) was then used to determine values on the basis of the single technology which resulted from the disaggregation. In the first part, the formalism of market value is directly applied to the case of joint production, and the conditions for the existence of positive solutions are discussed. We demonstrate that these conditions are quite general, and are not related to conditions concerning the existence of any equilibrium. In this analysis, we substitute the concept of « nonreductivity » for the traditional notion of productivity of the technology. The second part of the article considers the problems involved in procedures of disaggregation. In the third part we discuss the main results obtained, stressing the importance of the difference between values and prices.