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NEGATIVE LABOUR VALUES AND THE PRODUCTION POSSIBILITY FRONTIER
Author(s) -
Cottrell Allin
Publication year - 1996
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.1996.tb00388.x
Subject(s) - economics , rate of profit , prices of production , inefficiency , neoclassical economics , criticism , context (archaeology) , profit rate , labor theory of value , profit (economics) , microeconomics , law , paleontology , biology , political science
ABSTRACT Steedman's theoretical finding of negative labour values associated with positive equilibrium prices has been criticised on the grounds that this situation obtains only in inefficient economies. A recent paper by Hosoda claims that this criticism is valid only in two‐dimensional joint‐product systems. It is argued here that the dimensionality of the system is of no relevance to the “inefficiency critique” of Steedman. Rather, the validity of the critique turns on matters relating to the growth rate and the rate of profit. The argument that processes inefficient in a static context may be viable in the context of von Neumann growth is considered, and the implications for the labour theory of value are assessed. Marx's critique of capitalist economic calculation is supported by reference to the divergence of Sraffian prices and Samuelsonian values when the rate of profit is in excess of the rate of growth.