Marx on entrepreneurship: A note

This paper argues that in mainstream economics the concept of entrepreneurship is imposed by the theoretical framework adopted in order to justify the source of profits. In contrast, in Marx’s analysis there is a consistent theory of profit which inevitably leads to a specific theory of entrepreneurship. (JEL: B10, B14, B21)     

A note on the statistical verification of Marx: comment on Cockshott and Cottrell

This Note questions the statistical validity of the analysesof the relationship between the rate of profit and the organiccomposition across industries.     

Job creation and persistence in services and manufacturing

An important new literature on gross employment flows has produced a great outpouring of stylized facts. In this paper we examine one aspect of this literature through the lens of dynamic models and theories of industrial evolution. We extend the Davis and Haltiwanger methodology for analysis of the persistence of gross job creation, distinguishing the persistence of new jobs from business births and from expansions. The persistence rates are then compared with those expected in each sector if average annual job creation and destruction were distributed across the business population independently of the prior years changes. The results provide a basis for discussing aspects of the different dynamics of job creation in services and manufacturing.JEL Classification: J6, L6, L8, M13Correspondence to: Zoltan J. AcsThis research was conducted while the authors were research associates at the Center for Economic Studies of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, with support from the American Statistical Association/National Science Foundation/Census Bureau Research Program under grant number SBR 9808594. We would like to thank Radwan Saade for valuable research assistance, seminar participants at the International J. A. Schumpeter Society Conference in Manchester, England and two anonymous referees for helpful comments. The research results and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily represent the views of the Census Bureau or of the Center for Economic Studies. The usual caveat applies.     

Pure joint production and international trade: a note

This paper applies the principles of the neo-Ricardian (or Sraffian)theory of international trade to certain joint production systems.It is shown that, in contrast with single-product systems, (i)there is not always a pattern of international specialisation,which would entail the increase of the real wage rate in botheconomies, and (ii) the ‘law of comparative advantage’has no general validity. Furthermore, not only the existenceof such a pattern of specialisation but also the validity ofthis law depend on the values of the variables of distributionof income. The analysis is wholly based on two of the numericalexamples formulated by Bidard in 1997, and further generalisedin an elementary way only when this is considered necessary.     

Marx 200: The Abiding Relevance of the Labour Theory of Value

ABSTRACT

Marxist political economy is alive and well, and not just because of the habitual turn to Marx in response to any crisis of capitalism. Both through Capital and through the continuing evolution of Marxism, Marxist political economy offers valuable insights that can illuminate the modalities of social and economic reproduction and the relationships between (different aspects of) the economic and the non-economic. Marxism’s presence has been felt through its own internal debates and debates with other approaches to political economy, and even through its influence on those reacting against Marxism. The key to the continuing relevance and analytical strengths of Marxist political economy lies in its capacity to provide a framework of analysis for unifying disparate insights into and critiques of the contradictions of capitalism across the social sciences. The instrument for forging that unity is Marx’s theory of value, the potential of which is examined and illustrated with reference to the Sraffian critique and two key concepts in Marxian political economy: the value of labour power and financialisation. They are explored in the light of the processes of commodification, commodity form and commodity calculation.     

深化对马克思劳动价值论的理解

目前 ,许多学者认为马克思的劳动价值论已经不能解释社会主义市场经济中的价值创造 ,也不能解释当代发达的资本主义国家的价值创造。为此 ,一些学者开始否定马克思的劳动价值论 ,也有一些学者提出了名为拓展马克思劳动价值论实则歪曲马克思劳动价值论的观点。针对这一情况 ,本文认为我国的经济学界应从四方面深化对马克思劳动价值论的理解。     

A note concerning the proposed emasculation of the legal services corporation

In its frenzy to dismantle the New Deal and Great Society programs of past progressive administrations, the Reagan administration has taken a special interest in the emasculation of the Legal Services Corporation. This should come as no great surprise.Then Governor Reagan and thethen Legal Services Program became immediate adversaries at the time of the program's inception. The purpose in this paper is to examine the pending emasculation of this instrumentality of legal reform in the context of structural changes elsewhere in the American legal profession.     

不能把马克思、恩格斯局限于“劳动价值论”一元论--从方法论角度再论马克思、恩格斯价值理论本相及其它

马克思、恩格斯共识于“价值时对效用和劳动花费的衡量”,因为它与生产力与生产关系矛盾统一的唯物史观原理相适应：“价值”与“生产力”同义。但是,这种价值理论在《资本论》各卷中的展述却是按照“从抽象上升到具体”的方法,从抽象的“劳动价值论”出发,一步一步上升为“具体”的。细读之,可以发现,每向“具体”前进一步,都靠使劳动价值论与某种突现使用价值决定性的理论相结合而完成,其理论实质是使劳动价值论被纳入唯物史观框架。显然,马克思、恩格斯的价值理论不限于劳动价值论,它是由抽象劳动价值论上升为具体的宏观“效用/劳动价值论”的理论体系。西方学关于第一第三卷彼此矛盾的说法,以及一些马克思主义针对的反击,虽名有些合理之处,但也均陷入了对马克思、恩格斯劳动价值论的绝对化和形式主式误解。     

马克思的价值论与财富论的联系与区别

有些学者将价值与财富混淆在一起,甚至在马克思主义经济学界内部,在肯定和维护劳动价值理论的同时,对马克思和恩格斯强调的劳动是价值的惟一源泉而不是使用价值即物质财富的惟一源泉的理论观点,理解得也不够准确。对此,有必要强调:价值论与财富论的适用范围不同;劳动是价值的惟一源泉,而不是财富的惟一源泉;劳动和自然物质是财富的源泉。     

The co-location of production and distribution: emergent trends in consumer services

This paper identifies ,re-emergence, of the co-location of elements of the production 'process with the distribution process in a range of consumer series. It suggests that this trend is being facilitated by technological development, particularity in control systems, that allow many of the benefits of centralized production to be achieved with decentralized production and that co-location satisfies additional consumer preferences, not achievable with centralized production. The authors indicate how this trend might be examined within a posi--Fordist framework.     

Analytical lenses on innovation: a research note

Industrial innovation is the focus of a wide range ofresearch efforts. This research is highly diverse; focusing, for example, on the nature and process of innovation, systems and particular technologies, sectors and firms . Each of these different approaches is revealing and greater efforts are needed to combine the insights fram different disciplines and methodologies to enhance cumulativeness in our knowledge of this important issue.     

Endogenous technological change: a note on stability

Summary. This paper demonstrates that the steady-state solution of the optimal-growth problem in Romer's (1990) model of endogenous technological change is globally saddle-point stable. Surprisingly, the proof of this result is trivial. Interest in the optimal growth path is justified by the fact that there is a (unique) combination of production and R&D subsidies by means of which the optimal growth path is attained as a market equilibrium. Received: October 6, 1998; revised version: April 19, 1999     

马克思对古典经济学劳动价值论的认识究竟是如何转变的

在马克思的经济学理论创立过程中,马克思对古典经济学及劳动价值论的认识是逐步深化的。这一过程本身究竟是如何发生和发展的,国内外学术界存在着不同看法。本文拟对马克思的这一理论认识和发展过程进行新的解读。     

Institutional incentives for managing the landscape: Inducing cooperation for the production of ecosystem services

Agricultural landscapes hold tremendous potential for producing a diverse stream of ecosystem services. Yet, because the spatial configuration of particular ecosystems is critical to the supply of many services, realizing this potential requires that farms be managed in a coordinated way across landscapes rather than as independent units. Under existing incentive programs, this level of coordination is typically neither required nor encouraged.Here we explore how to achieve such coordination from an institutional perspective using voluntary incentives rather than regulation. We focus on three services operating at contrasting scales, from local to global: pollination, hydrologic services, and carbon sequestration. First, we briefly illustrate how agricultural practices can diminish or enhance their provision. Next, we show how all three services require coordinated, landscape-scale management because provision depends upon particular spatial configurations, of which we provide several stylized examples. Finally, based on these stylized configurations, we evaluate the relative merits of three incentive designs-the “cooperation bonus,” the “entrepreneur,” and the “ecosystem service district”-to promote cross-farm cooperation to enhance service provision.All three incentive systems rely on rational self-interest, have cooperative configurations to promote ecosystem services across different scales, use tiered reward systems, and have a major voluntary element. They are distinct in certain key features. The cooperation bonus system rewards conservation even without cooperation but adds a bonus for cooperation. In the entrepreneur incentive, all tiers of reward are contingent upon cooperation. The ecosystem service district scheme is only partially voluntary and forces cooperation of all landowners once the district is formed. Our analysis of these heuristic alternatives integrates biophysical, economic, and institutional factors with the aim of addressing the suite of institutional barriers for landscape-scale management.     

马克思恩格斯的分工与市场思想及其当代价值

梳理马克思和恩格斯的分工理论,可以发现他们在《共产党宣言》中早已阐述分工发展与市场扩展之间循环累积的相互促进关系,而这被理论界称之为斯密-杨格定理.从思想史贡献和理论体系来看,这一命名完全忽视了马克思和恩格斯的思想贡献.本文忠实于马克思和恩格斯的经典论著,开展了以下工作:(1)追溯思想渊源,梳理发展脉络,从思想史上阐明是马克思恩格斯最早最完整地论述分工发展与市场扩展之间循环累积的相互促进关系思想;(2)阐明两类分工在分工发展与市场扩展中的地位,并对分工是政治经济学的一切范畴的范畴提出新解释;(3)基于分工是社会劳动的总体形态,解析分工的内在结构,提出以分工发展与市场扩展之间循环累积的相互促进关系为核心的经济发展机制,以此为基础解释现实经济问题,说明马克思和恩格斯的分工与市场思想的当代价值.