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)     

Marx and Ricardo on machinery: a critical note

This article critically discusses the important and relevant—not to mention controversial— views of Ricardo and Marx on the impact of machinery on labor productivity, the organization of production and the wages and employment prospects of the working class during the capitalism of their day. First, the article turns to Ricardo’s assessment of the introduction of machinery and its likely effects on the laborer and the rate of profit and accumulation—one which went through a substantial revision (and reversal) between the first and third editions of his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Then, we discuss Marx’s own critical analysis of the historical development of machinery and its impact on the labor process, the so-called “compensation principle,” and how the rising organic composition of capital ostensibly generates a “redundant or surplus-population” during the course of capitalist development. We highlight Marx’s intellectual debt to Ricardo, John Barton (and George Ramsay) insofar as his theory of technological unemployment is concerned. Lastly, the article summarizes the views of Ricardo and Marx and offers some concluding remarks.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Screpanti versus Marx on exploitation: a comment

Abstract

Ernesto Screpanti recently claimed to prove that Marx's value theory is logically inconsistent. Jettisoning the value theory, he then reconstructed Marx's theory of exploitation in a manner that supposedly preserves the gist of the original. This note shows that Screpanti's proof of inconsistency is invalid and that his reconstruction contradicts the original theory of exploitation in significant ways, for instance by implying that workers who perform surplus labor can exploit capitalists.     

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 on aggregation of CES-type production functions

In this note we shall be concerned with the aggregation of the constant elasticity of substitution (CES) type of production function. In particular we will derive the error made by using the arithmetic averages as they are usually published, rather than the theoretically required averages.     

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.     

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。     

人工智能时代马克思劳动价值论和剩余价值论的创新理解

文章主要讨论了在生产活动中担任"领头羊"角色的人工智能对马克思劳动价值论和剩余价值论的创新。首先讨论了人工智能时代下商品生产的诸多新变化,其中包括劳动资料、产业结构和生产关系的变化。后续探究了人工智能时代下,对剩余价值以及相对剩余价值的创新理解。最后,文章解释了为何人工智能的发展是社会主义归来之道并论述了人工智能在社会主义经济体制下的"共享效应"。     

Optimal production of transplant care services

Most organ transplants are from dead donors. National transplant organizations exhibit considerable differences in terms of their donor population rates. Spain's organization is by far the most efficient in this respect. We argue that much of the productivity advantage of Spain's transplant organization proceeds from an efficient organization of the production chain, from organ procurement to transplantation. Transplants from dead donors are analogous to a common resource for the transplant community. Their circulation through the national transplant organization creates public good externalities between the care units in charge of organ retrieval and those in charge of transplantation. A socially efficient production of transplant care services obtains through an optimal control, by the national transplant agency, of both the circulation and the production of transplants. In particular, transplant shortage makes the rotten kid theorem fail in this context. The analysis also produces a natural measure of public good externalities, evaluated from the standpoint of care units.     

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.