Value, Technical Change, and Crisis: Explorations in Marxist Economic TheoryThis text brings together studies in various aspects of the theory of the capitalist economy. It focuses on major themes of the Marxist tradition that postulate the existence and importance of social relations and structures underlying the esoteric realm of economic categories: prices, profits, wages, etc. The author takes a reappraising, critical look at the concepts of the deep structure - value, explitation, immanent crisis - using the analytical tools of modern economics to improve those concepts. The book is divided into four parts. Part 1 explores the essential nature of capitalism, re-examining problems in the theory of value and exploitation. Part 2 tackles the issue of capitalism-specific paths of growth and technical change, putting forward a rigorous theory of biased technical change and non-steady-state growth. Part 3 examines the cyclical character of capitalist growth and the theory of crises. Finally, Part 4 places capitalism in the wider framework of modes of production, considering the theory of precapitalist formations and aspects of the theory and practical experience of socialism. The guiding theme is the combination, or confrontation, of rigorous, quantitative analytical techniques with equally demanding qualitative and political-economic conceptualization. The book's premise is that this interface is essential to a progressive yet distinctively Marxist social theory. |
Contents
A Conceptual Reconstruction | 3 |
The Capitalist Transformation of Value | 27 |
Labor Value and Exploitation | 55 |
Productive and Unproductive Labor | 71 |
An Overview | 91 |
Technical Change the Real Wage and the Rate of Exploitation | 103 |
TwoSector Growth with Endogenous Technical Change | 146 |
An Overview | 175 |
From Consistent Path to Secular Crisis | 230 |
Modes of Production and Theories of Transition | 259 |
Historical Materialist Interpretations | 297 |
Prices Social Structures and Labor Values | 316 |
Toward a Working Theory of the Socialist Economy | 334 |
| 357 | |
| 371 | |
About the Author 388 | |
Profit Cycles and Investment Catastrophes | 199 |
Cyclical Growth and Intersectoral Dynamics | 215 |
Other editions - View all
Value, Technical Change and Crisis: Explorations in Marxist Economic Theory David Laibman Limited preview - 2016 |
Value, Technical Change, and Crisis: Explorations in Marxist Economic Theory David Laibman No preview available - 1992 |
Value, Technical Change, and Crisis: Explorations in Marxist Economic Theory David Laibman No preview available - 1992 |
Common terms and phrases
a₁ abstract accumulation analysis argument assume assumption capital stock capitalist economy chapter coefficient competitive composition of capital concept conjunctural profit rate consistent path constant constant capital consumer crisis current labor cycle cyclical determined dynamic economic enterprise equal equilibrium existence falling rate feudal Figure fixed capital force G₁ growth rate H sector historical implies individual capital input invariance labor power labor value Laibman Marx Marx's Marxian Marxist mechanization function mode of production Okishio organic composition p₁ parameters PF/PR planning political position postulate prices of production problem profit rate profit share rate of exploitation rate of profit real wage reproduction result rising role Science & Society simple commodity production slave social relations socialist Soviet stage structure surplus value technical change technique tendency theoretical tion transformation Transformation Problem unemployment unit unproductive labor variable variable capital vintage wage share workers
