The Marxian labor theory of value has been criticized in recent years by neoclassical and Sraffian economists as superfluous to the analysis of capitalist economies. It is argued in this paper the usual presentations and de fenses of the labor theory of value are indeed faulty, but the theory itself is never theless indispensable. We develop a defense of the labor theory of value based on the proposition that both labor and labor-power fail to reduce to generalized commodity relations.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Louis Althusser.Reading Capital. N.Y.: Pantheon , 1970.
2.
Louis Althusser.Lenin and Philosophy. N.Y.Monthly Review Press, 1971.
3.
Samir Amin.The Law of Value and Historical Materialism. N.Y. . Monthly Review, 1978.
4.
A. Aumeeruddy, B. Lautier, and R. Tortajada, "Labor Power and the State," Capital and Class6 (Autumn, 1978).
5.
Etienne Balibar, in Louis Althusser and Etienne Balibar. Reading Capital . N.Y.Pantheon, 1970.
6.
Gary Becker.Human Capital. N.Y.Nat Bureau of Economic Research, 1964.
7.
M. Best and Wm. Connoly. "Politics and Subjects: The Limits of Structuralist Marxism." Socialist Review48 (Nov.-Dec. 1979: 75-100).
8.
Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk.Karl Marx and the Close of his System, Paul Sweezy (ed.), Clifton, N.J.: Kelley, 1973.
9.
Samuel Bowles.Planning Educational Systems for Economic Growth. Cambridge : Harvard Univ. Press, 1969.
10.
S. Bowles and H. Gintis, "The Problem with Human Capital Theory: A Marxian Critique", American Economic Review65: 2 (May 1975).
11.
S. Bowles and H. Gintis.Schooling in Capitalist America. New York: Basic Books, 1976.
12.
S. Bowles and H. Gintis. "The Crisis of Liberal Democratic Capitalism," New Left Review, forthcoming, 1981.
13.
H. Braverman.Labor and Monopoly Capital. N.Y.: Monthly Review Press, 1974.
14.
Nikolai Bukharin.Historical MaterialismRussell and Russell, N.Y., 1965.
15.
C. Castoriadis. "From Marx to Aristotle, from Aristotle to Us." Social Reserach45: 4 (Winter, 1978).
16.
Nancy Chodorow.The Reproduction of Mothering. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
17.
Lucio Colletti.From Rousseau to Lenin. N.Y.: Monthly Review Press, 1972.
18.
A. Emmanuel. "The Wage in the Marxian Outlook." Mimeo, 1975.
19.
John Eatwell and Joan Robinson.An Introduction to Modern Economics. N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, 1973.
20.
Ann Ferguson and Nancy Folbre. "The Unhappy Marnage of Patnarchy and Capitalism." Mimeo, 1979.
21.
Ben Fine and Lawrence Harris "State Expenditures in Advanced Capitalism." New Left Review98 (July-August 1976).
22.
Helmut Fleischer.Marxism and History. Boston. Beacon Press, 1969.
23.
Nancy Folbre. "The Reproduction of Labor Power." Mimeo, 1979.
24.
Nancy Folbre. "Of Patriarchy Born." Mimeo, 1980.
25.
Jean Gardiner. "Women's Domestic Labour," New Left Review89, (Jan.-Feb. 1975): 59-71.
26.
P. Jean Garegnani. "Heterogeneous Capital, the Production of Function and the Theory of Distribution." Review of Economic Studies371970: 407-436).
27.
H. Gintis. "The Nature of the Labor Exchange." Review of Radical Political Economics (Summer 1976).
28.
H. Gintis. "Theory, Practice, and the Tools of Communicative Discourse "Socialist Review (Spring 1980).
29.
Herbert Gintis and Samuel Bowles. "The Marxian Theory of Value and Heterogeneous Labor: a Critique and Reformulation." Cambridge Journal of Economics12 (June 1977).
30.
Herbert Gintis and Samuel Bowles. "Contradictions and Reproduction in Educational Theory ." The Open University, forthcoming, 1980.
31.
M. Godelier. "Infrastructures, Societies, and History." New Left Review112 (Nov.-Dec. 1978).
32.
Andre Gorz.A Strategy for Labor. Boston: Beacon Press, 1967.
33.
Antonio Gramsci.Prison Notebooks. N.Y.: International Publishers, 1971.
34.
Heidi Hartmann. "The Family as the Locus of Gender Class and Political Struggle: The Example of Housework." Mimeo, 1979.
35.
Rudolf Hilferding.Bohm-Bawerk's Critique of Marx. N.Y.: Kelley, 1960.
36.
Susan Himmelweit and Simon Mohun, "Domestic Labour and Capital," Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1: 1, (March 1977).
37.
Jane Humphries "Class Struggle and the Persistence of the Working Class Family," Cambridge Journal of Economics (Sept. 1977); 241-255. pp. 241-255.
38.
E. Laclau.Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory. London : New Left Books, 1977.
39.
David Yaffe. "The Marxian Theory of Crisis, Capital, and the State." Economy and Society (1973).
40.
O. Lange. "Marxian Economics and Modern Economic Theory." Review of Economic Studies, June 1935 reprinted in D. Horowitz, Marx and Modern Economics, N.Y.: Monthly Review Press, 1968: 68-87.
41.
Georg Lukacs.History and Class ConsciousnessCambridge: MIT Press, 1971.
42.
Karl Marx.The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. Dirk Struik (ed.), N.Y., 1963.
43.
Karl Marx.Capital, Vol I. N.Y.: International Publishers, 1967.
44.
Karl Marx.The GrundrisseN.Y.: Vintage , 1973.
45.
Karl Marx.Preface to a Critique of Political Economy in Marx on Modern Economics , D. Horowitz (ed.) N.Y.: Monthly Review Press, 1968 .
46.
Ernest Mandel.The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx, N.Y. : Monthly Review Press, 1971
47.
S. Marglin. "What Do Bosses Do?" Review of Radical Political Economics6. 2 No. 2, (Spring 1974)
48.
Alfredo Medio. "Profits and Surplus Value." in E.H. Hunt and Jesse Schwartz, (eds.), A Critique of Economic TheoryHarmondsworth. Penguin : 1973.
49.
Ronald Meek.Studies in the Labor Theory of ValueN Y.. Monthly Review Press, 1956.
50.
Juliet Mitchell.Woman's EstateN.Y.: Random House , 1973.
51.
Michio Monshima Marx's Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973.
52.
N. Okishio. "A Mathematical Note on Marxian Theorems." Welt wertshaftliches A rchiv (1963).
53.
Luigi L. Pasinetti, Lectures on the Theory of ProductionN.Y.: Columbia Univ. Press, (1977)
54.
M. Reich.Racial Inequality and Class Conflict. Princeton . Pnnceton Univ. Press, 1980.
55.
Joan Robinson. "Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory." Oxford Economic Papers13 (1961)
56.
J. Roemer. "Divide and Conquer: Microfoundation of a Marxian Theory of Wage Determination ." Mimeo, 1979.
57.
I.I. Rubin.Essays on Marx's Theory of ValueDetroit: Black and Red Press, 1972.
58.
Paul Samuelson. "Understanding the Marxian Notion of Exploitation." Journal of Economic Literature, 9: 2 (Spring 1971).
59.
Wally Secombe. "The Housewife and her Labour under Capitalism." New Left Review83, (Jan.-Feb., 1974 ): 3-24.
60.
Adam Smith.The Wealth of NationsN.Y.: Random House, 1937
61.
Piero Sraffa.The Production of Commodities by Means of CommoditiesCambridge: Camb. Univ. Press, 1960 .
62.
Ian Steedman.Marx after SraffaLondon: New Left Books, 1977.
63.
K. Stone. "The Origins of Job Structures in the Steel Industry, Review of Radical Political Economics6:2 (Spring 1976).
64.
Paul Sweezy.The Theory of Capitalist DevelopmentN Y.: Monthly Review Press, 1942.
65.
Paul Sweezy. "Marxian Value Theory and Crisis" Monthly Review31: (July-Aug. 1979): 1-17.
66.
E.P. Thompson.The Poverty of TheoryLondonMerlin Press, 1979.
67.
Batya WeinbaumThe Curious Courtship of Women's Liberation and Socialism. BostonSouth End Press, 1978.
68.
W.F. Whyte.Money and MotivationN.Y.. Harper and Row, 1955.
69.
R.P. Wolff. "The Labor Theory of Value, A Slightly Deviant Approach." Mimeo, 1979.
