Gilbert L Skillman
Biographic Data
| ID | 1600576 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gilbert L Skillman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gilbert L |
| FAMILY NAME | Skillman |
| SIGNATURE | SKILLMAN G L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wesleyan University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5934-4834 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Marx’s Theory of Labor Subsumption: Restatement and Critical Assessment
The purpose of this study is to offer a comprehensive restatement and critical assessment of Marx’s theory regarding the subsumption of labor under capital (SLC). The core hypothesis of this account asserts a correspondence between forms of SLC and forms of surplus value extraction that is not evidently supported by his historical comparisons of capitalist production with antecedent forms of the circuit of capital. Moreover, Marx’s comparative hi…
Marx, Sraffa, and Surplus: Observations Prompted by Garegnani (2018)
In a posthumously published article, Pierangelo Garegnani (2018. ‘On the Labour Theory of Value in Marx and in the Marxist Tradition.’) depicts Marx’s project in Capital as that of ‘developing systematically the theory of Ricardo and [the] implications of social conflict’ implied by Ricardo’s ‘surplus approach to value and distribution’. This paper argues to the contrary that Marx’s theory of surplus value and exploitation differs from (neo-)Rica…
Redistribution and persistent exploitation in an accumulation economy with decreasing marginal impatience
A variant of John Roemer’s accumulation economy is studied in which agents have identical payoff functions characterized by decreasing marginal impatience (DMI), such that time discount rates are decreasing in individual wealth levels. The implications of DMI for the existence and persistence of positive rates of profit and exploitation in the presence of capital accumulation, as well as for the dynamic redistribution of wealth, are derived. It i…
Special Issue on ‘Inequality: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Responses’ Introduction
Thirty years after Roemer’s General Theory
This symposium is an outgrowth of a session organized for the 2012 Allied Social Sciences Convention in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the publication of John Roemer’s landmark work, A General Theory of Exploitation and Class (Roemer, 1982, hereafter cited as GTEC). While the papers by Skillman, Veneziani and Yoshihara, and Fleurbaey explore issues raised by GTEC, Roemer’s own contribution looks beyond the questions motivating his earlier…
Capitalist exploitation without capitalist production: The consequences of imperfect contracting
On the basis of a static general equilibrium analysis premised on frictionless exchange conditions in competitive markets, John Roemer’s General Theory of Exploitation and Class challenges the canonical Marxian account of capitalist exploitation by arguing that unequal distribution of economically scarce productive assets suffices to enable the exploitation of labor by capital. Marxian critics have dismissed Roemer’s characterization partly on th…
"The Puzzle of Marx's Missing "Results: A Tale of Two Theories
A long-standing puzzle in the history of Marxian economic thought concerns Marx's decision to omit the draft chapter titled "Results of the Immediate Process of Production" from the published version of volume 1 of Capital. A number of authors have explored this puzzle without satisfactorily resolving it. This article addresses the question by linking Marx's omission to a larger set of revisions made to arguments he developed in earlier drafts of…
Value Theory vs. Historical Analysis in Marx's Account of Capitalist Exploitation
Marx's distinction between labor power and labor performed is crucial for understanding the political economy of capitalism, but arguably not for the reasons suggested by his value-theoretic account of capitalist exploitation in the first volume of Capital. This understanding is more fruitfully pursued on the basis of concepts and issues identified in Marx's logically independent historical account. The recent contribution of Kiyoshi Nagatani (20…
Marx's Value-Theoretic Account of Capitalist Exploitation: Non Sequitur or Tautology
Technical Change and the Equilibrium Profit Rate in a Market with Sequential Bargaining
The Marxian theory of the tendentially falling rate of profit is shown to be consistent with a competitive equilibrium scenario for labor markets in which wages are determined by sequential bargaining within a stationary matching process. The central result establishes that if trade is possible, there exists a set of individually rational capital‐using, labor‐saving technical innovations which lower the equilibrium rate of profit if adopted unive…
Marxian Value Theory and the Labor-Labor Power Distinction
In Volume I of Capital, Marx invokes the distinction between labor power and labor to explain how surplus value might arise from the circuit of capital, given that all commodities exchange at their respective labor values. Contrary to Marx's representation, however, the stipulation of price-value equivalence is neither necessary nor adequate for a coherent account of capitalist exploitation. The significance of the labor-labor power distinction i…
Ne Hic Saltaveris: The Marxian Theory of Exploitation After Roemer
In his book A General Theory of Exploitation and Class (1982) (hereafter GT ), John Roemer employs the tools of mainstream general equilibrium and game-theoretic analysis to develop a fundamental critique and broadbased reformulation of Marxian economic theory. Perhaps Roemer's most striking departure from traditional Marxian tenets lies in his explanation of the material basis of exploitation in capitalist economies. Roemer argues that capitalis…
"The Puzzle of Marx's Missing "Results: A Tale of Two Theories
A long-standing puzzle in the history of Marxian economic thought concerns Marx's decision to omit the draft chapter titled "Results of the Immediate Process of Production" from the published version of volume 1 of Capital. A number of authors have explored this puzzle without satisfactorily resolving it. This article addresses the question by linking Marx's omission to a larger set of revisions made to arguments he developed in earlier drafts of…
Value Theory vs. Historical Analysis in Marx's Account of Capitalist Exploitation
Marx's distinction between labor power and labor performed is crucial for understanding the political economy of capitalism, but arguably not for the reasons suggested by his value-theoretic account of capitalist exploitation in the first volume of Capital. This understanding is more fruitfully pursued on the basis of concepts and issues identified in Marx's logically independent historical account. The recent contribution of Kiyoshi Nagatani (20…
Marx’s Theory of Labor Subsumption: Restatement and Critical Assessment
The purpose of this study is to offer a comprehensive restatement and critical assessment of Marx’s theory regarding the subsumption of labor under capital (SLC). The core hypothesis of this account asserts a correspondence between forms of SLC and forms of surplus value extraction that is not evidently supported by his historical comparisons of capitalist production with antecedent forms of the circuit of capital. Moreover, Marx’s comparative hi…
Ne Hic Saltaveris: The Marxian Theory of Exploitation After Roemer
In his book A General Theory of Exploitation and Class (1982) (hereafter GT ), John Roemer employs the tools of mainstream general equilibrium and game-theoretic analysis to develop a fundamental critique and broadbased reformulation of Marxian economic theory. Perhaps Roemer's most striking departure from traditional Marxian tenets lies in his explanation of the material basis of exploitation in capitalist economies. Roemer argues that capitalis…
Marxian Value Theory and the Labor-Labor Power Distinction
In Volume I of Capital, Marx invokes the distinction between labor power and labor to explain how surplus value might arise from the circuit of capital, given that all commodities exchange at their respective labor values. Contrary to Marx's representation, however, the stipulation of price-value equivalence is neither necessary nor adequate for a coherent account of capitalist exploitation. The significance of the labor-labor power distinction i…
Technical Change and the Equilibrium Profit Rate in a Market with Sequential Bargaining
The Marxian theory of the tendentially falling rate of profit is shown to be consistent with a competitive equilibrium scenario for labor markets in which wages are determined by sequential bargaining within a stationary matching process. The central result establishes that if trade is possible, there exists a set of individually rational capital‐using, labor‐saving technical innovations which lower the equilibrium rate of profit if adopted unive…
Marx's Value-Theoretic Account of Capitalist Exploitation: Non Sequitur or Tautology
Value Theory vs. Historical Analysis in Marx's Account of Capitalist Exploitation
Marx's distinction between labor power and labor performed is crucial for understanding the political economy of capitalism, but arguably not for the reasons suggested by his value-theoretic account of capitalist exploitation in the first volume of Capital. This understanding is more fruitfully pursued on the basis of concepts and issues identified in Marx's logically independent historical account. The recent contribution of Kiyoshi Nagatani (20…
"The Puzzle of Marx's Missing "Results: A Tale of Two Theories
A long-standing puzzle in the history of Marxian economic thought concerns Marx's decision to omit the draft chapter titled "Results of the Immediate Process of Production" from the published version of volume 1 of Capital. A number of authors have explored this puzzle without satisfactorily resolving it. This article addresses the question by linking Marx's omission to a larger set of revisions made to arguments he developed in earlier drafts of…
Capitalist exploitation without capitalist production: The consequences of imperfect contracting
On the basis of a static general equilibrium analysis premised on frictionless exchange conditions in competitive markets, John Roemer’s General Theory of Exploitation and Class challenges the canonical Marxian account of capitalist exploitation by arguing that unequal distribution of economically scarce productive assets suffices to enable the exploitation of labor by capital. Marxian critics have dismissed Roemer’s characterization partly on th…
Thirty years after Roemer’s General Theory
This symposium is an outgrowth of a session organized for the 2012 Allied Social Sciences Convention in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the publication of John Roemer’s landmark work, A General Theory of Exploitation and Class (Roemer, 1982, hereafter cited as GTEC). While the papers by Skillman, Veneziani and Yoshihara, and Fleurbaey explore issues raised by GTEC, Roemer’s own contribution looks beyond the questions motivating his earlier…
Special Issue on ‘Inequality: Causes, Consequences, and Policy Responses’ Introduction
Marx, Sraffa, and Surplus: Observations Prompted by Garegnani (2018)
In a posthumously published article, Pierangelo Garegnani (2018. ‘On the Labour Theory of Value in Marx and in the Marxist Tradition.’) depicts Marx’s project in Capital as that of ‘developing systematically the theory of Ricardo and [the] implications of social conflict’ implied by Ricardo’s ‘surplus approach to value and distribution’. This paper argues to the contrary that Marx’s theory of surplus value and exploitation differs from (neo-)Rica…
Redistribution and persistent exploitation in an accumulation economy with decreasing marginal impatience
A variant of John Roemer’s accumulation economy is studied in which agents have identical payoff functions characterized by decreasing marginal impatience (DMI), such that time discount rates are decreasing in individual wealth levels. The implications of DMI for the existence and persistence of positive rates of profit and exploitation in the presence of capital accumulation, as well as for the dynamic redistribution of wealth, are derived. It i…
Marx’s Theory of Labor Subsumption: Restatement and Critical Assessment
The purpose of this study is to offer a comprehensive restatement and critical assessment of Marx’s theory regarding the subsumption of labor under capital (SLC). The core hypothesis of this account asserts a correspondence between forms of SLC and forms of surplus value extraction that is not evidently supported by his historical comparisons of capitalist production with antecedent forms of the circuit of capital. Moreover, Marx’s comparative hi…
Economics (10 works) · Political Economy and Marxism (10 works) · Economic Theory and Policy (8 works) · Neoclassical economics (8 works) · Economic Theory and Institutions (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Political science (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Positive economics (6 works)