Complementary Applications of the Conservation Principle
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21549247 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Erik K Olsen (0000-0001-8998-7312, University of Missouri–Kansas City, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 22-41 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Review of Radical Political Economics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0486-6134 • E-ISSN: 1552-8502 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/04866134251340086 |
| OpenAlex | W4413474971 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 22 |
The New Interpretation (NI) can be characterized as a set of general axioms and accounting identities involving labor time, prices, and money. Its generality permits a wide range of applications. It preserves the theory of exploitation but is not a comprehensive response to well-known critiques of Marxian theories of value and price. Conversely, Roberts’s Single System Interpretation (SSI) provides a comprehensive and consistent theory of commodity value and price of production on a labor time standard but purposely avoids a monetary interpretation. This article demonstrates that these differences obscure the common analytic core shared by both approaches. Identifying this common analytic core indicates clear but unrecognized convergence in some modern approaches to price and value. The core analytic properties of the NI are also found in the SSI and have been since its inception. These seemingly very different approaches represent different applications of this common core under different sets of assumptions about price formation and monetary system or unit of account. A secondary objective of this article is to clarify several aspects of the SSI. The SSI remains very poorly understood even by sophisticated readers. Contrasting the NI with the SSI helps to clarify the features of both. JEL Classification: B51, D46, E42
Economics · Environmental ethics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Epistemology · Geography · Political science · Computer Science · Economic Theory and Institutions · Economic Theory and Policy · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism
Capitalism
Understanding Capital
Embodied labour and competitive prices
Quantifying Abstract Labor
The Labour Theory of Value as Foundation for Empirical Investigations
A re(in)statement of the labour theory of value
Recent Developments in the Labor Theory of Value
A Marxian Alternative to the Traditional "Transformation Problem"
Value, Price, and Exploitation
The Subtle Anatomy of Capitalism
Theory of Production
Lectures on the Theory of Production
The Value of Money the Value of Labor Power and the Marxian Transformation Problem
Ricardo
Money Is Time
Beyond the Transformation Riddle
Exploitation and the Labour Theory of Value
Marx's (not Ricardo's) 'Transformation Problem
Weaving a Tangled Web
Marx after Steedman
| Highly cited | No |
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