A note on ‘Labour value and socialist economic calculation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7759048 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gavan Duffy |
| Year | 1989 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 100-109 |
| Publication date | 1989-02-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Economy and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03085148900000004 |
| OpenAlex | W1975588678 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
Cockshott and Cottrell have reopened a debate which has been engaged with vigour in the past, but, as they rightly point out, needs to be reassessed in the light of current technology. They describe their ideas as being ‘work in progress’, and this note attempts to retain this spirit. While differing on technical matters, it emphasises the need for such a reassessment and discusses some further possibilities. A number of different issues are addressed in their paper: these include the use of labour values as a tool in economic planning and the computational feasibility of such a process. Formal definitions are given using a computer orientated notation.1 This note separates the issue of the impact of increasing computing power on the feasibility and desirability of computing a central plan from the issue of using Marxian labour values as a method of calculation. Much of what Cockshott and Cottrell say is related to a wide body of literature in mainstream economics, but whose mathematical nature has given it a restricted circulation.2 For instance the problem of decomposing the input-output matrix, and the problems of designing a system which clearly sets up the information which would pass from central planners to decentralised decision makers. Cockshott and Cottrell also deal at length with the specific point of using market price/labour value (cost) as an indicator in deciding which lines of production to expand or contract. This fits into a tradition which offers a number of possibilities for deciding which criteria to use
Classical economics · Economic system · Economics · Labour economics · Neoclassical economics · Statistics · Value (mathematics · Mathematics · Political Economy and Marxism
| Highly cited | No |
|---|