scholarly journals Adam Smith’s concept of labour: value or measure?

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-165
Author(s):  
Adolfo Rodríguez Herrera
Keyword(s):  
Karl Marx ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Production Theory ◽  
Real Price ◽  
Cost Of Production ◽  
Theory Of Value ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost ◽  
David Ricardo

Smith is considered the father of the labour theory of value developed by David Ricardo and Karl Marx and simultaneously of the cost-of-production theory of value developed by John Stuart Mill and Alfred Marshall. This polysemy is partly because Smith is developping the terminology to refer to value and measure of value, and often uses it with much imprecision. That has led to different interpretations about his position on these issues, most of them derived from an error of interpretation of Ricardo and Marx. This paper reviews the concepts developed by Smith to formulate his theory of value (value, real price and exchangeable value). Our interpretation of his texts on value does not coincide with what has traditionally been done. According to our interpretation, it would not be correct the criticism made by Ricardo and Marx on Smith’s position about the role of labour as measure of value. For these authors, Smith is not consistent in proposing that the value of a commodity is defined or measured as the amount of labour necessary to produce it and simultaneously as the amount of labour that can be purchased by this commodity. We try to show that for Smith the labour has a double role –as source and measure of value–, and that to it is due the confusion that generates his use of some terms: Smith proposes labour as a measure of value because he conceives it as a source of value. With this interpretation it becomes clear, paradoxically, that Smith holds a labour theory of value that substantially corresponds to the one later developed by Ricardo and Marx.

The Role of Viticulture and Enology in the Development of Economic Thought: How Wine Contributed to Modern Economic Theory

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-225
Author(s):  
Stephen Chaikind
Keyword(s):  
Karl Marx ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
David Ricardo

AbstractThis paper introduces the role wine has played as a central factor in the history of economic thought. The focus is on an examination of documented sources that connect wine and its viticulture and enology with the evolution of economic concepts. Works by Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Léon Walras, Alfred Marshall, and others are examined, as well as wine economic ideas postulated by Greek and Roman thinkers. (JEL Classification: A1, B1, B3, N00)

Geschichte des modernen ökonomischen Denkens

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toni Pierenkemper
Keyword(s):  
Karl Marx ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
John Stuart Mill ◽  
Friedrich List ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
Milton Friedman ◽  
David Ricardo

Realökonomische Probleme haben zu allen Zeiten die Theorien der Ökonomie und ihrer großen Denker beeinflusst. Wichtige Themen der Ökonomie sind das gesamtwirtschaftliche Wachstum, Verteilungsprobleme, individuelle Nutzenmaximierung, Keynesianismus, Monetarismus – und ganz neue Ansätze wie Evolutorik, Spieltheorie oder Verhaltensökonomie, die ihr Potenzial noch beweisen müssen. Sie verbinden sich in der Moderne mit Namen von Ökonomen wie Adam Smith, Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Friedrich List, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes oder Milton Friedman. Oder die Betrachtung der Ökonomie verdichtet sich in Stichworten wie Marginalanalyse, Historische Schule, Neoklassik, Institutionalismus, Neue-Institutionenökonomik und Monetarismus – neuerdings auch Evolutorik, Verhaltensökonomik oder Spieltheorie. Für alle, die zur Ökonomie gründlich aufbereitetes und grundlegendes Überblickswissen mit Prüfungsrelevanz suchen.

What's a “Technician” to Do?

2017 ◽  
pp. 216-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Patrick Henry
Keyword(s):  
Production Line ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Factory Workers ◽  
The One

Karl Marx wrote about the importance of the worker in the role of machinery. Further, Marx discusses how machines replace the role of the factory workers. With the workers replaced, the care of the machines is left to technicians, who continually repair and maintain the machines. MOOCs exist under similar circumstances. Just as a machine may replace workers on a production line, a single MOOC replaces classroom instructors. Thus, the teacher/designer, the one who maintains the MOOC, exists in similar conditions as Marx's worker and Ellul's technician. Using a Marxist lens, one can examine closer how these sorts of theoretical concerns espoused by Marx, Ellul, and other thinkers in technology consider the design and use of MOOCs. The MOOC must either be constantly updated (with new and fresh information) or perish (to be replaced by a better MOOC). In this chapter, the author will flush out other challenges within the scope of MOOC maintenance, delivery, and other concerns as they connect to MOOC infrastructure and issue of maintenance.

scholarly journals The cost of evolved constitutive lac gene expression is usually, but not always, maintained during evolution of generalist populations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Phillips ◽  
Tim Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Lac Operon ◽  
Beneficial Mutation ◽  
General Adaptation ◽  
Genetic Perturbations ◽  
Compensatory Mutations ◽  
Escherichia Coli Bacteria ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost

Beneficial mutations can become costly following an environmental change. Compensatory mutations can relieve these costs, while not affecting the selected function, so that the benefits are retained if the environment shifts back to be similar to the one in which the beneficial mutation was originally selected. Compensatory mutations have been extensively studied in the context of antibiotic resistance, responses to specific genetic perturbations and in the determination of interacting gene network components. Few studies have focused on the role of compensatory mutations during more general adaptation, especially as the result of selection in fluctuating environments where adaptations to different environment components may often involve tradeoffs. We examine if costs of a mutation in lacI, which deregulated expression of the lac operon in evolving populations of Escherichia coli bacteria, was compensated. This mutation occurred in multiple replicate populations selected in environments that fluctuated between growth on lactose, where the mutation was beneficial, and on glucose, where it was deleterious. We found that compensation for the cost of the lacI mutation was rare, but, when it did occur, it did not negatively affect the selected benefit. Compensation was not more likely to occur in a particular evolution environment. Compensation has the potential to remove pleiotropic costs of adaptation, but its rarity indicates that the circumstances to bring about the phenomenon may be peculiar to each individual or impeded by other selected mutations.

Rationality at the Brink: The Role of Cognitive Processes in Failures of Deterrence

1978 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack L. Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Crises ◽  
Value Conflicts ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Short Run ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost

Decision makers in international crises seek to reconcile two values: on the one hand, avoiding the loss of prestige and credibility that capitulation would entail and, on the other, avoiding war. These values conflict with each other, in the sense that any policy designed to further one of them will jeopardize the other. Cognitive theory suggests that in ambiguous circumstances a decision maker will suppress uncomfortable value conflicts, conceptualizing his dilemma in such a way that the values appear to be consonant. President Kennedy's process of decision and rationalization in the Cuban missile crisis fits this pattern. He contended that compromise would allay the risk of war in the short run only at the cost of increasing it in the long run. Thus, he saw his policy of no compromise as furthering both the goal of maintaining U.S. prestige and credibility and the goal of avoiding war.

Knowledge and Intellectual Property Rights

2011 ◽  
pp. 489-496
Author(s):  
Geraldine Ryan ◽  
Edward Shinnick
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Web Access ◽  
Unique Interpretation ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Use Of Knowledge ◽  
Role Of Information

The role and importance of knowledge in economic development is a theme that can be traced back to writers such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Joseph Schumpeter. These authors dealt with how knowledge was created, its various uses and how to capture knowledge for gain. Later, writers such as Friedrich Hayek developed this field into areas such as the use of knowledge in society and the role of information in markets. In the economics literature, a critical distinction is made between information and knowledge. Information is seen as data that is out there for most, if not all, to see, whereas knowledge is the use and (unique) interpretation of this data. With the development of the World Wide Web, access to information and the cost of collecting information has changed dramatically. This has implications for its value. Anything that is easy to collect is less valuable than something that is more difficult to collect. Furthermore, something that is valuable will be sought by others and therefore needs to be protected against theft.

scholarly journals Karl Marx and the Study of Media and Culture Today

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Future Tense ◽  
Global Crisis ◽  
The Media ◽  
Theory Of Value

The task of this paper discusses the role of Marx in analysing media, communica-tion and culture today. An analysis of three contemporary Cultural Studies works – Lawrence Grossberg’s monograph Cultural Studies in the Future Tense, John Hartley’s monograph Digital Futures for Cultural and Media Studies and Paul Smith’s edited volume The Renewal of Cultural Studies – shows that there is an agreement that the economy needs to be taken more into account by Cultural Studies, but disagreement on which approach should be taken and what the role of Karl Marx’s works shall be. The paper argues that Marx’s labour theory of value is especially important for critically analysing the media, culture and communica-tion. Labour is still a blind spot of the study of culture and the media, although this situation is slowly improving. It is maintained that the turn away from Marx in Cultural and Media Studies was a profound mistake that should be reverted. Only an engagement with Marx can make Cultural and Media Studies topical, politically relevant, practical and critical, in the current times of global crisis and resurgent critique.

scholarly journals MECHANISMS OF SUPPORTING INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN AGRICULTURE

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-32
Author(s):  
Michał Cupiał ◽  
Anna Szeląg-Sikora ◽  
Sylwester Tabor
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Agricultural Producers ◽  
Rural Development Programme ◽  
Computer Equipment ◽  
Support Mechanisms ◽  
Professional Information ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Role Of Information

Considering the aspect of the role of information in the development of Polish agriculture, one should pay attention to the existing needs in this field, as well as to the existing support mechanisms stimulating the activity of the agricultural producers’ community in obtaining professional information in the form of e.g. consulting or the use of the training offered. At the same time, it should be noted that often the barrier in keeping abreast is not the lack of activity on the part of producers, but the cost associated with it. That is why it is so important to initiate actions, which, on the one hand, serve boosting the efforts of agricultural producers to seek professional knowledge (information), and on the other hand, creating the possibility of compensation for costs incurred in this respect. Given the above, the main objective of this paper is the analysis of the level of implementation of the measures implemented under the Rural Development Programme 2007–2013. The study takes into account the farmers’ computer equipment level and access to the Internet compared to other social groups. Analysis of the distribution of funds to each voivodship showed that the allocation of funds was uneven, and this applied to all analysed measures. In the most part, agricultural producers already have the necessary information infrastructure, but its use is insufficient.

scholarly journals Income distribution, inflation and economic growth: A post-Keynesian approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-306
Author(s):  
Claudio Amitrano ◽  
Lucas Vasconcelos
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Interest Rates ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Spot Exchange Rate ◽  
Productivity Differentials ◽  
Distributive Conflict ◽  
David Ricardo

The dispute between social classes for fractions of income was a central theme for economic analysis at least since David Ricardo and Karl Marx. Its importance as an interpretative key declined with the marginalist revolution of the late nineteenth century and did not regain its central role in the conventional economic approach ever since. However, its relevance was maintained among heterodox economists such as Michal Kalecki and reinvigorated by post-Keynesian thinking. This paper seeks to offer three analytical contributions to the post- Keynesian literature: (1) it presents an integrated framework on the relationship between distributive conflict, inflation and economic growth in an open economy with government; (2) it proposes the use of a general framework, based on liquid preference, assets own interest rates, currency hierarchy and productivity differentials to understand the determinants of the spot exchange rate; and (3) it suggests a distinct monetary rule to take into account the role of interest rates on distributive conflict inflation and demand and growth regimes.

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