Labor Productivity and Marxist Theory of Labor Value

Alejandro Valle Baeza,Blanca Gloria Martínez González

doi:10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.11.3.0377

Abstract

This article proves that the productivity defined rigorously within the Marxist theory of value is what economists use most of the time. When analyzing the changes in productivity of a country or the relationship between real wages and productivity or comparing the levels of productivity between countries, labor productivity is used and not, for example, multifactor productivity. In all three previous cases what legitimizes the use of labor productivity is the Marxist theory of value. We will see in the present article that, if productivity is defined as the reciprocal of the value of a basket of merchandises, the mathematical expressions commonly used in applied economics are deduced to understand the variations and levels of productivity and the link between that variable and the real wage. Since most non-Marxist economists reject Marxian theory of value, we conclude that, nonetheless, they use it without knowing it.

Highlights

This paper analyzes the relationship between labor productivity and the Marxist theory of value
Labor productivity is the most widely used way of measuring productivity at an aggregate level and it is used by almost all the economists that conduct empirical studies
We have demonstrated that changes in labor productivity approximately measure changes in reciprocal value of a basket of merchandises, or that changes in labor productivity, at an aggregate level, measure productivity defined within the theory of labor value: productivity is the reciprocal of value of such a basket

Summary

Introduction

This paper analyzes the relationship between labor productivity and the Marxist theory of value. We shall first define aggregate productivity based on the theory of labor value in order to improve our understanding of several aspects of productivity: a) to measure the changes in labor productivity; b) to rigorously derive the relationship between real wages, productivity, and exploitation; and c) to lay the foundations for an international comparison of productivity. Equation (3) clearly shows the idea that a commodity’s value is the direct and indirect labor expended in production distributed as demanded by technical conditions in production.

Results

Conclusion