Thursday, November 06, 2014

Income Distribution And A Simple Labor Theory Of Value

I have a new paper available on the Social Science Research Network:

Title: Income Distribution And A Simple Labor Theory Of Value: Empirical Results From Comprehensive International Data

Abstract: This paper presents the results of an empirical exploration, with data from countries worldwide, of Sraffian, Marxian, and classical political economy. Income distribution, as associated with systems of prices of production, fails to describe many economies. Economies in most countries or regions lie near their wage-rate of profits frontier, when the frontier is drawn with a numeraire in proportions of observed final demands. Labor values predict market prices better than prices of production do. Labor values also predict market prices better than they predict prices of production. In short, a simple labor theory of value is a surprisingly accurate price theory for economies around the world.

3 comments:

Paul Cockshott said...

Very impressive and thorough study. How long did you work on this?

Robert Vienneau said...

Thanks. I've been working on it since at least July.

Magpie said...

Very interesting. I'll be reading it with great care.

You might find this comment, by Merijn Knibbe (RWER blog), interesting. It's not about the exact same subject, but an allied one: Ricardo and land rents (see point 6, with Knibbe's comments and link)
http://rwer.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/links-ricardo-is-right-sinn-used-to-be-right-trichet-was-wrong/