IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/20976.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Marx on absolute and relative wages

Author

Listed:
  • Levrero, Enrico Sergio

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to clarify some aspects of Marx's analysis of the determinants of wages and of the peculiarities of labour as a commodity, concentrating upon three related issues. The first is that of Marx's notion of the subsistence (or natural) wage rate: subsistence wage will be shown to stem, according to Marx, from socially determined conditions of reproduction of an efficient labouring class. The second issue refers to the distinction between the natural and the market wage rate that can be found in Marx, and his critique of Ricardo's analysis of the determinants of the price of labour. Finally, Marx's analysis of the effects of technical progress on both absolute and relative wages will be considered, also relating it back to the long-standing debate on the Marxian law of the falling rate of profit.

Suggested Citation

  • Levrero, Enrico Sergio, 2009. "Marx on absolute and relative wages," MPRA Paper 20976, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:20976
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/20976/1/MPRA_paper_20976.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antonella Stirati, 1994. "THE THEORY OF WAGES IN CLASSICAL ECONOmiCS," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 417.
    2. Harris, Donald J, 1983. "Accumulation of Capital and the Rate of Profit in Marxian Theory," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 7(3-4), pages 311-330, September.
    3. Schefold, Bertram, 1976. "Different Forms of Technical Progress," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 86(344), pages 806-819, December.
    4. Eckhard Hein, 2006. "Money, interest and capital accumulationin Karl Marx's economics: a monetary interpretation and some similaritiesto post-Keynesian approaches," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 113-140.
    5. Kurz,Heinz D. & Salvadori,Neri, 1997. "Theory of Production," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521588676.
    6. Allin Cottrell & William A. Darity, Jr., 1988. "Marx, Malthus, and Wages," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 173-190, Summer.
    7. Bowles, Samuel & Gintis, Herbert, 1977. "The Marxian Theory of Value and Heterogeneous Labour: A Critique and Reformulation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(2), pages 173-192, June.
    8. Okishio, Nobuo, 1977. "Notes on Technical Progress and Capitalist Society," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(1), pages 93-100, March.
    9. Hollander,Samuel, 2008. "The Economics of Karl Marx," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521790789, September.
    10. Green, Francis, 1991. "The Relationship of Wages to the Value of Labour-Power in Marx's Labour Market," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 15(2), pages 199-213, June.
    11. Samuelson, Paul A, 1978. "The Canonical Classical Model of Political Economy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 1415-1434, December.
    12. Garegnani, Pierangelo, 1984. "Piero Sraffa," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(1), pages 1-2, March.
    13. Hollander,Samuel, 2008. "The Economics of Karl Marx," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521793995, September.
    14. Howard Petith, 2005. "Marx's analysis of the falling rate of profit in the first version of Volume III of capital," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 269-290.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ricardo Summa & Julia Braga, 2020. "The (conflict-augmented) Phillips Curve is alive and well," Working Papers 0055, ASTRIL - Associazione Studi e Ricerche Interdisciplinari sul Lavoro.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mariolis, Theodore, 2010. "Κριτική Έκθεση του "Νόμου της Πτωτικής Τάσης του Ποσοστού Κέρδους" του K. Marx: Κατανομή Εισοδήματος, Επισώρευση Κεφαλαίου και Τεχνολογική Μεταβολή στη Μακρά Περίοδο [Critical Exposition ," MPRA Paper 22461, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Cavalieri, Duccio, 2015. "Structural interdependence in monetary economics: theoretical assessment and policy implications," MPRA Paper 65526, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Veneziani, Roberto & Yoshihara, Naoki, 2014. "One million miles to go: taking the axiomatic road to defining exploitation," UMASS Amherst Economics Working Papers 2014-10, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics.
    4. Fabio Ravagnani, 2008. "Classical Theory and Exhaustible Natural Resources: Notes on the Current Debate," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 79-93.
    5. Jonathan F Cogliano, 2023. "Marx’s equalised rate of exploitation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 47(1), pages 133-169.
    6. Jianhua Wang & Yongping Wei & Shan Jiang & Yong Zhao & Yuyan Zhou & Weihua Xiao, 2017. "Understanding the Human-Water Relationship in China during 722 B.C.-1911 A.D. from a Contradiction and Co-Evolutionary Perspective," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(3), pages 929-943, February.
    7. Neri Salvadori & Rodolfo Signorino, 2013. "The Classical Notion of Competition Revisited," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 149-175, Spring.
    8. Giovanni Dosi & Marco Grazzi, 2005. "Technology as Problem-Solving Procedures and Technology as Input-Output Relations: Some Perspectives on the Theory of Production," LEM Papers Series 2005/26, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    9. Gilles Dostaler, 2012. "The General Theory, Marx, Marxism and the Soviet Union," Chapters, in: Thomas Cate (ed.), Keynes’s General Theory, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Meghnad Desai, 2014. "Marx, Keynes and Hayek and the Great Recession of 2008," Chapters, in: Riccardo Bellofiore & Giovanna Vertova (ed.), The Great Recession and the Contradictions of Contemporary Capitalism, chapter 3, pages 50-64, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Giovanni Dosi & Marco Grazzi, 2006. "Technologies as problem-solving procedures and technologies as input--output relations: some perspectives on the theory of production," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 15(1), pages 173-202, February.
    12. Roemer, John E, 1979. "Continuing Controversy on the Falling Rate of Profit: Fixed Capital and Other Issues," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 3(4), pages 379-398, December.
    13. Anthony M. Endres & David A. Harper, 2012. "The kinetics of capital formation and economic organisation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 36(4), pages 963-980.
    14. Harvey Gram, 2003. "Joan Robinson: classical revivalist or neoclassical critic?," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 493-508.
    15. Enrico Sergio Levrero, 2018. "The Classical Theory of Wages and its Interpretations: A Critique of the Canonical Classical Model," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 12(1-2), pages 55-76, June.
    16. Heinz D. Kurz & Neri Salvadori, 2011. "In Favor of Rigor and Relevance: A Reply to Mark Blaug," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 607-616, Fall.
    17. Tom Jeannot, 2010. "The enduring significance of the thought of Karl Marx," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(3), pages 214-238, February.
    18. Fabio Ravagnani, 2001. "Notes on a Mischaracterization of the Classical Theory of Value," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 355-363.
    19. repec:ums:papers:2014-010 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Kenji Mori, 2010. "Charasoff and Dmitriev: An Analytical Characterisation of Origins of Linear Economics," TERG Discussion Papers 249, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.
    21. Yukihiko Fujita, 2021. "On the All Commodities Surplus Theorem," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(2), pages 276-282.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Marx; subsistence wage; wages and productivity; Marxian law of the falling rate of profit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B51 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Socialist; Marxian; Sraffian
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • B14 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:20976. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.