Sraffa, Labor Theories of Value, and the Economics of Real Wage Rate Determination
Journal of Political Economy
1984
The labor theory of value and the question of whether or not a real wage rate versus profit rate trade-off exists have been topics debated since the times of Ricardo and Marx. More recently these topics have been investigated using Sraffa's standard commodity approach. It is argued here that such approaches are basically flawed. However, it also is shown that there are situations consistent with perfect competition for which negatively sloped real wage rate versus profit or interest rate trade-offs do exist. Thus, despite perfect competition, genuine bargaining situations may arise between workers and owners of the capitalistic means of production.
- DOI
- 10.1086/261239
- Volume
- 92 (3)
- Pages
- 508-526
- Language
- en
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