Just to add a footnote to Gil's valuable note, there really is no Sraffian model. He worked up some equations (brilliantly) to criticize neoclassical economics. Somehow this critique became reinterpreted as a Marxian-Walrasianism. I suspect that he would concur with what Gil wrote.
On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 9:46 AM, Lakshmi Rhone <[email protected]> wrote: > "--Does the validity of the FMT or the GCET depend on the degree of > correlation between alternative measures of value and prices? Desn't the > point of the FMT (profit exists in a production-price equilibrium iff labor > is exploited), and by extension the GCET, hold whatever the level of > correlation between value and price measures?" > > Yes but the point is the dynamic correlation, namely that intersectoral > variation in rates of labor productivity growth is correlated with changes > in relative prices over time. I understand that you would be non-plussed by > such a result as all this may show is that labor is the dominant factor of > production in the economy as a whole. But I do not see any reason to jump > from the results in a general equilibrium model in which the conditions are > frozen and in which the economy never finds itself that peanuts or steel can > be exploited and that equilibrium prices can be calculated without reference > to labor value and that surplus value can be negative to the claim that in > the real economy it is not changes in labor values that are the in fact the > ultimate determinant of its dynamic changes in prices and profits. > > It is also important to remember that in the real world real costs and the > surplus product cannot be specified as fixed collection of objects because > inputs and outputs are changing in form, and can in fact only be measured > again in the real world as materializations of abstract labor time. This is > a reason to doubt the relevance to the real world of any results derived > from a Sraffian model. > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
