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Exchange-value
In political economy and especially Marxian economics, exchange value (German: ''Tauschwert'') refers to one of the four major attributes of a commodity, i.e., an item or service produced for, and sold on the market, the other three attributes being use value, economic value, and price. Thus, a commodity has: * a value, represented by the socially necessary labour time to produce it (Note: the first link is to a non-Marxian definition of value); * a use value (or utility); * an exchange value, which is the proportion at which a commodity can be exchanged for other commodities; * a price (an actual selling price or an imputed ideal price). These four concepts have a very long history in human thought, from Aristotle to David Ricardo, and became ever more clearly distinguished as the development of commercial trade progressed, but have largely disappeared as four distinct concepts in modern economics. This entry focuses on Marx's summation of the results of economic thought abo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Value-form
The value-form or form of value (german: Wertform) is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy. Marx's account of the value-form is differently adopted in later forms of Marxism, in the Frankfurt School and in post-Marxism. When social labor is split up into independent enterprises and organized capitalistically, its products take the form of an ensemble of ''commodities'' of diverse types, which face one another on the market. Production and exchange are governed by ideas and facts expressible in the forms like: * 20 yards of linen are worth one coat * 20 yards of linen have an equivalent in one coat * 20 yards of linen = one coat * 20 yards of linen cost $100 * The price of 20 yards of linen is $100 * 20 yards linen = $100 The formulae above are 'expressions of value' (''Wertausdruck''). ''Worth'', ''price'', and ''equivalent'' are said to be categories of bourgeois life. Items that enter on one side or the other, here ''linen'', ''coat'' and ''dollar'', are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Marxian Economics
Marxian economics, or the Marxian school of economics, is a heterodox school of political economic thought. Its foundations can be traced back to Karl Marx's critique of political economy. However, unlike critics of political economy, Marxian economists tend to accept the concept of the economy prima facie. Marxian economics comprises several different theories and includes multiple schools of thought, which are sometimes opposed to each other; in many cases Marxian analysis is used to complement, or to supplement, other economic approaches. Because one does not necessarily have to be politically Marxist to be economically Marxian, the two adjectives coexist in usage, rather than being synonymous: They share a semantic field, while also allowing both connotative and denotative differences. Marxian economics concerns itself variously with the analysis of crisis in capitalism, the role and distribution of the surplus product and surplus value in various types of economic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Use Value
Use value (german: Gebrauchswert) or value in use is a concept in classical political economy and Marxist economics. It refers to the tangible features of a commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, or which serves a useful purpose. In Karl Marx's critique of political economy, any product has a labor-value and a use-value, and if it is traded as a commodity in markets, it additionally has an exchange value, most often expressed as a money-price. Marx acknowledges that commodities being traded also have a ''general utility'', implied by the fact that people want them, but he argues that this by itself says nothing about the specific character of the economy in which they are produced and sold. Origin of the concept The concepts of value, use value, utility, exchange value and price have a very long history in economic and philosophical thought. From Aristotle to Adam Smith and David Ricardo, their meanings have evolved. Smith recogn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Law Of Value
The law of the value of commodities (German: ''Wertgesetz der Waren''), known simply as the law of value, is a central concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy first expounded in his polemic '' The Poverty of Philosophy'' (1847) against Pierre-Joseph Proudhon with reference to David Ricardo's economics.See Marx, '' The Poverty of Philosophy'', chapter 1 part where Marx refers to Proudhon's own "law of value" and chapter 3, titled "Application of the Law of the Proportionality of Value/ref> Most generally, it refers to a regulative principle of the economic exchange of the products of human work, namely that the relative exchange-values of those products in trade, usually expressed by money-prices, are proportional to the average amounts of human labor-time which are currently socially necessary to produce them within the capitalist mode of production.Karl Marx, '' Capital, Volume I'', Penguin, pp. 676–77; Marx, '' Capital, Volume III'', Penguin ed., p. 522. Thus, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Commodity (Marxism)
In classical political economy and especially Karl Marx's critique of political economy, a commodity is any good or service ("products" or "activities") produced by human labour and offered as a product for general sale on the market. Some other priced goods are also treated as commodities, e.g. human labor-power, works of art and natural resources, even though they may not be produced specifically for the market, or be non-reproducible goods. This problem was extensively debated by Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Rodbertus-Jagetzow, among others. Value and price are not equivalent terms in economics, and theorising the specific relationship of value to market price has been a challenge for both liberal and Marxist economists. Characteristics of commodity In Marx's theory, a commodity is something that is bought and sold, or exchanged in a relationship of trade. * It has value, which represents a quantity of human labor. Because it has value, implies that people try to ec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Socially Necessary Labour Time
Socially necessary labour time in Marx's critique of political economy is what regulates the exchange value of commodities in trade and consequently constrains producers in their attempt to economise on labour. It does not 'guide' them, as it can only be determined after the event and is thus inaccessible to forward planning. Unlike individual labour hours in the classical labour theory of value formulated by Adam Smith and David Ricardo, Marx's exchange value is conceived as a proportion (or 'aliquot part') of society's labour-time. Marx did not define this concept in computationally rigorous terms, allowing for flexibility in using it in specific instances to relate average levels of labour productivity to social needs manifesting themselves as monetarily effective market demand for commodities. In addition, although it is axiomatic that socially necessary labour input determines commodity values, precise numerical calculation of such an input in relation to the value of a given ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Labor Power
Labour power (in german: Arbeitskraft; in french: force de travail) is a key concept used by Karl Marx in his critique of capitalist political economy. Marx distinguished between the capacity to do work, labour power, from the physical act of working, labour. Labour power exists in any kind of society, but on what terms it is traded or combined with means of production to produce goods and services has historically varied greatly. Under capitalism, according to Marx, the ''productive powers of labour'' appear as the ''creative power of capital''. Indeed, "labour power at work" becomes a component of capital, it functions as working capital. Work becomes just work, workers become an abstract labour force, and the control over work becomes mainly a management prerogative. Definition Karl Marx introduces the concept in chapter 6 of the first volume of ''Capital'', as follows: :"By labour-power or capacity for labour is to be understood the aggregate of those mental and physical c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Surplus Product
Surplus product (german: Mehrprodukt, links=no) is an economic concept explicitly theorised by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. Roughly speaking, it is the extra goods produced above the amount needed for a community of workers to survive at its current standard of living. Marx first began to work out his idea of surplus product in his 1844 notes on James Mill's ''Elements of political economy''. Notions of "surplus produce" have been used in economic thought and commerce for a long time (notably by the Physiocrats), but in ''Das Kapital'', '' Theories of Surplus Value'' and the ''Grundrisse'' Marx gave the concept a central place in his interpretation of economic history. Nowadays the concept is mainly used in Marxian economics, political anthropology, cultural anthropology, and economic anthropology. The frequent translation of the German "" as "surplus" makes the term "surplus product" somewhat inaccurate, because it suggests to English speakers that the product ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Commodification
Within a capitalist economic system, commodification is the transformation of things such as goods, services, ideas, nature, personal information, people or animals into objects of trade or commodities.For animals"United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database" UN ComTrade; Josephine Donovan, "Aestheticizing Animal Cruelty," ''College Literature'', 38(4), Fall 2011 (pp. 202–217), p. 203. For slaves as commodities, Appadurai 1986, pp. 84–85; David Hawkes, ''Shakespeare and Economic Theory'', Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, p. 130. For body commodification, Lesley A. Sharp, "The Commodification of the Body and Its Parts," ''Annual Review of Anthropology'', 29, 2000 (pp. 287–328) p. 295ff. A commodity at its most basic, according to Arjun Appadurai, is "anything intended for exchange," or any object of economic value. Commodification is often criticized on the grounds that some things ought not to be treated as commodities—for example, water, education, data, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. The modern concept of intellectual property developed in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. The term "intellectual property" began to be used in the 19th century, though it was not until the late 20th century that intellectual property became commonplace in the majority of the world's legal systems."property as a common descriptor of the field probably traces to the foundation of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) by the United Nations." in Mark A. Lemley''Property, Intellectual Property, and Free Riding'', Texas Law Review, 2005, Vol. 83:1031, page 1033, footnote 4. The main purpose of intellectual property law is to encourage the creation of a wide variety of intellectual goo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Political Economy
Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour markets and financial markets, as well as phenomena such as growth, distribution, inequality, and trade, and how these are shaped by institutions, laws, and government policy. Originating in the 16th century, it is the precursor to the modern discipline of economics. Political economy in its modern form is considered an interdisciplinary field, drawing on theory from both political science and modern economics. Political economy originated within 16th century western moral philosophy, with theoretical works exploring the administration of states' wealth; "political" signifying the Greek word '' polity'' and "economy" signifying the Greek word '; household management. The earliest works of political economy are usually attributed to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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Division Of Labor
The division of labour is the separation of the tasks in any economic system or organisation so that participants may specialise (specialisation). Individuals, organizations, and nations are endowed with, or acquire specialised capabilities, and either form combinations or trade to take advantage of the capabilities of others in addition to their own. Specialised capabilities may include equipment or natural resources as well as skills, and training and combinations of such assets acting together are often important. For example, an individual may specialise by acquiring tools and the skills to use them effectively just as an organization may specialise by acquiring specialised equipment and hiring or training skilled operators. The division of labour is the motive for trade and the source of economic interdependence. Historically, an increasing division of labour is associated with the growth of total output and trade, the rise of capitalism, and the increasing complexi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |