Do Sectoral Rates of Surplus Value Tend to Equalize, and Why Ask? — Peter Cooper

The argument starts from Marx’s distinction between concrete and abstract labor. In making this distinction, Marx explicitly identifies productivity as a property of concrete labor and labor complexity as a property of abstract labor. Variations in productivity, since they relate to concrete labor, directly affect the aggregate production of use-values (‘real’ output) but not the aggregate creation of value (socially necessary labor time or nominal value). In contrast, variations in labor complexity, since they relate to abstract labor (the substance of value for Marx), directly affect the aggregate creation of value rather than the aggregate production of use values.

If it is true that labor complexity affects value creation at the aggregate level, then empirical macro analysis from a Marxist perspective – and not just empirical micro analysis – is made more difficult. Nevertheless, the difficulty largely dissolves so long as it is safe to assume that there is a tendency for sectoral rates of surplus value to equalize. Under an assumption of equal rates of surplus value, labor complexity is easily discerned from wage relativities.

Marx did in fact suggest that such a tendency operates….

heteconomist
Do Sectoral Rates of Surplus Value Tend to Equalize, and Why Ask?
Peter Cooper