IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v25y2013i1p91-116.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Marx on Absolute and Relative Wages and the Modern Theory of Distribution

Author

Listed:
  • Enrico Sergio Levrero

Abstract

This paper aims at clarifying some aspects of Marx's analysis of the determinants of wages and of the peculiarity of labour as a commodity, focusing on three related issues. The first is that of Marx's notion of the subsistence (or natural) wage rate: the 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. Here the ‘law of population peculiar to the capitalist mode of production’ (that is, Marx's industrial reserve army mechanism) will be considered both with respect to cyclical fluctuations of wages and to their trend over time. Moreover, a classification of the social and institutional factors affecting the average wage rate will be advanced. Finally, the last issue concerns Marx's analysis of the effects of technical progress on both absolute and relative wages (that is, the wage share). It will also be discussed by relating it back to the longstanding debate on the Marxian law of the falling rate of profit, and addressing some possible scenarios of the trend of wages and distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Enrico Sergio Levrero, 2013. "Marx on Absolute and Relative Wages and the Modern Theory of Distribution," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 91-116, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:25:y:2013:i:1:p:91-116
    DOI: 10.1080/09538259.2013.737126
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09538259.2013.737126
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09538259.2013.737126?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antonella Stirati, 1994. "THE THEORY OF WAGES IN CLASSICAL ECONOmiCS," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 417.
    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. Lorenzo Di Domenico, 2021. "Multiplicity and not necessarily heterogeneity: implications for the long-run degree of capacity utilization," Working Papers PKWP2116, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    2. Oberholzer, Basil, 2023. "Post-growth transition, working time reduction, and the question of profits," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    3. Sujit Kumar De & Kousik Bhattacharya, 2022. "A Pollution Sensitive Marxian Production Inventory Model with Deterioration Under Fuzzy System," Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 192(2), pages 598-627, February.
    4. Stefano Di Bucchianico & Federica Cappelli, 2021. "Exploring the theoretical link between profitability and luxury emissions," Working Papers PKWP2114, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. Ricardo Summa & Julia Braga, 2020. "Two routes back to the old Phillips curve: the amended mainstream model and the conflict augmented alternative," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 14(1), pages 81-115, June.

    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. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2016. "Adam Smith’s Economics and the Modern Minimum Wage Debate:The Large Distance Separating Kirkcaldy from Chicago," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 29-52, March.
    2. Levrero, Enrico Sergio, 2009. "Marx on absolute and relative wages," MPRA Paper 20976, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Lorenzo Di Domenico, 2021. "Multiplicity and not necessarily heterogeneity: implications for the long-run degree of capacity utilization," Working Papers PKWP2116, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    4. Tony Aspromourgos, 2010. "'Universal opulence': Adam Smith on technical progress and real wages," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 1169-1182.
    5. Serrano, Franklin & Summa , Ricardo, 2015. "Distribution and Cost-Push inflation in Brazil under inflation targeting, 1999-2014," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP14, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    6. Sergio Cesaratto, 2002. "The Economics of Pensions: A non-conventional approach," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 149-177.
    7. Ricardo Summa & Franklin Serrano, 2018. "Distribution and Conflict Inflation in Brazil under Inflation Targeting, 1999–2014," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(2), pages 349-369, June.
    8. 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.
    9. Antonella Stirati, 2001. "Inflation, Unemployment and Hysteresis: An alternative view," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 427-451.
    10. Di Domenico, Lorenzo, 2021. "Stability and determinants of the public debt-to-GDP ratio: an Input Output – Stock Flow Consistent approach," MPRA Paper 109970, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Lyuboslav Kostov, 2020. "The impact of labor productivity on wages in the EU," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 146-158.
    12. Daniele Girardi & Riccardo Pariboni, 2016. "Long-run Effective Demand in the US Economy: An Empirical Test of the Sraffian Supermultiplier Model," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 523-544, October.
    13. Pierangelo Garegnani, 2007. "Professor Foley and Classical Policy Analysis," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 221-242.
    14. Enrico Sergio Levrero, 1999. "Worker Bargaining Power and Real Wages from 1870 to 1913: Phelps Brown reconsidered," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 183-203.
    15. Sergio Cesaratto & Stefano Di Bucchianico, 2021. "The Surplus Approach, the Polanyian Tradition, and Institutions in Economic Anthropology and Archaeology," Annals of the Fondazione Luigi Einaudi. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics, History and Political Science, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Torino (Italy), vol. 55(1), pages 185-216, June.
    16. Sergio Cesaratto, 2019. "Heterodox economics and Economic Anthropology: reflections prompted by two books," Department of Economics University of Siena 807, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    17. Stefano Di Bucchianico & Federica Cappelli, 2021. "Exploring the theoretical link between profitability and luxury emissions," Working Papers PKWP2114, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    18. Meacci, Ferdinando, 2014. "Ricardo's and Malthus's common error in their conflicting theories of the value of labour," MPRA Paper 55948, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. 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.
    20. Stephan Kampelmann, 2011. "The Socio-Economics of Pay Rules," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/268040, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

    More about this item

    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:taf:revpoe:v:25:y:2013:i:1:p:91-116. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRPE20 .

    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.