Exploring the origins and development of the labour theory of value, Peter Dooley examines its emergence from the natural law philosopher of the sixteenth and seventeenth century and its domination of the classical school of economics. This book will prove to be essential reading for all students of the history of economics.

Karl Marx's ideas have been declared "dead" on more than one occasion, only to emerge with new relevance a few years later. But the "collapse of communism" seemed to be the final nail in his coffin. The end of history had been reached, we were told, and poor old Karl was wrong. -- Or was he? In Marx's Labor Theory of Value: A Defense, Hayashi Hiroyoshi argues that Marx will continue to be relevant as long as capitalism continues to exist. This is simply because no one grasped the nature of capitalism on a more profound level than Marx did. Hayashi presents the most fundamental aspects of Marxist economic thought, centering on the discussion of the commodity at the beginning of Capital. Also included are detailed examinations of Adam Smith's theory of value and the concepts of ground-rent, credit, and productive labor. Hayashi shows that Marx's labor theory of value is the key not only to understanding capitalism but also for grasping the essential characteristics of socialism. And socialism--as the real solution to the contradictions of capitalism--turns out to have little in common with the recently deceased "communist" states. Now that history has resumed--after its brief "hiatus"--it's time to return to Marx!

This pioneering survey of the development of the “labor theory of value,” advances Marxian economic categories for contemporary conditions.

"This book has arisen out of a course of lectures originally delivered, under the title of Justice and wages, in 1913"--Preface.

This book looks at the value and distribution debates on the theories of Adam Smith. A variety of the aspects of his work are covered in this book such as his labour command measure, as are a number of interpretations and criticisms.

This book presents a comprehensive account of more than 200 years of controversy on the classical theories of value and distribution. The author focuses on four, perhaps most critical classics — Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, David Ricardo’s Principles of Political Economy, Karl Marx’s Capital and Piero Sraffa’s Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities. The book highlights several significant differences in the widely celebrated theories of the four authors as it searches for the ‘classical standpoint’ that separates them from the ‘moderns’. It also challenges canonical interpretations to analyse their flaws and weaknesses, in addition to the already obvious strengths, and critically engages with the major alternative interpretations and criticisms of the theories. With a new Afterword that follows up on the debates and developments since the first edition, this book will appeal to scholars and academics of economic theory and philosophy, as well as to the general reader.

What is the score card for economics at the start of the new millennium? While there are many different schools of economic thought, it is the neo-classical school, with its alleged understanding and simplistic advocacy of the market, that has become equated in the public mind with economics. This book shows that virtually every aspect of conventional neo-classical economics' thinking is intellectually unsound. Steve Keen draws on an impressive array of advanced critical thinking. He constitutes a profound critique of the principle concepts, theories, and methodologies of the mainstream discipline. Keen raises grave doubts about economics' pretensions to established scientific status and its reliability as a guide to understanding the real world of economic life and its policy-making.

This volume brings together papers inspired by the work of Duncan Foley, an extraordinarily productive economist who has made seminal contributions to a wide variety of areas. Foley’s work cannot be easily classified, but one thread that runs through it is a critical examination (along both ethical and analytical lines) of conventional neoclassical economic theory, particularly involving general equilibrium theories of value and money. Foley was a pioneer of complexity economics as well, which adopts approaches to these questions drawn from natural sciences, so the collection therefore has an interdisciplinary quality that will interest a wide variety of readers. Some of the chapters are intellectual biographies that contextualize and identify Foley’s contributions to Keynesian macroeconomics, Marxian value theory, and complexity theory in economics. The topics covered include the economics of complexity; the ethics of general equilibrium theory; the economics of climate change; applications of Keynesian, Marxian and Ricardian political economy; and money and financial crises. The collection should be useful to scholars who work in various economic traditions critical of the currently dominant free-market approach, but it also speaks to scholars of critical theory in various disciplines beyond economics such as the mathematicians, physicists, and other natural scientists who are interested in understanding the complexity of social processes using their analytical frameworks. This book should also appeal to graduate students in economics who are working in these traditions, as well as scholars (including current graduate students in orthodox programs) who are dissatisfied with the current state of economic theory and would like to satisfy their intellectual curiosity by sampling the contributions of critical theorists.

From Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, a long-awaited memoir about home, belonging, inequality, and identity, recounting a singular life devoted to betterment of humanity. The Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is one of a handful of people who may truly be called “a global intellectual” (Financial Times). A towering figure in the field of economics, Sen is perhaps best known for his work on poverty and famine, as inspired by events in his boyhood home of West Bengal, India. But Sen has, in fact, called many places “home,” including Dhaka, in modern Bangladesh; Kolkata, where he first studied economics; and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he engaged with the greatest minds of his generation. In Home in the World, these “homes” collectively form an unparalleled and profoundly truthful vision of twentieth- and twenty-first-century life. Here Sen, “one of the most distinguished minds of our time” (New York Review of Books), interweaves scenes from his remarkable life with candid philosophical reflections on economics, welfare, and social justice, demonstrating how his experiences—in Asia, Europe, and later America—vitally informed his work. In exquisite prose, Sen evokes his childhood travels on the rivers of Bengal, as well as the “quiet beauty” of Dhaka. The Mandalay of Orwell and Kipling is recast as a flourishing cultural center with pagodas, palaces, and bazaars, “always humming with intriguing activities.” With characteristic moral clarity and compassion, Sen reflects on the cataclysmic events that soon tore his world asunder, from the Bengal famine of 1943 to the struggle for Indian independence against colonial tyranny—and the outbreak of political violence that accompanied the end of British rule. Witnessing these lacerating tragedies only amplified Sen’s sense of social purpose. He went on to study famine and inequality, wholly reconstructing theories of social choice and development. In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contributions to welfare economics, which included a fuller understanding of poverty as the deprivation of human capability. Still Sen, a tireless champion of the dispossessed, remains an activist, working now as ever to empower vulnerable minorities and break down walls among warring ethnic groups. As much a book of penetrating ideas as of people and places, Home in the World is the ultimate “portrait of a citizen of the world” (Spectator), telling an extraordinary story of human empathy across distance and time, and above all, of being at home in the world.

This three volume Encyclopedia offers the first comprehensive and authoritative survey of the rapidly developing field of international political economy. Its entries cover the major theoretical issues and analytical approaches within the field. The set also provides detailed discussion of the contributions of key individuals and surveys a wide range of empirical conditions and developments within the global political economy, including its major institutions. The Encyclopedia has been designed to be eclectic in approach and wide-ranging in coverage. Theoretical entries range from discussions of the definition and scope of the field, through core methodological questions such as rationalism and the structure-agent problem, to surveys of the major theories and approaches employed in the study of the international political economy.