The Positive-sum Relations between Capital and Labor in the Creation of Value
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| Title | The Positive-sum Relations between Capital and Labor in the Creation of Value
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| Author | Jie Meng |
| Organization | School of Economics, Renmin University of China |
| Email | mengjie@ruc.edu.cn |
| Key Words | Tacit Knowledge; Surplus Value; Positive-sum Relations; the Law of Proportional Relations |
| Abstract | In Marxian theory of surplus value, there could only exist zero-sum relations between capital and labor in the creation of value. This essay attempts to explain the possible positive-sum relations between capital and labor, without violating Marxian labor theory of value. For this purpose, two types of theories are introduced. The first is the theory of tacit knowledge and its application in the Marxist debate on capitalist labor process. The second is the Proportional Theory of Value Creation, which argues that labor productivity changes in proportion to the value product created in given length of time. The main body of this essay, investigates the value-creating process based upon technical change and the increase in the complexity of labor, and explains under what economic conditions the shop-floor workers’ claim to surplus would be warranted. The existence of such positive-sum relations of capital and labor can be considered as counteracting factor of the law of relative surplus value. |
| Serial Number | WP65 |
| Time | 2011-03-22 |
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