For citation:
Zolotukhin, A. A. (2022). Exploring the Explanatory Power of the Labour Theory of Value for Problems of Economic Growth. AlterEconomics, 19(2), 306-325. https://doi.org/10.31063/AlterEconomics/2022.19-2.6
Abstract:
Even though there has been accumulated a substantial amount of evidence on the disparities in different countries’ rates of economic growth, the question as to the roots of these disparities still remains open for debate. Historically, one of the first formalized models of economic growth was the two-sector scheme of expanded reproduction proposed by Karl Marx in the second volume of Das Kapital. The source of growth in this scheme was surplus value while the prices were determined by the cost of labour. In the following periods, however, the labour theory somewhat receded to the background in the studies of economic growth. This article seeks to address the task of formulating a theory of economic growth by drawing on the labour theory of value. To this end, three models are considered: a model with constant population and no technological progress; a model with endogenous population growth; and a model with endogenous economic growth and technical progress. These models can be used to explain the dynamics of economic growth and in some cases to predict the future growth rates. The model with endogenous population growth describes the development of the global economy between 1850 and 1970. The model with endogenous economic growth demonstrates that fundamental research is the source of long-term economic growth. The model with constant population and no technological progress shows the downward trend in the profit rate. The proposed methodological framework based on these three models can be used to predict further trajectories of growth for the Russian and Japanese economies.
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