Marx's theory of price and its modern rivals / Howard Nicholas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nicholas, Howard, 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prices.

Microeconomics.

Marxian economics.

Physical Description:

x, 217 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke, Hampshire [U.K.] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Summary:

Marx's Theory of Price and its Modern Rivals provides the reader with an original, in-depth and non-dogmatic look at Marx's explanation of price. It brings out the importance that Marx places on the historical emergence, purpose and nature of price, and shows how this emphasis informs his explanation of its, magnitude, especially the pivotal role accorded to the concept of value. It also shows how Marx's theory can be extended to explain the actual movement of prices over the course of the business cycle.

Howard Nicholas also provides a detailed appraisal of other Marxist interpretations, including the New and Temporal Single Systems interpretations, and critically assesses various classical (Adam Smith's and David Ricardo's) and modern (Neoclassical, Post Keynesian and Sraffian) theories of price with a view to bringing out the distinctiveness and pre-eminence of Marx's theory. A fundamental contention of the book is that Marx's theory of price warrants more serious attention than it is presently accorded by those interested in rebuilding the foundations of economic thinking, whether or not they are sympathetic to Marx's purpose in his study of capitalism - its overthrow. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter2 Marx's Theory of Price in the Simple Circulation of Commodities 7

2.1 Why Marx begins with the simple circulation of commodities 7

2.2 Understanding the simple commodity circulation process 7

2.3 Understanding price in simple commodity production 9

2.4 The magnitudes of reproduction prices 12

Why start with reproduction prices? 12

Relative reproduction prices 13

Money reproduction prices 16

2.5 Actual prices 22

Actual prices and reproduction prices 22

Possibility of divergences 24

Sources of divergences 24

The price adjustment process 25

2.6 A digression on social and abstract labour 26

Chapter 3 Marx's Theory of Price - Capitalist Commodity Production 29

3.1 Understanding prices in capitalism 29

3.2 Marx's approach to explaining the magnitudes of prices in capitalism 31

3.3 The magnitudes of 'prices of production' 34

Relative prices of production 34

Marx's transformation procedure 39

Supply and demand 40

Money prices of production 41

3.4 Changes in prices of production 44

Relative prices of production 44

Money prices of production 45

3.5 Prices of production with non-producible inputs 47

3.6 Monopoly prices 50

3.7 Market prices 52

Possibility of divergences 52

Nature of divergences 53

Causes of divergences 54

The price adjustment process 54

Chapter 4 Marx on Smith and Ricardo 61

4.1 Adam Smith 61

4.2 Ricardo 64

Chapter 5 Marxist Interpretations of Marx's Theory of Price 70

5.1 Traditional interpretation 70

Marx's 'transformation problem' 71

Monopoly capitalism 74

5.2 Modern interpretations 77

The New Interpretation 77

The Temporal Single System Interpretation 83

Chapter 6 The Neoclassical Theory of Price 88

6.1 Introduction 88

6.2 The exchange process 89

6.3 Understanding price 92

The pre-condition for the existence of prices 92

Formation of prices 92

Form of prices 95

Purpose of prices 96

Nature of prices 97

Relative prices 97

Money prices 98

6.4 Price constructs 99

Equilibrium prices 99

Long- and short-run prices 101

Competitive and monopoly prices 102

Relative and money prices 104

6.5 The magnitude of equilibrium relative price 105

6.6 Changes in equilibrium relative price magnitudes 107

6.7 The magnitude of monopoly price 108

6.8 The value of money and equilibrium money price level 110

6.9 The price adjustment process 113

Relative prices 113

Money prices 116

Chapter 7 The Post Keynesian Theory of Price 119

7.1 Introduction 119

7.2 Focus and method 121

7.3 The exchange process 122

7.4 Understanding price 123

The pre-condition for the existence of price 123

Formation of prices 124

Form of prices 126

Purpose of prices 126

Nature of prices 128

7.5 Explicit and implicit price constructs 130

Disequilibrium prices 130

Long- and short-run prices 131

Competitive and non-competitive prices 132

Relative and money prices 134

7.6 The magnitude of price 134

7.7 Changes in price magnitudes 136

7.8 The value of money and the aggregate money price level 138

7.9 The price adjustment process 140

Chapter 8 Sraffa's Theory of Price 142

8.1 Focus, method and approach 143

8.2 The exchange process 148

8.3 Understanding price 149

Formation of prices 149

Form of prices 153

Purpose of prices 153

Nature of prices 155

8.4 Implicit price constructs 157

Equilibrium and long-run prices 158

Competitive and non-competitive prices 159

Relative and money prices 161

8.5 The magnitude of relative price 161

Subsistence production 161

Surplus production 164

Single-product industries 164

Joint-product industries 166

Fixed capital 168

Non-produced inputs 170

8.6 Changes in relative price magnitudes 172

The core arguments 172

Extensions 175

Joint products 175

Non-produced inputs 176

8.7 The magnitudes of money prices 176

Chapter 9 Concluding Remarks 178

9.1 Marx's contribution to the theory of price, or why choose Marx? 178

9 2 Locating Marx's theory of price 183

9.3 The significance of rehabilitating Marx's theory of price 184.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9780230302570

0230302572

OCLC:

724656741