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Copyright © Cambridge Political Economy Society

other

Labour time versus alternative value bases: a research note

W. Paul Cockshott and Allin F. Cottrell

Department of Computer Science, University of Strathclyde
Department of Economics, Wake Forest University

Abstract

This paper provides empirical support for the ‘law of value’, understood as the proposition that embodied labour time is conserved in exchanges of commodities. Market prices are well correlated with the sum of direct and indirect labour content. Is it possible to produce equally good correlations by taking the sum of direct and indirect x-content, where x is some input other than labour time? We repeat the analysis for electricity, iron and steel, and oil and show that the answer is no. The high correlations in the case of labour time are, therefore, not a statistical artefact.

Manuscript received June 20, 1995; final version received April 11, 1996.


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