Understanding and overcoming the “positive profits with negative surplus-value” paradox

Gustavo Daou Lucas () and Franklin Serrano

Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, 2017, vol. 37, issue 3, 587-604

Abstract: This paper explains the “positive profits with negative surplus-value” example of Steedman (1975) and shows that while in joint production systems individual labour values can be negative, the claim that the total labour embodied in the surplus product of the economy (surplus-value) can also be negative is based on assumptions that have no economic meaning (such as negative activity levels).The paper also provides a way to measure the surplus-value of joint production systems which overcomes the problems of the traditional concept and restates the proposition that a positive amount of surplus labour is a necessary condition for positive profits. JEL Classification: B12.

Keywords: Surplus value; labour value; rate of profit; joint production. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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