New Directions in Political Economy: Value Theory, Agent-Based Computational Modeling, and the Dynamics of Labor Mobility

This dissertation collects three papers on the labor theory of value and Marxian political economy. The first paper of this dissertation studies the long-period method used by the classical political economists and Marx to establish the central tendencies of wage and profit rate equalization across industries via the mobility of labor and capital. The paper argues that Marx's use of the long-period method and labor theory of value require the relevant central tendencies to be the equalization of profit rates and rates of surplus value. The paper further argues that the labor theory of value is both a theory of price formation and a theory of labor and capital allocation. The second paper develops an agent-based computational model in which agents engage in decentralized market exchange and decide how to allocate their labor time in production. The results show that such a model approximates the conclusions of the labor theory of value. One conclusion of Marx's use of the labor theory of value is that the surplus value created in production needs to be redistributed across industries to allow for the tendential equalization of profit rates. This redistribution raises questions concerning the measurement of surplus value. The third paper develops a method of estimating the surplus value produced in different industries and analyzes the sources of surplus value production in the U.S. economy.