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

Vol. 37 No. 3 (2017)

Jul-Sep / 2017
Published February 26, 2020
PDF-English
PDF-English

How to Cite

Daou Lucas, Gustavo, and Franklin Serrano. 2017. “Understanding and Overcoming the ‘positive Profits With Negative Surplus-value’ Paradox”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 37 (3):587-604. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572017v37n03a07.

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

Gustavo Daou Lucas
Department of Economics and Statistics, Università di Siena, Italy
Franklin Serrano
Instituto de Economia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 37 No. 3 (2017), Jul-Sep / 2017, Pages 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.