Productive labour, price/value ratio and rate of surplus value: theoretical viewpoints and empirical evidence

Productive labor is defined in the sense of indirect social labor, which includes circulation and supervisory labor as well. The calculation of the macroeconomic price/value ratio provides an easy method to arrive at theoretically correct estimates of the rate of surplus labor at macro or micro levels and to study the evolution of total labor productivity (here in the wage-good sector). The level and general tendencies of the macroeconomic rate of surplus value appear to be fairly similar in EEC countries over the period 1970-86, while productivity increases are much more important in the latter. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.