A Labour Theory of Value

Luigi L. Pasinetti was a distinguished economist and a leading figure of the Cambridge School of Economics. Renowned for his pioneering work in structural economic dynamics, income distribution and growth theory, Pasinetti profoundly influenced modern heterodox economics. As a professor at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, he authored landmark works such as Growth and Income Distribution (1974) and Structural Change and Economic Growth (1981). Honoured with numerous international awards, his legacy endures as a cornerstone for those rethinking economic paradigms.

'Luigi Lodovico Pasinetti has bequeathed non-mainstream economists with a truly monumental book that pulls together some seven decades of original path-breaking research on the question of value theory, whose sources of inspiration are the writings of the Classical School, Sraffa and Leontief. In contrast to mainstream economists for whom the labour theory of value is an anathema without solid foundations, Pasinetti is able to rehabilitate classical value theory by means of empirically based input-output multi-sector dynamic models of vertically integrated systems. Albeit published posthumously, his work remains of contemporary relevance for all heterodox traditions of political economy.' Mario Seccareccia, University of Ottawa, Canada

• Part I. The Basic Conceptual Approach: 1. Theory of value – source of alternative paradigms in economic theory; 2. The 'production paradigm' in historical perspective; Part II. The (Objective) Theory of Value in Inter-Industry Analysis: 3. Wassily Leontief input-output model; 4. Piero Sraffa's price system; 5. The Marxian 'problem of transformation of values into prices of production' after Sraffa; 6. The notion of vertical integration in economic analysis; Part III. Structural Economic Dynamics – A Step-By-Step Approach: 7. Production in the short run; 8. Population growth at constant returns to scale as the simplest case of economic expansion; 9. The explosive forces of technical change: the twin aspects of production expansion and evolution of demand; 10. A general multi-sector dynamic model; Part IV. A General (Objective) Pure Labour Theory of Value: 11. The natural features of a growing economic system; 12. The accumulation of capital and the progress of technical knowledge; 13. Growing subsystems, vertically hyper-integrated sectors and the pure labour theory of value – generalisation completed; 14. Beyond production: the 'natural' rate of interest; 15. Concluding notes on the social implications of an evolving, learning economy.