Labor-time calculation is a method of economic calculation that uses labor time as the basic unit of accounting and valuation. This method of calculation was advocated by the economistsOtto Bauer, Helene Bauer andOtto Leichter [de] as an alternative tocalculation in kind for asocialist economy.[1] Otto Leichter criticized in-kind calculation on the basis that rational accounting required a general unit for comparing costs of heterogeneous goods.
The basis for labor-time calculation is found inKarl Marx's analysis of value in capitalism. However, Marx was vehemently opposed to any proposal for using labor-time as the basis for socialist calculation because his concept ofsocially necessary labor time was a conceptual framework for understanding and analyzing value in capitalism. In Marx's view socialism would operate according to its own economic "laws of motion" distinct from those of capitalism.[2]
The author who most convincingly defended the claim that economic calculation in labor hours is possible was Otto Leichter (1923). Paradoxically, in this book, Leichter fiercely criticizes proposals of calculation in kind. His ideas were later developed and refined by Walter Schiff (1932).
Marx is full of scorn for the proposal, advanced by some socialists during his lifetime, to arrange things so that commodities would actually exchange in proportion to the labor-time embodied in them.
 | Thiseconomic theory related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
