Economics of Cost, Use and Value

This book offers a conceptual scheme for an integrated analysis of prices and values. The proposed system covers both factor- and commodity-valuations and is more general in application than the standard systems previously established in that it provides a framework from which neo-classical, Marxian, and Sraffa-type price concepts can all be derived as special cases. The newly defined goods - and factor-valuations - to be named "eigenprices" - are shown to be implicit in the product and resource flows specific to each economy under investigation, and are experimentally used in a comparison of structural ratios and performance criteria across different economic systems. They are made to emerge as a conflation of the two basic value-forming principles - cost-evaluation and utility-appraisal - to provide a synthesis determined uniquely and simultaneously by the convergence of both principles in a single indicator of "value". This edition goes on to interpret the "dual" of eigenprices, to be termed "eigenfinals", as the "warranted final deliveries" of the economy, such that the employment generated, if paid in (national) eigenprices would be just sufficient to create their own demand. The author also investigates ways of improving the "cost-effectiveness" of the economy by changing the structure of final use (demand) and experiments with various uses to which eigenprices may be put, for example pin-pointing under and over pricing of commodities and juxtaposing comparative cost data for various countries. This work is intended for academic economists and graduate students of economic theory and comparative economic systems, professional economists, international statisticians, analysts of economic policy and industrial strategies.Table of ContentPart I: Eigenprices: Meaning and Purport: Eigenprices: Verbal exposition; Numerical illustrations; The general theory of Eigenprices; Part II: Eigenprices: Historical Parallels, Special Cases, and Extensions: Reduced models; The link with marginal analysis; Partial Eigenprices; Extension; A tentative verdict on Eigenprices; Part III: Eigenprices: A Foray into the Real World: Cross-section pilot survey; Time-series analysis for the Netherlands and Hungary; Appendices; Index