Humbug Labor Values

Humbug Labor Values
Sabatino, Isabella K. (2026). Review of Capital as Power. Vol. 2. No. 3. March. pp. 1-52. (Article - Journal; English).

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Abstract or Brief Description

In 1974, Anwar Shaikh published a landmark paper demonstrating that the Cobb-Douglas production function was in fact an accounting identity. As such, under fairly general conditions, the function would appear to ‘work’, even for nonsense data that spelled the word ‘HUMBUG’. In this paper, I argue that Shaikh’s own research is subject to a similar critique. In his book 'Capitalism: Competition, Conflict, Crises', Shaikh uses US input-output data to find what he deems strong evidence for the labor theory of value. However, I demonstrate that Shaikh’s method amounts to a manipulation of national accounting identities. As such, his method delivers a high degree of correlation between labor values and monetary value (sectoral gross sales) for a wide range of random data, including an input-output table which spells ‘HUMBUG’.

Language

English

Publication Type

Article - Journal

Keywords

Anwar Shaikh circular algebra input-output analysis labor theory of value labor values tautology

Subject

BN Methodology
BN Production
BN Value & Price
BN Capital & Accumulation
BN Data & Statistics

Depositing User

Jonathan Nitzan

Date Deposited

11 Mar 2026 22:26

Last Modified

11 Mar 2026 22:26

URL:

https://bnarchives.net/id/eprint/884

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