Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Value: In economics, value refers to the importance or worth of a good or service, determined by its utility, scarcity, and the willingness of individuals to pay for it. It can be measured as use value (satisfaction derived) or exchange value (worth in trade or market)._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Murray N. Rothbard on Value - Dictionary of Arguments
Rothbard III 88 Value/exchange/economics/Rothbard: (…) goods may (…) be exchanged for other goods of greater usefulness to the actor. A man will exchange a unit of a good so long as the goods that it can command in exchange have greater value to him than the value it had in direct use, i.e., so long as its exchange-value is greater than its direct use-value. On the other hand, from then on, their respective assets had greater use-value to their owners than exchange-value.(1) >Use value. Rothbard III 116 Value/exchange/economics/Rothbard: the more capable or “more urgent,” buyers (and sellers) - the supramarginal (which includes the marginal) - obtain a psychic surplus in this exchange, for they are better off than they would have been if the price had been higher (or lower). However, since goods can be ranked only on each individual’s value scale, and no measurement of psychic gain can be made either for one individual or between different individuals, little of value can be said about this psychic gain except that it exists. ((s) For Rothbard as for the Asutrian School value is always a subjective estimation. (VsMarx). Contrary to this, the price is objective. The distinction „subjective“/“objective“ has nothing to do with the question, whether a phenomenon is constant or changing.) >Price/Rothbard, >Utility/Rothbard, >Marginal utility/Rothbard, >Equilibrium price/Rothbard. Rothbard III 259 Measurements/value/Rothbard: Those writers who have vainly attempted to measure psychic gains from exchange have concentrated on “consumer surpluses.” Most recent attempts try to base their measurements on the price a man would have paid for the good if confronted with the possibility of being deprived of it. RothbardVs: These methods are completely fallacious. The fact that A would have bought a suit at 80 gold grains as well as at the 50 grains’ market price, while B would not have bought the suit if the price had been as high as 52 grains, does not (…) permit any measurement of the psychic surpluses, nor does it permit us to say that A’s gain was in any way “greater” than B’s. Demand/exchange: The fact that even if we could identify the marginal and supramarginal purchasers, we could never assert that one’s gain is greater than another’s is a conclusive reason for the rejection of all attempts to measure consumers’ or other psychic surpluses. There are several other fundamental methodological errors in such a procedure. 1) In the first place, individual value scales are here separated from concrete action. But economics deals with the universal aspects of real action, not with the actors’ inner psychological workings. We deduce the existence of a specific value scale on the basis of the real act; we have no knowledge of that part of a value scale that is not revealed in real action. The question how much one would pay if threatened with deprivation of the whole stock of a good is strictly an academic question with no relation to human action. Like all other such constructions, it has no place in economics. 2) Furthermore, this particular concept is a reversion to the classical economic fallacy of dealing with the whole supply of a good as if it were relevant to individual action. It must be understood that only marginal units are relevant to action and that there is no determinate relation at all between the marginal utility of a unit and the utility of the supply as a whole. Rothbard III 267 Objectivity/utility/value/money/economics/Rothbard: It might be thought, and many writers have assumed, that money has here performed the function of measuring and rendering comparable the utilities of the different individuals. It has, however, done nothing of the sort. The marginal utility of money differs from person to person, just as does the marginal utility of any other good. The fact that an ounce of money can buy various goods on the market and that such opportunities may be open to all does not give us any information about the ways in which various people will rank these different combinations of goods. There is no measuring or comparability in the field of values or ranks. Money permits only prices to be comparable, by establishing money prices for every good. >Money/Rothbard. Rothbard III 315 Value/subjective/objective/Rothbard: (…) there is undoubtedly confusion because the term is used in a variety of different ways. It is more important to keep distinct the subjective use of the term in the sense of valuation and preference, as against the “objective” use in the sense of purchasing power or price on the market. >Utility/Rothbard, >Purchasing power/Rothbard. Capital value: (…) [here] the term “value of capital” signifies the purchasing power of a durable good in terms of money on the market. >Capital value/Rothbard. 1. On use-value and exchange-value, see Menger, Principles of Economics, pp. 226–35._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Rothbard II Murray N. Rothbard Classical Economics. An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Cheltenham 1995 Rothbard III Murray N. Rothbard Man, Economy and State with Power and Market. Study Edition Auburn, Alabama 1962, 1970, 2009 Rothbard IV Murray N. Rothbard The Essential von Mises Auburn, Alabama 1988 Rothbard V Murray N. Rothbard Power and Market: Government and the Economy Kansas City 1977 |
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