Abstract In the tradition of Classical Political Economy, empirical studies of labor values and prices ask whether labor-value vectors are close to observed market-price vectors. This paper examines the mechanisms that generate such proximity in input-output systems by uncovering the structural features of the linear production system determining the relevant distance. We use the recent […]
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‘Testing’ the Labor Theory of Value with Metaphysical Alchemy BLAIR FIX March 2026 Economists have developed a timeworn algorithm for ‘testing’ untestable theories: they take what they can observe, which is usually monetary value, and declare that it measures what they cannot observe. I call this algorithm ‘metaphysical alchemy’. Here, I explore how Marxists use […]
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The Review of Capital as Power is pleased to announce that Isabella K. Sabatino has won the 2026 CASP Essay Prize for her landmark paper ‘Humbug Labor Values’.1 Sabatino’s paper takes aim at Anwar Shaikh’s method for ‘testing’ the labor theory of value. The backstory behind Sabatino’s work is that in 1974, Shaikh published a […]
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Humbug Labor Values ISABELLA K. SABATINO March 2026 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 […]
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