An Economic Philosophy of Production, Work and Consumption: A Transhistorical Framework

209 Pages·2022·7.294 MB·English

by  Rodney Edvinsson

Routledge Studies in the History of Economics
AN ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY
OF PRODUCTION, WORK
AND CONSUMPTION
A TRANSHISTORICAL FRAMEWORK
Rodney Edvinsson
An Economic Philosophy
of Production, Work and
Consumption
An Economic Philosophy of Production, Work and Consumption presents a new
transhistorical framework for defining production, work and consumption.
It shows that they all share the common feature of intentional physical
transformation of something external to the agent, at some point in time.
The book opens with a discussion of various theoretical traditions within
economics, spanning mainstream and heterodox perspectives, and problems
with production definitions in use today. Next, the author outlines various
definitions in a more formal manner and provides a discussion on measurement
and the production boundary. Unproductive work is redefined as socially
reproductive, i.e. such that would not be performed on a Robinson Crusoe
Island. Finally, the volume applies the new conceptual framework to various
historical cases and discusses the future of production, work and consumption.
This essential volume will be of interest to scholars of economic philosophy
and methodology, the history of economic thought, economic history and
national accounting.
Rodney Edvinsson is a Professor of Economic History at Stockholm
University, Sweden.
Routledge Studies in the History of Economics
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An Economic Philosophy of Production, Work and Consumption
A Transhistorical Framework
Rodney Edvinsson
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/series/
SE0341
An Economic Philosophy
of Production, Work and
Consumption
A Transhistorical Framework
Rodney Edvinsson
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Rodney Edvinsson
The right of Rodney Edvinsson to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com,
has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non
Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Edvinsson, Rodney, author.
Title: An economic philosophy of production, work and consumption:
a transhistorical framework / Rodney Edvinsson.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2023. | Series:
Routledge studies in the history of economics | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022014105 (print) | LCCN 2022014106 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367522254 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367522247 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003057017 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Production (Economic theory) | Consumption
(Economics) | Labor. | Work. | Economics--Philosophy.
Classification: LCC HB241.E38 2023 (print) | LCC HB241 (ebook) |
DDC 338.5--dc23/eng/20220323
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022014105
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022014106
ISBN: 978-0-367-52225-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-52224-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-05701-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003057017
Typeset in Bembo
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
Contents
1 Introduction 1
The dilemma of “leprechaun economics” 1
Notions of production, work and consumption 5
In need of greater precision and formalisation 8
2 Production, work and consumption in the history
of economic thought 13
Evolving perspectives on the production boundary and value 13
Pre-capitalist economic thought 14
Early modern economic thinking 21
Classical economics 24
Marxism 26
Neoclassical economics 29
Keynesian and post-Keynesian economics 36
Austrian and Schumpeterian economics 38
Feminism and the third person criterion 39
Institutionalism 42
Ecological economics 44
A comparison 46
3 National accounts 48
Introduction 48
The system of national accounts 48
The index problem 52
vi Contents
Historical national accounts 55
Welfare indicators 56
Satellite accounts including unpaid services 58
Satellite accounts including human capital formation 59
National accounts and ecology 60
National accounts and classical economics 63
Circularity, self-reference and infinite regress of national
accounting 69
Criteria for the reconceptualisation 72
4 Formalising the definitions of production,
work and consumption 76
Four conditions of production 76
Causation 77
Intentional causation 78
Purposefulness 81
Social causation 82
The transformation of objects 87
Exteriority 88
The application of formal logic and natural language 92
Consumption 101
Final consumption 104
Non-social production 106
Comprehensive production and social reproduction 113
Time-frame-independent production and self-reproduction 118
Humanity exterior production 120
Market comprehensive production 120
Work and leisure 121
Comparison of definitions 125
5 Possible applications of the framework 129
Introduction 129
Quantifying production, work and consumption 129
Value theory 137
Social causation versus the productivity of capital 147
What is capital? 154
Social stages in the development of intelligent life 157
Conclusions 170
Contents vii
6 The contribution of this book 173
The purpose of this book 173
Production, work and consumption 174
Can formalisation of definitions be driven too far? 176
Bibliography 179
Index 192

1
1 Introduction
The dilemma of “leprechaun economics”
There is a joke about two junior economists finding dog shit during their
walk. The first economist says to the second: “I pay you one million dollars if
you eat up the dog shit”. The second economist does it. They keep walking
until they find another dog shit. The second economist now says to the first:
“I pay you one million dollars if you eat up that dog shit”. The first economist
does it. They do not feel so well. None of them own one million dollars. So,
they visit a senior economist to explain to them how to evaluate the situation.
The senior economist exclaims: “These are wonderful news. You have just
increased the GDP by two million dollars”.
Although a joke, the senior economist has a point. According to the inter-
national guidelines of national accounting, eating dog shit for payment
may constitute a type of service, included in the production boundary given that
it is performed for the market. Its gross output and value added would similarly
be valued by the amount paid (there is no intermediate consumption in the joke).
Weird things also appear in the real world of official national accounting.
For instance, in 2015, the Irish GDP suddenly increased by 26 per cent.
Given that there are no indications of a sensational rise in Irish productivity,
the Irish Statistical Office instead has used the adjusted gross national income
as a substitute. The phenomenon was jokingly described as “Leprechaun
economics” by Paul Krugman (2017):
GDP might go up because lower corporate taxes will draw in foreign
capital; but this capital will demand and receive returns, which mean that
part of the gain in domestic production is offset by investment income
received by foreigners. As a result, GNI – income of domestic residents –
will rise less than GDP. And surely, as in Ireland with its leprechaun
economy based on low corporate taxes, GNI is the measure you want
to focus on.
Still, the solution of the Irish Statistical Office is ad hoc. The GNI is not
an alternative production measure. It is an income measure. Measures of
DOI: 10.4324/9781003057017-1