西方马克思主义经济学实证研究综述

A Review of the Latest Empirical Studies of Western Marxist Economics

马克思本人是十分重视实证研究的。马克思本人之后迄今,西方马克思主义经济学的实证(经验)研究经历了三个主要阶段,其核心问题是生产性劳动与非生产性劳动的划分的必要性与划分标准问题。第一阶段区分了生产性劳动与非生产性劳动,而第二阶段模糊了这种区分,第三阶段则修正了第二阶段的错误,重新区分两类劳动。莫斯利与沃尔夫关于美国利润率的实证研究是西方马克思主义实证研究方法的一次大争论,反映的核心问题是要不要严格区分生产性劳动与非生产性劳动。

Marx emphasized the importance of empirical studies. Up till now, empirical studies of Marxist economics in the west has gone through three major stages, in which the core issue is the necessity to distinguish productive and unproductive labor and the criterion for this division. At the first stage, productive and unproductive labor was distinguished, but at the second stage the distinction became obscure. This error was corrected at the third stage when the two types of labor was made clear again. The empirical study on profit rate of the United States by Moseley and Wolff led to a major debate over research methods. It reflected the core issue of whether it was necessary to draw a strict line between productive and unproductive labor.