Uneven development, choice of technique, and generalized worldwide law of value

Knez, Klemen (author)

We address the issue of persistent uneven development from a Marxist perspective. First, we show the conceptual problems in applying the unmodified law of value to the international setting. Second, we propose a generalization of the global law of value by introducing an additional level of abstraction into the global valorization process—national abstract labor. Third, we examine broad cases of internationalization caused by deviations in productivity differences across industries from the average productivity differences across countries. We discover an endogenous national and international dynamic push toward specialization that perpetuates uneven development. The benefits of such specialization are skewed in favor of more developed countries, and the potential for technological improvement created by the global division of labor blocks technological progress in less developed countries.

• Language: English
• Keywords: uneven development, choice of technique, law of value, value of labor power, wage differentials
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 16.03.2024
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 405-426
• Numbering: Vol. 56, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-181149
• UDC: 331.2:330.368
• ISSN on article: 0486-6134
• DOI: 10.1177/04866134241234362
• COBISS.SI-ID: 273105667
• Publication date in RUL: 26.03.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Review of radical political economics
• Shortened title: Rev. radic. polit. econ.
• Publisher: Union for Radical Political Economics
• ISSN: 0486-6134
• COBISS.SI-ID: 263961

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: Ekonomija, Plače, Družbena neenakost