ABSTRACT
Consideration of the determinants of prices and wages raises the question of the fundamental determinants of economic value. In Chapter 16 of the General Theory Keynes (1964 [1936], pp. 213-214) seemingly indicated some sympathy for some type of labor theory of value.1 But what sort of labor theory did Keynes mean by this? In the General Theory and more clearly in the Treatise on Money value in equilibrium is determined by unit labor costs, our w|b.2 This differs from the Ricardian “labor-embodied” theory of value in that changes in money wages are allowed to affect value, which makes the theory seem more like Adam Smith’s “labor-commanded” theory of value.
