Marxian economic theory: papers read at the Indian economic conference Delhi 1971

Marx's labour theory of value is not much an account of how products are valued in a market economy as how it ought to be valued by reference to the amount of socially useful labour embodied. It appears that in the hand of Marx the theory of value has been so impregnated with value judgement that it is not easy to say where one begins and the other ends.
Again it is well-known that the economists often in the very definition of key terms and concepts imply covert value assump tions, concepts such as "stability" "growth" "inflation" or "full employment". This reflects a new fact that an economist's interest may simultaneously be two fold-descriptive and prescriptive.

It is frequently alleged that the value commitments of social scientists in general and of economists in particular enter constitu tively into the analysis of human transactions. So it is often claimed that value free positive economics is impossible, and value preconcep tion of economist may in fact influence their theoretical analysis. However, whether such influence is operative in a given theory cannot be settled a priori one way or another and can be ascertained only by a detailed examination of the theory under discussion. But it is pertinent to add that since recommendations or analysis of economic policy are sometimes alleged to be based exclusively on considera tion of positive economics, it is pertinent to make sure whether tacitly accepted policy goals are not antecedently built into the assumption of an ostensible positive theory.