Marxian Economics

What Is Marxian Economics?

Marxian economics is the body of analysis derived from Karl Marx, especially his Das Kapital (1867). At its core is the labor theory of value, the claim that the value of a commodity is determined by the socially necessary labor time required to produce it. From this Marx developed an account of how, in his view, capitalists extract surplus value from workers, driving conflict between classes. Marx also offered a vision of a post-capitalist society, summarized in his Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875) by the phrase from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. Marxian economics is thus both a technical theory of value and a broader critique of capitalist society.

Why It Matters

Marxian economics has been one of the most consequential bodies of thought in modern history, shaping political movements, revolutions, and states across the twentieth century. As economic analysis, its labor theory of value stood in sharp contrast to the marginal revolution of the 1870s, when Menger, Jevons, and Walras argued that value is set at the margin by utility rather than by embodied labor, an approach that became mainstream. Debates over exploitation, inequality, and the dynamics of capitalism that Marx framed continue to inform heterodox economics and political economy. Studying Marxian ideas clarifies both the questions early critics of capitalism raised and why later economists rejected the labor theory of value.