The von Neumann Model and the Early Models of General Equilibrium

The paper reconstructs the von Neumann model, comments on its salient features and critically reviews some of its generalisations. The issues related to thetreatment of consumption, decomposability and uniqueness of the rate of growth and interest will be especially scrutinised. The most prominent models of general equilibrium that appeared before or roughly at the same time as von Neumann's model will be also reviewed in the paper and compared with it. It will be demonstrated that none of them had any noticeable influence on von Neumann's model, which is genuinely distinct, ideologically free and methodologically fresh and forward-looking. It will be argued that the model can be viewed as a brilliant mathematical metaphor of some deep-rooted old vision, pertaining to the core issues of commodity production

Economic reform, allocative effiency and terms of trade

It has widely been agreed that the distorted price system is one of the causes of inefficient ecooomic decisions in centrally planned economies. The paper investigates the possible effect of a price reform on the allocation of resources in a situation where micro-efficiency remains unchanged. Foreign trade and endogenously induced terms-of-trade changes are focal points ín the multisectoral applied general equilibrium analysis. Special attention is paid to some methodological problems connected to the representation of foreign trade in such models. The adoption of Armington's assumption leads to an export demand function and this in turn gives rise to the question of optimal export structure, different from the equilibrium one-an aspect so far neglected in the related literature. The results show, that the applied model allows for a more flexible handling of the overspecialization problem, than the linear programming models. It also becomes evident that the use of export demand functions brings unwanted terms-of-trade changes into the model, to be avoided by a suitable reformulation of the model. The analysis also suggests, that a price reform alone does not significantly increase global economic efficiency. Thus the effect of an economic reform on micro-efficiency appears to be a more crucial factor. The author raises in conclusion some rather general questions related to the foreign trade practice of small open economies

Adaptability of nonlinear equilibrum models to central planning

Linear multisectoral models have for long been applied in the Hungarian national economic planning. Price-quantity correspondences and interaction, however, cannot easily be taken into account in the traditional linear framework. Computable general equilibrium modelers in the West have developed techniques which use extensively price-quantity interdependences. However, since they are usually presented with the controversial strict neoclassical interpretation, the possibility of their adaptation to socialist planning models has been concaled. This paper reflects on some results of a research investigating the possible adaptation of eqailibrium modeling techniques to central planning models

Heterogeneous labour and the determination of value

Heterogeneity of labour and its implications for the Marxian theory of value has been one of the most controversial issues in the literature of the Marxist political economy. The adoption of Marx's conjecture about a uniform rate of surplus value leads to a simultaneous determination of the values of common and labour commodities of different types and the uniform rate of surplus value. Determination of these variables can be formally represented as a parametric cigenvalue problem. Morishima's and Bródy's earlier results are analysed and given new interpretations in the light of the suggested procedure. The main questions are addressed in a more general context too. The analysis is extended to the problem of segmented labour market, as well

Általános egyensúlyi modellek alkalmazása gazdaságpolitikai elemzésekre (Application of general equilibrium models to economic policy analyses)

A szerző az alkalmazott többszektoros modellezés területén a lineáris programozási modellektől a számszerűsített általános egyensúlyi modellekig végbement változásokat tekinti át. Egy rövid történeti visszapillantás után a lineáris programozás módszereire épülő nemzetgazdasági szintű modellekkel összevetve mutatja be az általános egyensúlyi modellek közös, illetve eltérő jellemzőit. Egyidejűleg azt is érzékelteti, hogyan lehet az általános egyensúlyi modelleket a gazdaságpolitikai célok konzisztenciájának, a célok közötti átváltási lehetőségek elemzésére és általában a gazdaságpolitikai elképzelések érzékenységi vizsgálatára felhasználni. A szerző az elméleti-módszertani kérdések taglalását számszerűsített általános egyensúlyi modell segítségével illusztrálja. _______ The author surveys the changes having taken place in the field of multi-sector modeling, from the linear programming models to the quantified general equilibrium models. After a brief historical retrospection he presents the common and different characteristic features of the general equilibrium models by comparing them with the national economic level models based on the methods of linear programming. He also makes clear how the general equilibrium models can be used for analysing the consistency of economic policy targets, for the investigation of trade-off possibilities among the targets and, in general, for sensitivity analyses of economic policy targets. The discussion of theoretical and methodological quuestions is illustrated by the author with the aid of a quantified general equilibrium model

On the Productivity Criteria of Leontief Matrices and the Conceptual Validity of Labor Values

This paper generalizes some well-known productivity (nonnegative L-invertibility) criteria defined for nonnegative quadratic input-output coefficient matrices. The new economic criteria cover both the reducible and irreducible cases, treated separately until now, and are based on the absence of self-serving production and/or complete automation, which can be viewed as dual concepts. Detailed investigation of these concepts also reveals that their presence is incompatible with the idea of pure market commodity production. In particular, it is shown that the fundamental assumptions of the pure market economy and the indispensability of labor are sufficient to rigorously prove the existence, uniqueness, and strict positivity of labor values

Eigenvalue Models of the Marxian Value System

In this paper, Ernoe Zalai addresses problems related to the formal analysis and computational aspects of the Marxian labor value theory. Since the labor theory of value is customarily burdened with considerable ideological overtones, one of the aims of the paper is to disperse, through a formal analysis, some of the associated myths. Labor values constitute one possible set of accounting prices that could be used in international comparisons, in order to reduce the inconsistencies that arise from differences in price systems

Eigenvalues and Labor Values

This paper is an abstract of an academic thesis available only in Hungarian. The organization of the abstract follows that of the thesis, which is divided into four chapters. At the beginning of each chapter there is a short summary and then the main issues discussed in the chapter are condensed into a few points. Being an abstract, all the formal propositions are presented without proofs. References are added only in unavoidable cases