--- schema_version: "library-reader-v1" source_type: "original_book" title: "Digital Capitalism" author: null edition: null publisher: null year: null isbn: "2021022153" library_document_id: "50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed" source_sha256: "746bfc1e2253e11737253daad663d7176077b6b54343c2c35f6f132990452fbc" pdf_physical_page_count: 343 pdf_physical_page_index_base: 0 range_start: 310 range_count: 10 html_url: "https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed?start=310&limit=10" markdown_url: "https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed.md?start=310&limit=10" previous_url: "https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed.md?start=300&limit=10" next_url: "https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed.md?start=320&limit=10" --- # Digital Capitalism > 页码规则：PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX 是从 0 开始的权威文件物理页索引；PRINTED_PAGE 是页面中识别出的印刷页码，可能为空，二者不得混用。 ## PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX=310 | PRINTED_PAGE=296 Labour productivity is here calculated as the ratio of value added volumes to number engaged. Labour productivity represents the amount of output per unit of input, output being here defined as value added while the input measure used is total employment.5 So, it measures value added per employed person. The statistical definition acknowledges that it would be better to use hours worked data at the industry level, but says such data are thus far not available in the OECD STAN database. The number of employed persons is however a good approximation for the total hours worked in an industry so that the labour productivity index is a feasible measure for understanding the productivity development in the information economy. The labour productivity index increased in printing and publishing in the USA from 68.9 in 1980 to 137.0 in 2007, in post and telecommunications from 44.8 in 1977 to 158.8 in 2007, in computing services (including software engineering) from 105.5 in 1998 to 173.7 in 2007 (data source: OECD STAN). It decreased from 101.8 to 99.6 in other community, social, and personal services that include recreational, cultural and sporting activities, such as film production, sound recording, motion picture projection, production, and broadcasting of television and radio programmes, live theatre, concerts, art production and exhibition, entertainment parks, etc. (data source: OECD STAN). In the United Kingdom, the same services increased their labour productivity index from 66.7 in 1980 to 102.0 in 2003, post and telecommunications increased the index from 29.3 in 1980 to 109.7 in 2003 (data source: OECD STAN). In Germany, the labour productivity index increased in printing and publishing from 69.0 in 1970 to 100.9 in 2007, in post and telecommunications from 21.5 in 1970 to 129.1 in 2007, in computing services from 47.2 in 1970 to 95.5 in 2007, etc. (data source: OECD STAN). In community, social, and personal services, it decreased from 106.9 in 1970 to 90.3 in 2008 (data source: OECD STAN). In France, the labour productivity index increased in printing and publishing from 69.7 in 1970 to 125.1 in 2007, in post and telecommunications from 13.8 in 1970 to 168.4 in 2008, and in community, social, and personal services from 80.6 in 1970 to 101.9 in 2007 (data source: OECD STAN). Such service data are somewhat hard to interpret because they include besides broadcasting, arts, and live entertainment also sanitation, sewage, and refuse disposal, activities of membership organisations, hairdressers, funeral services, washing and cleaning services, porters, shoeshiners, solariums, baths, etc. But overall they could be indicators that live entertainment and arts can have problems increasing labour productivity, whereas publishing, computing, and telecommunications seem to be doing better in this respect. 296 Themes 5 http://stats.oecd.org/OECDStat\_Metadata/ShowMetadata.ashx?Dataset=STANINDICATORS&Coords=[VAR]. [IPTY]&ShowOnWeb=true&Lang=en ## PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX=311 | PRINTED_PAGE=297 It is not straightforward to measure the productivity of some information sectors. So for example Microsoft constantly releases software updates of its Windows operating system, but only once in a while a new version such as Windows 10 and even more rarely a completely new type of software. So depending on if our unit of measure is the number of software updates, versions, or different software types, one will get very different productivity measures for Microsoft. A unified and standardised measure of productivity based on measuring the output of use-values per unit of time is therefore very difficult to obtain. However, all capitalist companies produce commodities that yield a specific amount of profit per year. So if one measures the monetary output per labour input (e.g. US\$/hour), then one can arrive at a unified and standardised measure of productivity that can be applied to the information sector. Such a measure can be obtained by combining two variables from OECD’s STAN database, namely value added in current prices (national currency) (VALU) and total hours worked by employees (HRSE). I downloaded these data for six countries and then calculated: labour productivity = VALU / HRSE [national currency/hour] Tables 12.12 and 12.13 present the results. Chapter Twelve | The Information Economy 297 Labour Productivity in the Information Sector ## PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX=312 | PRINTED_PAGE=298 The information and communication sector consists in the ISIC Revision 4 classification that OECD STAN uses of publishing, motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities, programming and broadcasting activities, telecommunications, computer programming, consultancy and related activities, information service activities. These are all sectors where computing, media, and information processing play a role. The growth of information storage capacity per integrated circuit with falling costs (Moore’s Law), the growth of data transmission speed, and the possibility for mediation, digitisation, computerisation of outputs and labour activities can increase productivity in many of these sub-industries. The arts, entertainment, and recreation sector consists in the ISIC Revision 4 classification of art, live entertainment and performance, libraries, archives, museums, gambling and betting activities, sports, and amusement. It is rather difficult to increase productivity in arts, live entertainment and in contrast easier in publishing, audiovisual, and broadcast media, telecommunications, IT. Live entertainment such as the operation of theatres, concert halls, museums, archives, libraries, exhibition sites, gambling and betting, sports clubs and facilities, sports events, amusement and team parks, discotheques and clubs include consumption at the moment of production, human copresence, non-storage, and non-reproducibility. Such culture is just like art production that is also included in this sector based on highly original creativity. These characteristics make Baumol’s disease – the assumption that it is difficult to increase productivity in the arts (Baumol and Bowen 1965) – more likely in this sector than in other information industries. Live events can certainly be recorded and then sold as commodities, but such activities then belong to and statistically enter the publishing, audiovisual and broadcast media sector. 298 Themes ## PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX=313 | PRINTED_PAGE=299 The data in tables 12.12 and 12.13 indicate that in all analysed countries, absolute productivity is significantly higher in the information/communication sector than in the arts and live entertainment sector. Also the cross-country ten-year average productivity growth rate is with 34.8% higher in the first sector than in the second, where it is 28.9%. The production and diffusion of content (radio, television, telecommunications, software, Internet, advertisements, newspapers, and print publications) is based on specific qualities of information, especially that it can be shared, easily copied, and is not used up in consumption. In this sector, productivity tends to rise, which is reflected in the empirical results presented for the information and communication sector in table 12.8. We have found empirical indications that productivity can rise in the information and communication sector. Therefore, his argument that the labour theory of value does not apply because of a productivity paradox does not hold. In contrast, the labour theory of value works wherever capital is accumulated and so profit is made. 12.4 Conclusion This chapter has produced empirical example case data that could be interpreted as providing some indications that the information economy has peculiar characteristics that need to be taken into account when applying the labour theory of value to it. The high initial costs and the high uncertainty of popularity and possible audience rates seem to make information companies try to set off the risks involved in their form of production by selling their commodities at prices way above their output values and at prices that are significantly higher than investment costs than in the total economy, which given successful sales results in higher profit rates. How can we interpret this phenomenon? Some observers argue that the information economy is in general based on rent and not on productive labour and profits and therefore consumes and robs the profits of other sectors (e.g. Foley 2013; Rigi 2014; Teixeira and Rotta 2012). I showed in this chapter that there are indications that productivity can be increased in the information-processing-based part of the information economy that uses computing and data transmission and is rather difficult to achieve in the live entertainment and the arts sectors. Storage growth and transmission acceleration are factors helping to increase productivity in these sectors that are themselves partly creating ICT innovations and are among the first to use them. As a result, the productivity level can be increased in this industry, which allows to produce more value per unit of labour-time in comparison to many other industries and to thereby gain surplus-profits. Table 12.14 provides empirical indications for selected countries and regions that productivity measures as monetary value per hour worked has in the information and communication (I&C) sector been growing significantly faster than in the total economy. Chapter Twelve | The Information Economy 299 Conclusion ## PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX=314 | PRINTED_PAGE=300 More productive companies and industries produce more commodities per hour than the average company or industry. Reasons can for example be specific organisation and management methods that make the workers produce faster, the use of more efficient machines, or more skilful workers. The value of the single commodity will therefore be lower than the average commodity. If the more productively produced commodity is sold at an average price, then more profit tends to be achieved. More use-values have then been created per hour and therefore yield more profit. More developed productive forces in one industry allow the workers in it or in a company belonging to it to produce more use-values in less time than others. Increasing productivity means the creation of more or qualitatively richer use-values and potentially also profit per hour. The more productive industries can reduce their labour costs and investment costs. As a consequence, they can increase the share of profit in the price and the share of surplus labour-time in the total labour-time. Companies producing less productively have problems to compete. In order to try to catch up, they have to reduce the labour costs so that their rate of surplus-value increases and they can still yield some profit when selling at the prices set by the more competitive companies. 300 Themes ## PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX=315 | PRINTED_PAGE=301 If, therefore, the capitalist who applies the new method sells his commodity at its social value of one shilling, he sells it for 3d. above its individual value, and thus he realizes an extra surplus-value of 3d. […] Nevertheless, even in this case, the increased production of surplus-value arises from the curtailment of the necessary labour-time, and the corresponding prolongation of the surplus labour. […] The exceptionally productive labour acts as intensified labour; it creates in equal periods of time greater values than average social labour of the same kind. […] Hence the capitalist who applies the improved method of production appropriates and devotes to surplus labour a greater portion of the working day than the other capitalists in the same business. […] On the other hand, however, this extra surplus-value vanishes as soon as the new method of production is generalized, for then the difference between the individual value of the cheapened commodity and its social value vanishes (Marx 1867, 434–436). Empirical data provide indications that it is rather difficult to increase productivity in arts and live entertainment and in contrast easier in publishing, audiovisual, and broadcast media, telecommunications, and IT. We also have tried to show that the assumption that the labour theory of value is inapplicable to the information industries is not feasible. The overall conclusion that we can draw is that we need approaches that combine the Marxian labour theory of value and empirical economic analysis of macro-economic data. Such approaches should also think of how to critically theorise and measure the information economy’s value. References Chapter Twelve | The Information Economy 301 References ## PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX=316 | PRINTED_PAGE=302 302 Themes ## PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX=317 | PRINTED_PAGE=303 Chapter Twelve | The Information Economy 303 References ## PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX=318 | PRINTED_PAGE=304 304 Themes ## PDF_PHYSICAL_PAGE_INDEX=319 | PRINTED_PAGE=305 Chapter Twelve | The Information Economy 305 References 下一段：[继续读取](https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/50b7f922-b940-4a05-8eb0-c4dc0d8ec9ed.md?start=320&limit=10)