Unproductive Labour in Political Economy

Cosimo Perrotta is a retired Professor of the History of Economic Thought at the University of Salento, Italy

I - Introduction: what is unproductive labour, II - Unproductive labour before Smith, III - Physiocracy: labour productive of surplus - Condillac, IV - Adam Smith: the struggle against rent, V - Supporters of Smith on unproductive labour, VI - Critics of Smith on services and intellectual labour, VII - The subjective approach (all labour productive), VIII - The deadlock of unproductive consumption, X - Underconsumption and crises, X - Technical progress, XI - Marx’s blind alley on unproductive labour, XII - Investment in human capital, XIII - Overproduction versus underconsumption, XIV - Fall and revival of Smith’s distinction, XV - Crises and underconsumption in Marx and his followers, XVI - Productiveness of public expenditures, XVII - Productive labour in the 1960s-70s Marxist thought, XVIII - New middle classes and human capital, XIX - The welfare state as investment in human capital, XX - Saturation: the growth of unproductive labour, XXI - The future of productive labour