Mervärde

Mervärde is a Swedish term that translates to “added value.” In economics and business, it refers to the value that is created during production when inputs such as raw materials, labor, and energy are transformed into goods or services with higher value than the inputs themselves. In national accounts and business statistics, mervärde is typically measured as the difference between the output value produced by an organization and the value of intermediate goods and services consumed in the production process. It is a core component of value-added analysis, used to assess productivity, profitability, and contribution to gross domestic product (GDP). The concept can be computed at different levels, such as industry, firm, or economy-wide.

In everyday business language, mervärde is often linked to the added features, quality, or efficiency that a company brings to a product or service, which allows it to command a higher price.

In Marxist political economy, mervärde (surplus value) has a more specific meaning: the excess of value produced by labor over the wages paid to workers, appropriated by capitalists as profit. This interpretation emphasizes social relations of production and exploitation. The term thus has both a technical, accounting sense and a theoretical, critical sense depending on the context.