The labor theory of value (LTV) is a heterodox economic theory of value that argues that the economic value of a good or service is determined by the total amount of socially necessary labor required to produce it, rather than by the use or pleasure its owner gets from it. At present, this concept is usually associated with Marxian economics, although it is also used in the theories of earlier liberal economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo and later also in anarchist economics.