Economic Ideas of Marx's Capital

Ludo Cuyvers is Emeritus Professor at the University of Antwerp, Belgium and Extraordinary Professor at North-West University, South Africa.

• ContentsPrefaceIntroductionChapter 1: Economic reproduction Production and reproduction The Marxist schemes of reproduction : introduction The workings of the Marxist schemes of reproduction under capitalism What can be learned from Piero Sraffa’s "standard system"? The significance of the Marxist schemes of reproduction Chapter 2: The (mostly quantitative) labour theory of value today What is the labour theory of value saying? The transformation problem Marxian prices of production Production prices proper The mathematical formulation of values and prices Elements of a formal solution to the transformation problem: corrections of Marx’s procedure Prices of production as the sum of dated labour time Marx’s "average sector" and Sraffa’s "standard system" Prices of production as the outcome of iterative adjustments, starting from labour values What is the logic in transforming values into prices of production? The rate of surplus value determines the rate of profits, not the other way round (Morishima’s "Fundamental Marxian Theorem") The transformation of labour values into prices of production: logic or reality? A short digression into technological coefficients, subsistence wages and the "law of value" What about monopoly prices? Post-Keynesian views about the labour theory of value To concludeChapter 3: Towards a better understanding of what will follow – long-term economic growth and dynamics The "standard system" again The maximum rate of growth and the attainable economic growth in case of non-necessary consumption Full versus incomplete realisation of surplus value What about social necessary consumption? The contribution of the post-Keynesian neo-MarxistsChapter 4: Productive and unproductive labour Spending out of surplus value Cost-increasing inputs, value creation and the technological inputs structure The translation of unproductive inputs and outputs in the linear model of production Prices and cost-increasing inputs in the total inputs structure Unproductive cost-increasing inputs and the rate of profits Unproductive labour today and further arguments Capitalist cost-increasing inputs: productive but wasteful … ConclusionsChapter 5: Laws of motion of capitalism - accumulation, technical change and super-profits Marx on the relationship between capital accumulation, the rate of profits and the wage rate, and the so-called "industrial reserve army" The capitalist hunger for super-profits as the motivation for technical change and innovation The effect of technical change on the surplus value and the rate of surplus value The effect of technical change on the organic composition of capital An increase in labour productivity with unchanged proportional inputs of means of production An increase in labour productivity with decreasing proportional inputs of the means of production An increase in labour productivity with increasing proportional inputs of the means of production The scope for labour-saving but also capital-using technical change in the pursuit of super-profits How did the early post-Keynesians look at mechanisation and technical change? The case of Joan Robinson’s "real-capital ratio" To concludeAppendix 1: The effect of a general increase in the productivity of labour on the rate of surplus valueChapter 6: Long-term developments - the tendency of the rate of profits to fall Marx’s theory of the falling rate of profits - in a nutshell The rate of profits in the linear production model The relationship between labour-saving technological change and the rate of profits: generalisations in Okishio’s theorem The rate of profits in the long run: some statistical dataChapter 7: Long-term developments - changes in the rate of surplus value, the distribution of income and the class struggle Absolute and relative surplus value from Marx’s standpoint Class struggle and the share of labour in value added Exploitation and class struggle: game-theoretical insights The degree of monopoly and "mark-up" pricing The working of the "profits squeeze": some neo-Keynesian and neo-Marxist interpretations Some statistical evidence What to conclude?Chapter 8: The economic cycle and monetary theory of Das Kapital The economic cycle in Das Kapital The economic cycle and the post-Keynesian neo-Marxists Labour values and prices of production in money terms Money and credit in Das Kapital The money supply in post-Keynesian economic theory. Economic crisis and the role of money capital Notebook B 113 To concludeChapter 9: Long-term developments: underconsumption, stagnation, long waves and financialisation Underspending and incomplete realisation of surplus value in Das Kapital Underspending based on the schemes of reproduction The importance of external markets for surplus value realisation in the long run The importance of military spending for surplus value realisation in the long run Technological innovations as an "external market" Long waves in economic activity and accumulation? The development of the service sector and "financialisation" of the capitalist economy To concludeChapter 10: Reflections, conclusions and an agenda for future research The importance of the "no nonsense" approach of Das Kapital The linear Marx-Leontief production model Which of the fundamental principles of Marx’s economic theory are still intact: value, unproductive labour and the "law of value"? What about the dynamics in Marx’s economic theory: technological innovation, the rate of profits and exploitation in the long run, economic cycles …? Is Marx’s economics an independent doctrine, a module of the post-Keynesian theory or a starting point for a post-Keynesian neo-Marxist synthesis?

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