The 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.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 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 conclude

Chapter 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-Marxists

Chapter 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 …



Conclusions

Chapter 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 conclude

Appendix 1: The effect of a general increase in the productivity of labour on the rate of surplus value

Chapter 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 data

Chapter 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 conclude

Chapter 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 conclude

Chapter 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?