The Logic Of Capital: An Introduction To Marxist Economic Theory

Cover
The Logic of Capital
Title
Copyright
Contents
Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
1.1 Motivation
1.2 Organization of the Book
1.2.1 Part I of the Book
1.2.2 Part II of the Book
1.3 What Is Different in This Book
1.4 How to Use This Book
Part I Foundations
2 Some Methodological Issues
2.1 Marx’s Route to Political Economy
2.1.1 First Phase of Studies
2.1.2 Dialectical Method
2.1.3 Materialist Conception of History
2.1.4 Interruption of Studies
2.1.5 Second Phase of Studies
2.2 The Structure of Capital
3 The Generation and Accumulation of Surplus Value
3.1 The Commodity
3.1.1 Use Value, Exchange Value and Value
3.1.2 Qualitative Aspects of Value
3.1.3 Quantitative Aspects of Value
3.1.4 Labour Theory of Value: Summary and Implementation
3.1.5 A Simple Model of Production
3.1.6 Comparing Value over Time and across Countries
3.2 Money-Form of Value
3.2.1 Money as Universal Equivalent
3.2.2 Functions of Money
3.2.3 Forms of Money
3.2.4 Monetary Expression of Value
3.2.5 Price–Value Deviation
3.2.6 Comparing Monetary Magnitudes over Time and across Countries
3.2.7 A Marxian Exchange Rate for International Exchange
3.2.8 Commodity Fetishism
3.2.9 Long-period Method of Analysis
3.3 Capital, or Self-Valorizing Value
3.3.1 Two Forms of Circulation
3.3.2 Surplus Value
3.3.3 Labour-Power as a Commodity
3.3.4 Some Terminology and Three Ratios
3.3.5 Estimates for India’s Organized Manufacturing Sector
3.4 Production under Capitalism
3.4.1 Absolute and Relative Surplus Value
3.4.2 Evolution of Production
3.4.3 Formal and Real Subsumption
3.5 Accumulation of Capital
3.5.1 Reserve Army of Labour
3.5.2 Reserve Army of Labour in the US Economy
3.6 The Primary Accumulation of Capital
3.7 Conclusion
3.A Appendix A: Reduction of Complex to Simple Labour
3.A.1 The Intuition
3.A.2 Simple Model
3.A.3 General Model
3.A.4 Implications about Income and Wage
3.B Appendix B: Comparison of MEV over Time and Space
3.C Appendix C: Labour as the Substance of Value
3.C.1 The Negative Argument
3.C.2 Neoclassical Critique and Response
3.C.3 Sraffian Critique and Response
3.C.4 Analytical Marxist Critique and Response
3.C.5 The Positive Argument
4 Realization of Surplus Value
4.1 Circulation of Capital
4.1.1 The Circuit of Industrial Capital
4.1.2 Production versus Circulation
4.1.3 Circular Movement of Forms of Value
4.1.4 Flows and Stocks of Value
4.1.5 The Turnover of Capital
4.1.6 Fixed and Circulating Capital
4.1.7 The Process of Economic Growth in Capitalism
4.1.8 Formalization of the Circuit of Capital Model
4.2 The Problem of Aggregate Demand
4.3 Use-Value Basis of the Reproduction of Capital
4.3.1 Simple Reproduction
4.3.2 Expanded Reproduction
4.4 Conclusion
5 Distribution of Surplus Value
5.1 Emergence of Prices of Production
5.1.1 Two Implications
5.2 Detour: Technical Change
5.2.1 Technical Change, Use-values and Value
5.2.2 Process of Technical Change
5.2.3 Technical Change and the Average Rate of Profit
5.2.4 Marx or Okishio?
5.3 Commercial Profit
5.4 Productive and Unproductive Labour
5.4.1 Basic Activities of Social Reproduction
5.4.2 Unproductive Labour in Capitalism
5.4.3 Are Unproductive Workers Exploited?
5.4.4 Are Services Unproductive?
5.5 Interest and Fictitious Capital
5.5.1 Interest-Bearing Capital and Interest
5.5.2 Interest Rate
5.5.3 Fictitious Capital
5.6 Ground-Rent
5.6.1 The Logic of Ground-Rent
5.6.2 A Model of Agricultural Production
5.6.3 Ground-Rent with Exogenous Capital Outlays
5.6.4 Ground-Rent with Endogenous Capital Outlays
5.6.5 Price of Corn
5.7 Estimates of Surplus Value and Its Components
5.8 Conclusion
Part II Further Explorations in Political Economy
6 Capitalism and Technical Change
6.1 Technical Change
6.1.1 Basic Set-Up
6.1.2 Productiveness
6.1.3 Progressiveness
6.1.4 Capitalist Viability
6.1.5 Types of Technical Change
6.2 Progressive Technical Change and Capitalism
6.3 Technical Change and the Rate of Profit
6.4 A Marx-Okishio Threshold
6.4.1 Marx-Okishio Threshold for Different Types of Technical Change
6.5 Constant Rate of Exploitation
6.6 Conclusion
7 The Transformation Problem
7.1 Ricardo, Marx and Bortkiewicz
7.1.1 Getting Units Right
7.1.2 Marx’s Errors
7.1.3 The First Question and Its Answer
7.2 The Standard Interpretation
7.2.1 An Example of a Three-Sector Economy
7.2.2 Closing the System with a Numeraire
7.2.3 Closing the System with Invariance Principles
7.2.4 A Solution Algorithm
7.2.5 Numeraire versus Invariance Principles
7.2.6 Which Invariance Principle to Use?
7.3 Sraffa-Based Critique
7.4 Marxist Responses to the Sraffa-Based Critique
7.5 The New Interpretation
7.5.1 Value of Money
7.5.2 Value of Labour-Power
7.5.3 Answering the Two Questions
7.5.4 Incompleteness
7.6 Three Less Appealing Approaches
7.6.1 Macro-Monetary Interpretation
7.6.2 Temporal Single System Interpretation
7.6.3 Simultaneous Single System Interpretation
7.7 Conclusion
7.A Appendix A: General Treatment
7.A.1 Technology
7.A.2 The Value System
7.A.3 Standard Interpretation
7.A.4 New Interpretation with Homogeneous Labour
7.A.5 New Interpretation with Heterogenous Labour
7.A.6 Unequal Rates of Surplus Value
7.B Appendix B: R Code for Examples Discussed in Text
7.B.1 Standard Interpretation
7.B.2 New Interpretation
8 Exploitation and Oppression
8.1 Theories of Exploitation
8.1.1 Qualitative Issues
8.1.2 Quantitative Issues
8.2 A Critique of the Commodity Exploitation Theorem
8.2.1 Summary of AM Argument
8.2.2 A Critique of Proposition 1
8.2.3 A Critique of the CET
8.2.4 Commodity Exploitation: Conceptual Problem
8.3 Manifold Exploitations?
8.4 Exploitation and Distributive Justice
8.5 Conclusion
Bibliography
Index