On Minimum Rents: Part 1, Marx and Absolute Rent

Alan W. Evans
Additional contact information
Alan W. Evans: Centre for Spatial and Real Estate Economics, Faculty of Urban and Regional Studies, The University of Reading, Whiteknights (PO Box 219), Reading, Berkshire RG6 2AW, UK, a.w.evans@reading.ac.uk.

Urban Studies, 1999, vol. 36, issue 12, 2111-2120

Abstract: Marx suggests that land would not be rented to a tenant at less than some minimum rent which he calls absolute rent. This concept and Marx's arguments are analysed in this paper. It has been argued by some that absolute rent in Marxian economics derives from the fact that investment in agriculture is lower so that the organic composition of capital is lower. It is argued here that the low organic composition of capital in the Marxian schema is rather a consequence of the existence of absolute rent, and this in turn results from the landlord-tenant relationship. Marx himself stressed that if land were owner-occupied absolute rent would not exist—that it is a consequence of the system of land tenure—but provides no explanation as to why it should have this consequence. In an associated paper, modern economic analysis is used to explain why minimum rents will occur.

Date: 1999
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/0042098992575 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:36:y:1999:i:12:p:2111-2120

DOI: 10.1080/0042098992575

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().