Was Marx right? Development and exploitation in 43 countries, 2000–2014

Tomás N. Rotta and Rishabh Kumar

Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2024, vol. 69, issue C, 213-223

Abstract: We assess Marx's hypotheses about capitalist development on a global scale by constructing a new dataset of Marxist variables (profit rates, exploitation rates, composition of capital, and shares of productive activity) for 43 major economies, derived from world input-output data and national accounts in the 2000–2014 period. Consistent with Marx's hypotheses, the average profit rate declines at the world level, between countries, and within countries. The global rate of exploitation increases until 2008 but stagnates after the financial crisis, while capital intensity continued to increase. At the cross-country level, rich countries became increasingly dominated by unproductive activity. China absorbed much of the world's productive activity and kept the labor share of value added roughly constant at the world level.

Keywords: Economic development; Marx; Productive and unproductive activities; Rate of profit; World economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B51 C82 E11 F63 O11 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:streco:v:69:y:2024:i:c:p:213-223

DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2023.12.001

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