Estimates of the Rate of Surplus-Value in the Postwar United States Economy

Fred Moseley
Additional contact information
Fred Moseley: Economics, Colby College, Waterville, ME 04901

Review of Radical Political Economics, 1986, vol. 18, issue 1-2, 168-189

Abstract: One important prediction of Marx's theory is that the rate of surplus-value will increase as a secular tendency. This paper subjects this prediction of Marx's theory to an empirical test, by deriving annual estimates of the rate of surplus-value in the United States economy over the period 1947-1977. These estimates show that the rate of surplus-value in the United States economy increased significantly over this period, as predicted by Marx's theory. These estimates are then compared with other estimates of the rate of surplus-value in the postwar United States economy which are based on different interpretations of the main theoretical issues involved in the estimation of the rate of surplus-value. This comparison shows that the theoretical issue which makes the most difference in the estimated trend of the rate of surplus-value is whether or not Marx's distinction between productive labor and unproductive labor is taken into account in the definition of the rate of surplus-value.

Date: 1986
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://rrp.sagepub.com/content/18/1-2/168.abstract (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:reorpe:v:18:y:1986:i:1-2:p:168-189

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Review of Radical Political Economics from Union for Radical Political Economics
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().