The Rate of Profit in Canadian Manufacturing, 1950-1981

M. J. Webber and D. L. Rigby
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M. J. Webber: Department of Geography, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia.
D. L. Rigby: Department of Geography, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1.

Review of Radical Political Economics, 1986, vol. 18, issue 1-2, 33-55

Abstract: This paper interprets and measures changes in the rate of profit in Canadian manufacturing over the period 1950-1981. The interpretation stresses endogenous forces that lead to a rising real wage and a rising technical composition of capital, two trends amply confirmed by the evidence. These forces act to reduce the rate of profit. The counteracting forces which are measured include the falling value of consumption commodities (so that, in net the value of labor power does not rise), the falling value of means of production (not sufficient, however, to prevent the value composition of capital from rising) and the increasing rate of turnover of capital. The net effect of these forces is a consistent decline in the rate of profit which translates after 1974 into rising unemployment, falling capacity utilization rates and stagnating output.

Date: 1986
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