On Sraffa’s ‘Corrected’ Organic Composition of Capital*

Scott Carter

Chapter 11 in Sraffa and the Reconstruction of Economic Theory: Volume Three, 2013, pp 228-257 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract On 5 February 1944, in notes archived at D3/12/36/60: 1–7, Sraffa made a major theoretical breakthrough that would lead him to the eventual construction of the Standard ratio, the Standard system, and the Standard commodity. This would take the form of a ‘correction’ (Sraffa’s word) of the Organic Composition of Capital (‘OCK’) concept found in Marx. Sraffa’s ‘correction’ is simply this: whereas Marx defined the organic composition at the level of the inter-industry, Sraffa conceived of the organic composition at the level of the intra-commodity. Thus for Marx, the organic composition of, say, industry 1 would be equal to the value of the inter-industrial constant capital requirements of industry 1 (inclusive of the heterogeneous input requirements of all other basic commodities necessary to produce commodity 1) divided by industry 1’s variable capital; for the n-basic good case, industry 1’s OCK according to Marx’s specification is given by: [11.1] O C K 1 K M = p 1 A 11 + p 2 A 21 + ⋯ + p n A n 1 w L 1 $$OC{K_1}^{KM} = \frac{{{p_1}{A_{11}} + {p_2}{A_{21}} + \cdots + {p_n}{A_{n1}}}}{{w{L_1}}}$$

Keywords: Social Capital; Capital Stock; Standard System; Organic Composition; Standard Ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-31404-8_12

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137314048_12

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