La ley del descenso tendencial de la tasa de ganancia: Evidencia empírica para la economía española

The Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall: Empirical Evidence for the Spanish Economy

Iván López-Espejo

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This article examines the law of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall in the Spanish economy between 1960 and 2024, considering the organic composition of capital and the rate of surplus value as central variables. Its aim is to determine whether this law, formulated by Marx in Capital (Vol. III), continues to operate in the contemporary context. The methodology consists of transforming orthodox macroeconomic categories derived from the Spanish National Accounts (CNE), available in BDMACRO, into Marxist variables: constant capital (c), variable capital (v), and surplus value (pv). Based on these, historical series of the organic composition of capital (q), the rate of surplus value (pv'), and the rate of profit (g') are constructed, adjusted to constant prices to ensure temporal coherence and comparability. The results show a sustained increase in q and a slight decrease in pv', generating a tendential decline in g' with cyclical fluctuations associated with specific crises. The conclusions empirically confirm the validity of the law in Spain, highlighting the historical limits of capitalism and providing quantitative evidence on the structural dynamics of profitability.

Keywords: Tendency of the rate of profit; organic composition of capital; rate of surplus value; Spanish economy; economic cycles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B51 C93 O11 O47 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hme and nep-pke
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