Henryk Grossmann’s Falling Rate of Profit theory of crisis: a presentation and a reply to old and new critics

Stavros Mavroudeas () and Alexis Ioannides

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Henryk Grossmann was the first Marxist economist that proposed a theory of crisis based on the Marxian law of the falling rate of profit due to the increasing organic composition of capital. This view, while initially disappointingly minotirarian, has become very popular nowadays within Marxist Political Economy. At the same time Grossmann’s theory has been severely criticised by many economists (e.g. P.Sweezy, Howard & King etc.). In this essay, first, Grossmannn’s theory is presented. Then it is reformulated so as to be comparable to the Harrod-Domar tradition of growth models. Third, older and newer critiques are being reviewed critically. Finally, it concludes by arguing that Grossmann’s theory – despite certain deficiencies to a large extent justified by its pioneering character- has a valid methodological and analytical basis. As such it is a true founder of modern theories of the falling rate of profit theory of crisis.

Keywords: economic crisis; growth; Marxism; Grossman (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B24 B51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/19733/1/MPRA_paper_19733.pdf original version (application/pdf)

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:pra:mprapa:19733

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().