Re: [OPE] No rise is s/v? Kliman's empirical work on the falling rate of profit

Sorry, this message was not ready for sending but accidentally went out
(and includes that spurious "It is still up at 911truth.org").
Nevertheless, I don't think I'll not add more at this time. Paul

=====
(V23) THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF 9-11, Seven Stories Press softcover, 2008 2nd ed
(V24) TRANSITIONS IN LATIN AMERICA .... (V25) WHY CAPITALISM SURVIVES CRISES
====> Research in Political Economy, Emerald Group, Bingley, UK
====> Paul Zarembka, Editor www.buffalo.edu/~zarembka

Paul Zarembka wrote:
> Phil,
>
> At least since Wolff's work 30+ years ago, those working in the area
> are aware of what you describe. However, I disagree that it could be
> a simple matter of 'taste'. If it were, then a researcher is freed to
> adjust his or her 'taste' to obtain some result desired (e.g., about
> the falling rate of profit). Indeed, a lot of that goes on in
> empirical work throughout economics.
> In Kliman's current empirical work, I was struck by the simple absence
> of discussion to ignore unproductive labor, when we know that it was
> discussed a lot by Marx. While complex topic and increases a
> researcher's data task enormously, but it can be done. It is still up
> at 911truth.org .
>
> Paul
>
> =====
> (V23) THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF 9-11, Seven Stories Press softcover, 2008
> 2nd ed
> (V24) TRANSITIONS IN LATIN AMERICA .... (V25) WHY CAPITALISM SURVIVES
> CRISES
> ====> Research in Political Economy, Emerald Group, Bingley, UK
> ====> Paul Zarembka, Editor www.buffalo.edu/~zarembka
>
>
>
> Philip Dunn wrote:
>> Hi Paul
>>
>> It well known that measurements of s/v are sensitive to the
>> classification of sectors as unproductive or productive. If
>> unproductive sectors are forming an increasing fraction of the economy
>> then the measured s/v will increase over time because the "profits" of
>> unproductive sectors are deemed to have come from the surplus value of
>> productive sectors.
>>
>> If 100% of the economy is taken as productive you don't get this odd
>> effect.
>>
>> It is a matter of taste, I guess. De gustibus.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, 2009-10-16 at 09:23 -0400, Paul Zarembka wrote:
>>
>>> Some of us have received from Andrew Kliman a link to his draft
>>> "Persistent Fall in Profitability", i.e.,
>>>
>>> http://akliman.squarespace.com/persistent-fall
>>>
>>> Working with US data since 1947, he concludes: "the rate of
>>> surplus-value remained roughly constant over the entire course of
>>> each period taken as a whole, the rate of surplus-value had only a
>>> very minor influence on the rate of profit over longer spans of
>>> time". However, Andrew has no recognition whatsoever of
>>> unproductive labor (actually, he doesn't even mention it in his 105
>>> pp. first draft). I don't recall having seen other work by Kliman
>>> which discusses Marx's productive versus unproductive labor,
>>> although I would presume he has taken a position on it somewhere
>>> since it hardly seems possible to ignore the discussion.
>>>
>>>
>>> Those who have worked with US data and included unproductive labor
>>> find that the rate of surplus value is indeed rising considerably.
>>> My paper for the Marx gala conference in Amherst lays out these
>>> works (Wolff, Moseley, Shaik and Tonak) but I have yet to include
>>> Mohun's 2005 Cambridge Journal article correcting Shaikh and Tonak.
>>> (From a lecture I just heard from Tonak in Kocaeli University in
>>> Turkey, I understand him to accept Mohun'w work as an improvement.)
>>> Mohun's work reports from 1964 to 2001 a rise in s/v from ~2 to ~3 -
>>> a 50% increase - with the conceptual distinction between productive
>>> and unproductive labor incorporated. Mohun's result makes sense of
>>> the stability of real wages in that period for the US while the
>>> production of relative surplus value continues.
>>>
>>> Any thoughts on this matter? Paul Zarembka
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
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Received on Sat Oct 17 11:35:00 2009