In [OPE-L:4830} Fred wrote: > Marx certainly acknowledged in some passages the real > world obstacles to this equalization of profit rates. > However, he always went on to say that these real > obstacles are ignored at the abstract level of his theory > of prices of production. Whether or not Marx believed > that there was a real tendency in the real world toward > the equalization of profit rates is a separate issue from > whether or not Marx's concept of price of production > assumed at a high level of abstraction that there is such > a tendency, such that prices of production are "long- > run center of gravity" prices. I agree completely. What is your position, though, on the two related (but *separate*) questions: a) did Marx believe that there was a real tendency for the equalization of profit rates? b) is there a real tendency for the equalization of profit rates? Regarding b), it might be interesting to look at regional and international variations in profit rates and whether there is any global tendency for the equalzation of profit rates. It might also be worthwhile taking a new look at how differential profit rates characteristic of markets and economies where there is a large degree of "monopoly power" caused by oligopolies affects the equalization of profit rates. On this subject, what do you (and/or others) think about the perspective advanced by Willi Semmler in _Competition, Monopoly, and Differential Profit Rates_ (NY, Columbia University Press, 1984)? In solidarity, Jerry
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