From: Rakesh Bhandari (rakeshb@stanford.edu)
Date: Fri Nov 08 2002 - 23:12:01 EST
This message was sent to Alejandro and me offlist. rb Dear participants in OPE, Thank you for your a public open opinions. You 'll find my comment in the middle of the text, if you like to read it. Best regards, Vicenc Melendez Barcelona (Spain) [OPE-L:7965] Re: unequal exchange and poverty in African countries From: Alejandro Valle Baeza (<mailto:valle@servidor.unam.mx?Subject=Re:%20%5BOPE-L:7965%5D%20Re:%20unequal%20exchange%20and%20poverty%20in%20African%20countries>valle@servidor.unam.mx) Date: Thu Nov 07 2002 - 08:27:37 EST Previous message: <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/0081.html>S.Mohun: "[OPE-L:7964] Re: relation of value to organic composition of capital" In reply to: <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/0053.html>Rakesh Bhandari: "[OPE-L:7936] unequal exchange and poverty in African countries" Next in thread: <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/0041.html>clyder@gn.apc.org: "[OPE-L:7925] Re: Re: Re: Re: unequal exchange and poverty in African countries" Messages sorted by: <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/date.html#82>[ date ] <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/index.html#82>[ thread ] <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/subject.html#82>[ subject ] <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/author.html#82>[ author ] <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/attachment.html>[ attachment ] Rakesh Bhandari wrote: >>Re Alejandro's [7917]: >> >> >> >> > I agree with Paul: in general unequal exchange is a misleading >>discussion. Amin and Emannuel did several mistakes. By example, >>Emannuel ignored the tendency to sell products at similar prices >>in world markets despite huge differences in productivitys. >> > >But couldn't this mean that the high productivity nation is selling >at a price above its individual value while the low productivity >nation is selling at a price below its individual value? >That's the possibility Carchedi explores through the formation of >concepts such as individual and social value (Carchedi's theory >reads to me as a development of Bauer's and Grossmann's simple ideas >on this question). > Based on my own work (Valle, 2000) I think: 1. In general prices are differente between countries. It does not mean "Law of one price" is totally wrong but that is neccesary to reformulate such law using Marxian categories. Skaik has done some work on this direction. 2. Some prices are cheaper in low productivity countries than in higher productivity countries. It depends on: average productivity in both countries, productivities for the specific commodity in both countries and exchange rate. This conclusion depends on assumption that prices are proportional to values but could be useful for more concrete cases: production prices and market prices. 3. I do not used the names of individual values an social values on my analysis but I belive the idea is almost the same. In world economy there are nacional (individual) values and social (world ) values. The last is expresed by international prices that are alike despite huge differences in nacional values. This is similar to the problem of individual and social values in a particular country: despite differences in individual values producers of the same comodity must sell at similar prices. However there is an important difference between internal and international markets. Inside countries must be a correspondence between productivity and profitability. This aspect does not hold for the international market. ==================== It may happen that the more intense increase of productivity in the developped countries is not completely applied to price reduction, allowing so an increase in profit rates in the industry producing the good or service - and in the whole developped economy - and a higher wages; the price in relation to labor (some kind of MEL) does not decrease in the proportion it should. Whereas the less research prone economies in developping countries continue to offer products with more labor per unit of price. In this sense there is an unequal interchange -as A Emmanuel says - that allows also a higher wages but this is not the only cause for productivity increase. ==================== >Why can't there be a redistribution of value in circulation? > I belive circulation is the main way to redistribute surplus value. >What role is played by exchange rates? > A very central role because is neccesary to make prices alike. However there is little eforts on this important subject. I know Shaik's work on exchane rates, have you some work on this? >This certainly does not imply that the lion's share of the value >redistributed to the high productivity nation ends up in the hands >of the mass of its working class, thereby turned en masse into a >conservative labor aristocracy. Wasn't it the putative political >implication of unequal exchange theory which led many Marxists to >reject any form of it as 'circulationist'? > I need more time to discus this, I agree with you that Emmanuel's assertions are wrong. However I think negative efects of international trade is very important issue. In my view is not necessary to support theoretically such negative efects the aproach of unequal exchange. >There is also the problem that the goods traded between the North >and the South are non competing (I think Carchedi tends to downplay >this structural aspect of international trade), and Marx did >entertain the possibility that the kind of agro-mineral exports from >colonies would systematically tend to exchange below value. I had to >return to the library Enrique Dussel's book on the Unknown Marx, ed. >Fred Moseley, but if I remember correctly, Dussel has collected >Marx's passages on this--the most important being (I believe) in >Theories of Surplus Value. >Yours, Rakesh > Valle, A (2000) "Desarrollo desigual y competetividad" en La nueva economia política de la globalización. Arriola, J. y Guerrero, D. ed. España: Univ. del País Vasco.. Previous message: <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/0081.html>S.Mohun: "[OPE-L:7964] Re: relation of value to organic composition of capital" In reply to: <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/0053.html>Rakesh Bhandari: "[OPE-L:7936] unequal exchange and poverty in African countries" Next in thread: <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/0041.html>clyder@gn.apc.org: "[OPE-L:7925] Re: Re: Re: Re: unequal exchange and poverty in African countries" Messages sorted by: <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/date.html#82>[ date ] <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/index.html#82>[ thread ] <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/subject.html#82>[ subject ] <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/author.html#82>[ author ] <http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/%7Ecottrell/OPE/archive/0211/attachment.html>[ attachment ] This archive was generated by <http://www.hypermail.org/>hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 08 2002 - 00:00:01 EST
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