From: paul cockshott (clyder@GN.APC.ORG)
Date: Wed Dec 10 2003 - 11:04:18 EST
I have been re-reading farjoun and Machover on this. They argue that if probability density function for the rate of surplus value is degenerate, and if the wages to capital ratio and the profit to capital ratio are both gamma distributions, then it follows necessarily that the division of national income between wages and profits will be 50/50. Thus any deviations of the wage ratio from 50/50 imply a certain non-degeneracy of the PDF for the rate of surplus value. It would appear that the more the wage share deviates from 50% the greater should be the coefficient of variation of the rate of surplus value. More generally, if class struggle is able to establish a uniform ratio between wages and profits for all industries, the only possible such uniform ratio is 50/50. If on the other hand the wage share rises or falls above or below 50%, we would expect to see the spread of rates of surplus value between firms rising as well. Allin and I have computed the spread of the rate of surplus value for the UK but only for one year. It looks as if there is some research to be done into whether changes in the wage share do go along with changes in the spread of the distribution of the rates of surplus value.
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