Re: [OPE-L] Sraffa's Contribution to Marxian Political Economy

From: Pen-L Fred Moseley (fmoseley@MTHOLYOKE.EDU)
Date: Tue Feb 27 2007 - 23:00:50 EST


Quoting Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU>:

>> Hi. Solow criticized the assumption of equal rates of SV, on the ground
>> that there is no mechanism that can bring about that equalization. He
>> contrasted that case with the equalization of profit rates, which, in the
>> absence of impediments to the movement of capital, is brought about by
>> intersectoral capital flows.
>>
>
> Solow's criticism is trivial, but I suppose his every utterance must be
> taken seriously.  Marx assumes equalized s/v for no reason other than
> convenience of calculation in his transformation.


I agree with Rakesh that Marx's assumption of equal rates of
surplus-value is merely a simplifying assumption, and is in no way
essential.

It is strange that Solow would focus on this trivial point.  I wonder
if Solow brought this up, or was responding to someone else's comment
about equal rates of surplus-value?

Comradely,
Fred

----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Mar 02 2007 - 00:00:10 EST