Marx after Okishio: Falling Rate of Profit with Constant Rate of Exploitation

Résumé 0

Can cost-reducing technical change lead to a fall in the long run rate of profit if class struggle manages to keep the rate of exploitation constant? In a general circulating capital model, we derive sufficient conditions for cost-reducing technical change to both keep the rate of exploitation constant and lead to a fall in the equilibrium rate of profit. Further, if the real wage bundle is such that the maximum price-value ratio is larger than 1 plus the rate of exploitation, then starting from any configuration of technology and real wage, we can always find a viable, CU-LS technical change that satisfies the sufficient conditions for the previous result. Taken together, these results vindicate Marx's claim in Volume III of Capital, that if the rate of exploitation remains unchanged then viable, CU-LS technical change in capitalist economies can lead to a fall in the long run rate of profit.