Prices, Profits and Rhythms of Accumulation

300 Pages·1997·6.34 MB·English

by  Gilbert Abraham-Frois

This book examines the relationship between processes of accumulation
and aspects of distribution. The analyses of Ricardo and Marx are re-
evaluated and redeveloped in the light of advances made by von Neu-
mann, Sraffa and more contemporary theoreticians. Joint production
systems are integrated into the analysis which allows the authors to
reconsider the problems of choice of technique (in connection with
demand analysis), rent theory, the problem of obsolescence of machines
and dynamic evolution. New views about standard commodities and
blocking goods are also introduced.

Prices, profits and rhythms of accumulation

Prices, profits and rhythms
of accumulation
GILBERT ABRAHAM-FROIS
University of Paris X at Nanterre
AND
EDMOND BERREBI
University of Paris X at Nanterre
Translated by
SONIA BEN OUAGRHAM
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1997
First published 1997
Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data
Abraham-Frois, Gilbert.
[Prix, profits et rythmes d'accumulation. English]
Prices, profits and rhythms of accumulation / Gilbert Abraham-
Frois and Edmond Berrebi; translated by Sonia Ben Ouagrham.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0 521 39532 1
1. Prices - Mathematical models. 2. Profit - Mathematical models.
3. Saving and investment - Mathematical models. I. Berrebi, Edmond.
II. Title.
HB221.A1913 1995
336.5'2-dc20 94-42383
CIP
ISBN 0 52139532 1 hardback
SE
Contents
Preface page ix
1 The golden rule of accumulation and prices 1
1.1 Typology of activities 2
1.2 Choices of methods of production and satisfaction of
demand 4
1.3 An analysis of the golden rule of prices 13
1.4 The accumulation-consumption conflict under 'simple'
production 15
1.5 The accumulation-consumption conflict under strong
joint production 22
1.6 Separately reproducible goods and strong joint
production 35
2 Systems of production prices 38
2.1 A world of robots: production for subsistence 38
2.2 Sharing out the surplus 42
2.3 Wage prices and wage-profit relations 47
2.4 Reduction to dated quantities of labour 52
2.5 'Advanced' wages and wages paid 'post factum' 55
3 Irregular and decomposable systems 59
3.1 Decomposable systems 59
3.2 Irregular systems 85
Mathematical appendix 96
4 The analysis of joint production 100
4.1 Prices in joint production 101
4.2 Basic and non-basic systems 105
4.3 Antibasic and non-antibasic systems 119
vii
viii Contents
4.4 Various partitions of an indecomposable system 123
Mathematical appendix 126
5 Standards and blocking goods 127
5.1 Seeking the invariant standard of value 127
5.2 Duality and standards 139
6 Labour values and the problem of transformation 148
6.1 Marx's analysis: formal presentation 148
6.2 Reformulation 153
6.3 Peculiar cases when Marx's statement holds 157
6.4 Marx's solution: an incomplete iteration(?) 160
6.5 Non-basic goods and luxury goods 165
6.6 Joint production and negative values 167
6.7 Consumption and accumulation 174
7 Switch in methods of production 176
7.1 Truncation of the system and choice of methods of
production 176
7.2 Single-product industries and circulating capital 180
7.3 Joint production: new problems 187
7.4 Depreciation of machines 199
7.5 Optimisation and production prices 206
8 The dynamic evolution 217
8.1 Accumulation and distribution with constant returns 217
8.2 Accumulation and increasing difficulties to produce 229
8.3 Intensified use of natural resources 243
8.4 Technical improvement and distortion of the system of
prices 259
Notes 263
References 271
Index 277
Preface
How are the prices of reproducible goods determined?
Can the analysis of the distribution of the gross national product and the
determination of production prices ignore wants, the level and structure of
demand? How does the choice of techniques, a switch in the methods of
production, interfere with the accumulation process, the distribution of the
gross national product, and therefore with the structure of prices? What
kind of relationship is there between market prices and production prices?
How should the contemporary analysis contemplate the problem of
exploitation and the relation between labour-values and production prices?
What is the meaning of the 'standard commodity'? Can the analysis of
accumulation limit itself to permanent regimes with constant returns to
scale? What is the importance of the 'golden rule' of accumulation? How is
the dynamic evolution to be analyzed? . . .
These are the main topics we intend to address in the present book.
We shall more specifically analyse the problems generated by the
accumulation and the prices of the so-called 'reproducible' commodities,
assuming first that there are constant returns to scale; then we will
contemplate the increasing costs of production, the appearance of different
kinds of rents, and the determination of natural resources' prices. We shall
assume that commodities are reproduced by means of heterogeneous
commodities and labour, the supply of which is taken to be unlimited.
Production which is, so to speak, pulled by demand, is supposed to be
disposed of without any difficulties. At each period, the stocks of the means
of production, the available (heterogeneous) commodities that can be used
for production, appear to be a constraint, limiting production; this
constraint is relaxed as time goes by, owing to accumulation.
The link with the classical approach is thus obvious, the classical school
focussed its analysis on 'such commodities only as can be increased in
quantity, by the exertion of human industry' (D. Ricardo, 1984, chapter 1)
and tended to put aside those for which the quantity could not be increased.
Ricardo referred to these as follows.
IX