In this paper, I examine the treatment of competitive profit of profesor Varian in his textbook on Microeconomics, as a representative of the \"modern\" post-Marxian view on competitive profit. I show how, on the one hand, Varian defines profit as the surplus of revenues over cost and, thus as a part of the value of commodities that is not any cost. On the other hand, howerer, Varian defines profit as a cost, namely, as the opportunity cost of capital, so that, in competitive conditions, the profit or income of capital is determined by the opportunity cost of capital. I argue that this seconde definition contradicts the first and that it is based on an incoherent conception of opportunity cost.
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Paper provided by Universidad del País Vasco - Departamento de Fundamentos del Análisis Económico I in its series IKERLANAK with number
200309.
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