IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/50597.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Profits and employment

Author

Listed:
  • Skouras, Thanos

Abstract

The volume of profits in an economy is a magnitude, which is out of sight of orthodox macroeconomic textbooks and effectively ignored by neoclassical macroeconomics. In contrast, Kalecki’s approach brings to the forefront the sources of profits and makes possible their further analysis. In a previous paper, the sources of profits and their impacts, as well as the inter-relations among them are examined one by one. The sustainability of the profits’ sources tends to have inevitable limits, which are discussed and elucidated. Given these limits, two phases in the operation of the sources may be distinguished, with a beneficial phase being transformed into a pathological one, as the limits are breached. Consequently, profits may be distinguished according to the source from which they flow, as well as the phase in which they arise. Taking into account both source and phase, a terminology is proposed to highlight the distinctive character of the different kinds of profits. The present paper briefly reviews this analysis and terminology and, based on this, goes on to consider the relationship between profits and employment. The concept of ‘wasted profits’ is first presented and developed. This is followed by an assessment of the alleged opposition between profits and employment. Finally, the employment effects that the different kinds of profits tend to bring forth, are examined and compared to each other on the basis of appropriate elasticities.

Suggested Citation

  • Skouras, Thanos, 2013. "Profits and employment," MPRA Paper 50597, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:50597
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/50597/1/MPRA_paper_50597.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Skouras, Thanos, 2013. "The sources of profits and their sustainability: A survey of basic theoretical issues," MPRA Paper 46567, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. S Jay Levy, 2001. "Profits: The Views of Jerome Levy and Michal Kalecki," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 17-30, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Trofimov, Ivan D., 2022. "Determinants of the profit rates in the OECD economies: A panel data analysis of the Kalecki's profit equation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 380-397.
    2. Robert Dixon, 2007. "Investment, Profits and Employment in Kalecki & Keynes," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 990, The University of Melbourne.
    3. Erdogan Bakir & Al Campbell, 2016. "Kalecki and the Determinants of the Profit Rate in the United States," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 48(4), pages 577-587, December.
    4. Skouras, Thanos, 2013. "The sources of profits and their sustainability: A survey of basic theoretical issues," MPRA Paper 46567, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    profits; employment; elasticities of employment; sources and sustainability of profits; beneficial and pathological phases; 'wasted profits'.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A10 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - General
    • B50 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - General
    • E00 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - General
    • P10 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - General
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:50597. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.