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Capital Theory ‘Paradoxes’ and Paradoxical Results: Resolved or Continued?

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  • Mariolis, Theodore
  • Tsoulfidis, Lefteris

Abstract

Capital theory controversies and ‘paradoxes’ showed that, due to price-feedback effects, the wage-production price-profit rate curves may display shapes inconsistent with the requirements of the neoclassical theory of value and distribution. Subsequent findings on a number of quite diverse actual single-product economies suggested that the impact of those effects is of limited empirical significance. This paper argues that, by focusing on the distributions of the eigenvalues and singular values of the system matrices, we can further study these issues and derive some meaningful theoretical results consistent with the available empirical evidence. Consequently, the real paradox, in the sense of knowledge vacuum and, thus, requiring further research, is the distributions of the characteristic values and not really the ‘paradoxes in capital theory’.

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  • Mariolis, Theodore & Tsoulfidis, Lefteris, 2015. "Capital Theory ‘Paradoxes’ and Paradoxical Results: Resolved or Continued?," MPRA Paper 68214, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:68214
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    13. Fotoula Iliadi & Theodore Mariolis & George Soklis & Lefteris Tsoulfidis, 2014. "Bienenfeld's Approximation of Production Prices and Eigenvalue Distribution: Further Evidence from Five European Economies," Contributions to Political Economy, Oxford University Press, vol. 33(1), pages 35-54.
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    19. T Mariolis & G Soklis, 2010. "Additive Labour Values and Prices: Evidence from the Supply and Use Tables of the French, German and Greek Economies," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 15(2), pages 87-107, September.
    20. Theodore Mariolis & Lefteris Tsoulfidis, 2009. "Decomposing the Changes in Production Prices into "Capital-Intensity" and "Price" Effects: Theory and Evidence from the Chinese Economy ," Contributions to Political Economy, Oxford University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-22.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mariolis, Theodore, 2019. "The location of the value theories in the complex plane and the degree of regularity-controllability of actual economies," MPRA Paper 96972, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Ferrer-Hernández , Jacobo & Torres-González, Luis Daniel, 2022. "Some Recent Developments on the Explanation of the Empirical Relationship between Prices and Distribution," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP54, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    3. Tsoulfidis, Lefteris, 2021. "Capital Theory Debates: New Developments and Direction," Centro Sraffa Working Papers CSWP51, Centro di Ricerche e Documentazione "Piero Sraffa".
    4. Luis Daniel Torres Gonzalez, 2017. "Regularities in Prices of Production and the Concentration of Compositions of Capitals," Working Papers 1709, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    5. Jacobo Ferrer-Hernández & Luis Daniel Torres-González, 2021. "Eigenvalues and Eigenlabors: On Iliadi’s, Mariolis’, Soklis’, and Tsoulfidis’ Explanation of the Empirical Regularities in Price Curves," Working Papers 2119, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    6. Lefteris Tsoulfidis & Dimitris Paitaridis, 2017. "Monetary Expressions of Labour Time and Market Prices: Theory and Evidence from China, Japan and Korea," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 111-132, January.
    7. Theodore Mariolis & Lefteris Tsoulfidis, 2018. "Less Is More: Capital Theory And Almost Irregular-Uncontrollable Actual Economies," Contributions to Political Economy, Oxford University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 65-88.
    8. Mariolis, Theodore & Tsoulfidis, Lefteris, 2016. "Capital theory: Less is more," MPRA Paper 75923, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Luis Daniel Torres-González, 2020. "The Characteristics of the Productive Structure Behind the Empirical Regularities in Production Prices Curves," Working Papers 2016, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Capital Theory; Characteristic value distributions; Hyper-basic industry; Spectral decompositions; Wage-price-profit rate curves;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B21 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Microeconomics
    • B51 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Socialist; Marxian; Sraffian
    • C67 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Input-Output Models
    • D57 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Input-Output Tables and Analysis

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