(OPE-L) Preobrazhensky's multiplier

[gerald_a_levy <gerald_a_levy@xxxxxxx>]

Rakesh wrote:

 

> At any rate, it does not seem that Preobrazhensky had a
> quantitatively worked out theory of the multiplier as did Kahn, but in
> his review of this book, James Galbraith did argue (if I remember
> correctly) that Preobrazhensky seemed to have anticipated many
> important ideas, e.g. imperfect competition.

 

One could equally as well claim that Marx anticipated the theory

of imperfect competition in his analysis of the centralization

and concentration of capital that occurs in the process of the

accumulation of capital.  While Marx's perspective on competition

wasn't quite the same as Robinson's or Chamberlin's,  all three

did reject the so-called "perfect competition" model.  Also, I think

that other Marxists after Marx who were contemporaries of

Preobrazhensky (e.g. Bukharin, Luxemburg, Kautsky, Lenin, etc.)

all likewise rejected the concept of perfect competition. "Economists"

came to reject perfect competition later.

> I think the idea of a foreign trade multiplier is a bit static in the
> sense that the real importance of widening the market is not as a
> vent for a pre-existing surplus but in the dynamic economies of scale
> which it allows and thus the boost to profitability which it
> provides. Foreign trade is important not so much for the purpose of
> securing realization and ensuring a higher employment equilibrium but
> for boosting profitability.

"Securing realization" and increasing economies of scale are, though, related

to each other in a dynamic context.  Don't you think that decisions about

scale (which imply decisions about the utilization of constant fixed capital

and the structure of the labor process, e.g. the extent to which there

is an advance in the division of labor and specialization) and thereby

decisions about the quantity of commodities produced is related to

capitalist expectations regarding sales (and with that, the actualization

of surplus value)?  Granted -- capitalist expectations _ex ante_ regarding

the market and profitability may not be realized in the manner anticipated

_ex post_,  but it is certainly part of the dynamic process.

 

Maybe you agree with all of the above ... or maybe not.  I'm not sure.

 

In solidarity, Jerry