Re: [OPE-L] Stocks and flows in Marx's theory

[Dave Zachariah <davez@xxxxxx>]

on 2007-11-25 17:28 glevy@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> It is a great failing of Marxian theory that no one (?) has developed
> a dynamic
> model of a capitalist economy in which there is money capital, variable
> capital (above -0-!) ,  constant circulating capital, and constant
> fixed capital
> which depreciates both physically and morally.

I think the way forward is the computational agent-based modeling that
Ian Wright advocates. It may be possible to extend his model
(http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0401053) to deal with capital stocks.


I think of each unit of production, i.e. firm, as a node in a network
that connects flows of labour, either direct or materialized as
commodities. If the net flow of labour into a firm is positive it is
building up capital stocks, if the net flow is negative its capital
stock is shrinking through wear and tear. The trouble with this approach
is that it is not easy to cast into a dynamic model that makes
meaningful predictions.

//Dave Z