Abstract
ABSTRACT This paper reports homogenous series of the rate of surplus value for the Chinese economy over the period 1956-2015 with a Marxian approach. It finds that the rate of surplus value reached the historical peak of the whole period in 2008 and that the high profitability in the decade before the 2008 crisis had relied on the continuous growth in the rate of surplus value. It provides a time series analysis to show that the rising wage pressure and value composition of capitalhas restrained profitability since 2008. Thus, this paper interprets the so-called “new normal” of the Chinese economy as a stage of declining profitability that results mainly from the stagnant rate of surplus value and the rising value composition of capital.
Highlights
This paper reports a homogeneous series of the rate of surplus value (RSV, hereafter) for the Chinese economy using a Marxian approach
This approach highlights the division between productive labor and unproductive labor, and argues that the value that unproductive labor obtains is a transfer of surplus value
We focus on the enterprise sector because, first of all, it was the dominant part of the economy over the entire period and, secondly, it was a relatively homogenous sector
Summary
This paper reports a homogeneous series of the rate of surplus value (RSV, hereafter) for the Chinese economy using a Marxian approach This approach highlights the division between productive labor and unproductive labor, and argues that the value that unproductive labor obtains is a transfer of surplus value. Some country-specific studies have applied the approach and obtained interesting findings (CRONIN 2001; MANIATIS, 2005; MOHUN, 2005; MOHUN, 2013; PAITARIDIS and TSOULFIDIS, 2011) This approach is not unfamiliar to Chinese economists, who had intensive discussions on the division of productive and unproductive labor from the late 1970s to the early 1990s (for instance, YU, 1981; SUN, 1981; WEI, 1981; LUO, 1990).
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