Economics Department Working Paper Series

Title

Technical Change, Income Distribution, and Profitability in Multisector Linear Economies

Working Paper Number

2019-15

Publication Date

2019

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of technical change on income distribution and profitability by comparing the long-run outcomes defined by a uniform profit rate in a multisector linear economy. We study three scenarios with (i) fixed real wage; (ii) fixed profit rate; or (iii) fixed wage-profit ratio, and show that any viable capital- using and labor-saving technical change itself (in the absence of power change) would bring about a fall in the rate of profit. Profit rate would not rise unless the technical change is so power-biased against the working-class that the wage-profit ratio can not be maintained. Our result conclusively supports the argument of the falling rate of profit due to a rising organic composition of capital as an underlying economic force.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/15506378

License

UMass Amherst Open Access Policy

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