INCOME DISTRIBUTION AND THE RATE OF PROFIT IN MARX AND THE CLASSICS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

This paper argues that the concern to determine the rate of profit, attributed by the modern surplus approach to the classics, was not the main focus in most classical authors before Ricardo and certainly did not have a central place in Marx’s analysis. According to Marx, a uniform rate of profit was only one way to determine the distribution of surplus value among the owners of capital, while the distribution of income among capitalists and workers was strictly determined by the rate of surplus value. Marx did not use his own version of the labour theory of value to determine the rate of profit and production prices, but to analyse the dynamics of economic aggregates and bring to light the inner social nature of production and distribution processes. In this context, Marx’s rate of profit was only an aggregate measure of the maximum potential growth rate.