The equalization of capital profitability through financial investments and the historical development of capitalism
Does Blackrock have the solution to the transformation problem
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5615151 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lorenzo Esposito (0000-0002-5768-8665, Banca d’Italia, Italy; Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-18 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Capital & Class (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0309-8168 • E-ISSN: 2041-0980 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/03098168251384285 |
| OpenAlex | W4415329293 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 56 |
The 'equalization of firms' and sectoral profitability is considered a key feature of capitalist economy by most economic schools. For Marx, it is the basis of the laws of movement of bourgeois society. In this work we consider the related theoretical and empirical literature spanning for more than a century. We suggest that Marx exposed two different meanings of the process: the equalization in the productive sphere is a heritage of the classical school, in line with the Ricardian outlook of a capitalism with no endogenous crisis and no structural changes; the second is the equalization of capitals' profitability as financial investment, that represents the historical development of capitalism and highlights the coming of age of finance capital and is the backbone of financialization, the dominant trend in contemporary capitalism. We conclude that this dimension of the equalization does not obliterate the laws of movement of capitalism and puts the discussion of the transformation problem on totally different terms
Bourgeoisie · Capital accumulation · Capitalism · Profitability index · Virtuous circle and vicious circle · Banking stability, regulation, efficiency · Economic Theory and Policy · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism
Studies in the labour theory of value.
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
Capitalism
Marx’s fictitious capital
Listen to Sraffa's silences
Sraffa's system
Profit rate equalization in the U.S. and Europe
Theories of Surplus Value
Money and Totality
A History of Marxian Economics, Volume I
Value and price in the Marxian system
Locating Financialisation
Marx, Finance and Political Economy
Finance Capital. A Study of the Latest Phase of Capitalist Development
The Rate of Profits Under the Law of Labor-Value
The Persistence of Profits above the Norm
The Dynamics of Company Profits
Economic Essays on Value, Competition and Utility
The Financialization of Capital and the Crisis
Structural causes of the global financial crisis
Earth Incorporated
Marx's general rate of profit
The Capitalization of Almost Everything
| Highly cited | No |
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