Profits and Fractal Properties: Notes on Marx, Countertendencies and Simulation Models

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. There are new reasons for revisiting Marx’s elaboration on the rate of profit because contemporary debates provide findings from the MEGA Project, long-term data on the rate of profit, and tools for dealing with complexity and non-equilibrium systems. This article proposes that the interplay between the tendency and the countertendencies of the rate of profit to fall can be translated into a simple system of equations, one based on each chapter of Section Three of Capital—as if Marx sought to mathematically formalise his insights. This article reviews previous debates, presents data and runs a simulation model, showing that the rate of profit behaves as fractals.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, Brazil), grant (BEX 0840/14-9

A network model for the complex behavior of the rate of profit: Exploring a simulation model with overlapping technological revolutions

This article proposes a network model to replicate the behaviour of the profit rate in the long run. Specifically, it accounts for the results of an empirical investigation of the profit rate in the US, which show that it has fractal properties and its complexity changes over time. The starting point of the model is Marx’s insights on the interplay between the tendency of the rate to fall and its countertendencies. It combines these insights with the persistent generation of new commodities – inventions – and a specific set of new branches of production that triggers technological revolutions. A simulation running this network model successfully replicates historical features of the system.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, Brazil), grant (BEX 0840/14-9