The Contemporary Relevance of Marx's Economics: Theory and Evidence

Abstract

This paper examines the validity of Marx's fundamental propositions in a nonantiquarian setting. Marx predicted three long-period tendencies of capitalist development of production technology towards (1) full automation, (2) destruction of the ecological base of the production system, and (3) falling rate of profit. A contemporary production model in the Leontief-Marx-Sraffa tradition is developed and applied to Canadian interindustry data of the 1961-80 period in order to assess the relevance of these hypothetical statements. On the basis of this application, it appears that all three tendencies manifest themselves in the industrial evolution of the Canadian economy.