Some Works Of Mainstream Economics?

Apparently, many mainstream economists assert that anything worthwhile in economics will be published in one of a few journals. The following is a selection of some articles from these well-respected journals, as I understand it:

• American Economic Review
• Donald J. Harris. 1973. Capital, distribution, and the aggregate production function. AER. 63(1): 100-113.
• Economica
• Murray Milgate. 1976. On the origin of the notion of ‘intertemporal equilibrium’. Economica. New series 46(181): 1-10.
• Journal of Economic Literature
• G. C. Harcourt. 1969. Some Cambridge controversies in the theory of capital. JEL. 7(2): 369-405
• A. S. Eichner and Jan Kregel. 1975. Post-Keynesian economic theory: a new paradigm in economics? JEL. 13: 1293-1314.
• Amartya Sen. 2003. Sraffa, Wittgenstein, and Gramsci. JEL 41(4): 1240-1255.
• Journal of Economic Perspectives
• Paul Davidson. 1991. Is probability theory relevant for uncertainty? A Post Keynesian perspective. JEP 5(1): 129-143.
• Julie A. Nelson. 1995. Feminism and economics. JEP. 9(2): 131-148.
• Avi J. Cohen and G. C. Harcourt. 2003. Whatever happened to the Cambridge capital theory controversies? JEP 17(1): 199-214.
• Journal of Economic Theory
• Alain Lipietz. 1982. The so-called ‘transformation problem’ revisited. JET. 26(1): 59-88.
• Quarterly Journal of Economics
• Michael Bruno, Edwin Burmeister, and Eytan Sheshinski. 1966. The nature and implications of the reswitching of techniques. QJE. 80(4): 526-533.
• Paul A. Samuelson. 1966. A summing up. QJE. 80(4): 568-583.
• John Eatwell. 1975. Mr. Sraffa’s standard commodity and the rate of exploitation. QJE. 89(4): 1975.
• Review of Economic Studies
• Joan Robinson. 1953-1954. The production function and the theory of capital. RES. 21(2): 81-106.
• Pierangelo Garegnani. 1970. Heterogeneous capital, the production function and the theory of distribution. RES. 37(3): 407-436.
• Review of Economics and Statistics
• Anwar Shaikh. 1974. Laws of production and laws of algebra: the humbug production function. REandS. 56(1): 115-120.

What I get out of this that much of what is taught in mainstream microeconomics and macroeconomics is without theoretical and empirical foundation. Alternatives, such as Post Keynesianism, exist. Karl Marx's work is of interest to modern economists. These results were established decades ago.

A Sixth Double-Fluke Switch Point For A Triple-Switching Example

Figure 1: Extra Profits at Gamma Prices for the Sixth Double-Fluke Switch Point

This post is a continuation of this series of posts.

In the last double-fluke case, the three switch points between Alpha and Gamma coincide as a ingle switch point. Figure 1 illustrates, while Figure 2 depicts how the parameter space is partitioned around this double-fluke case. Region 7, in which one switch point occurs, is connected. At the point corresponding to the double-fluke case, the two boundaries between regions 6 and 7 are tangent. Schefold's example is at a point, (φ t, σ t)=(1,1⁄2), in the thin wedge for region 6 in Figure 2. I did not find that points in the parts of region 6 in previous posts had more visually compelling wage frontiers than the point that Schefold found

Figure 2: Partitions of the Parameter Space Sixth Double-Fluke Switch Point

Table 1: Cost-Minimizing Technique byRegion

Region	Cost-Minimizing Technique	Notes
1	Alpha	No switch point.
2	Alpha, Gamma	Around the switch point, a lower rate of profits is associated with a LESS round-about technique and greater output per worker.
3	Gamma, Alpha, Gamma	Around the second switch point, a lower rate of profits is associated with a LESS round-about technique and LOWER output per worker.
4	Gamma	No switch point.
5	Alpha, Gamma, Alpha	Around the first switch point, a lower rate of profits is associated with a LESS round-about technique. Around the second switch point, a lower rate of profits is associated with LOWER output per worker.
6	Gamma, Alpha, Gamma, Alpha	Around the second switch point, a lower rate of profits is associated with a LESS round-about technique and LOWER output per worker.
7	Gamma, Alpha	Around the switch point, a lower rate of profits is associated with a more round-about technique and greater output per worker.

The partitions of parameter space show that two values of σ t can be found as functions of φ t, where the corresponding wage curves are tangent at a switch point. Figure 3 plots the rate of profits and the wage for the switch points for these combinations of parameters. One set of three switch points is shown as a solid line and the other as a dashed line. The non-repeating switch point, for each set, is not a fluke except when on an axis or at the extreme right. The switch points for each set of parameters converges to a single switch point, with an increasing φ t. The convergence is complete at the double-fluke case.

Figure 3: Rate of Profits and the Wage at Certain Fluke Switch Points

The History Of No-Longer-Existing Socialism Validates Marx

Marx, like Adam Smith and Walt Rostow, had a stages theory of history. Feudalism was succeeded by capitalism, and capitalism is to be succeeded by socialism. Socialism is to arise first in the most advanced capitalist countries. (The theory of history is not my favorite part of Marxist theory.)

Russia, in 1917, was a semi-feudal country with peasants as the largest class. I guess China was the same, before Mao. A Marxist would not expect socialism to be successful in either country.

I think Lenin and the Bolsheviks agreed with this thesis when they first came to power. They expected their revolution to kick off revolutions elsewhere in Europe. And their expectations seemed to be initially met, what with the Spartacist uprising in Germany, Hungary, and so on.

Lenin, knowing that Russia was not ripe for socialism, talked about state capitalism even before the October revolution. Stalin invented the doctrine of socialism in one country. Economic development in the USSR and, I guess, in China, was amazing, albeit with much brutality. But eventually, further development required some semblance of capitalism

Is this not just what a Marxist would expect?

References

• Steve Paxton. 2021. Unlearning Marx [I have barely started this].
• Terry Eagleton. 2011. Why Marx was Right.