著者

森本 壮亮

出版者

桃山学院大学

雑誌

桃山学院大学経済経営論集 (ISSN:02869721)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.57, no.3, pp.237-269, 2016-03-03

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This paper introduces the full story of the Okishio theorem. Although it has been considered to be an objection to Marx's law of the tendential fall in the rate of profit, the real purpose of the theorem was to clarify an absurd character of the capitalist choice of technique. Also Okishio argued that the reason of the constant or falling rate of profit should be the rise in the real wage rate. When Okishio submitted the theorem, the rate of profit was not clearly falling in Japanese economy. However Japanese economy considerably changed. The surge of the real wage rate from the mid 1960s to 1973 caused the rise of the organic composition of capital and the fall in the rate of profit. Contrary to the popular interpretation of the Okishio theorem, this scenario was precisely what Okishio supposed. The bubble burst caused one more fall in the rate of profit and capital turned surplus. The result is the helplessness of the monetary policy. Even though the Bank of Japan has tried to supply money by extraordinary ways, neither capital accumulation nor "money stock" has increased. Although economists including Marxists have not been able to work out this mysterious situation, it is just what Marx wrote in Volume III of Capital .