著者
荒木 英一 Eiichi Araki 桃山学院大学経済学部
出版者
桃山学院大学総合研究所
雑誌
桃山学院大学総合研究所紀要 = ST.ANDREW'S UNIVERSITY BULLETIN OF THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (ISSN:1346048X)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.35, no.1, pp.33-46, 2009-07-20

Through the special collaborative research projects (02-R-154, 05-R-181, 08-R-199) funded by Momoyama Gakuin University Research Institute, a considerably wide-ranging business survey has been ongoing since the second quarter of 2004 with the cooperation of the Sakai City Industial Promotion Center. In this article a brief outline of our activities from April 2005 to March 2008 is given fist, and the result of an econometric analysis based on our survey data is discussed. It was discovered that the movements of some diffusion indices of our local regional economy (the south Osaka area) are significantly different from those of some similar indices in "Tankan", the single largest national business survey in Japan conducted by BOJ. The gap between the local and the national indices is widening, which implies that the local companies are becoming increasingly more pessimistic than the government's official statistics suggest. This discovery shows the significance of our unique business survey and the necessity of inquiring into the economic background to the gap.
著者
松尾 純 Jun Matsuo 桃山学院大学経済学部
出版者
桃山学院大学総合研究所
雑誌
桃山学院大学経済経営論集 = ST. ANDREW'S UNIVERSITY ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS REVIEW (ISSN:02869721)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.50, no.3, pp.59-80, 2008-12-10

Professor Noriko Maehata and I have been engaged in discussions concerning the understanding of the concept of "actual overproduction of capital" as contained in Karl Marx's Das Kapital Volume III. The discussion originated in Professor Maehata's criticism("'Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall' and 'Absolute Overproduction of Capital' - An Issue in Research on the Theory of Crisis," Economic Society of Rikkyo University(Rikkyo Keizai Gaku Kenkyu), Vol. 55, No. 1, July 2001)of my understanding of "actual overproduction of capital." I immediately responded in my paper entitled, "'Actual Overproduction of Capital' and 'Absolute Overproduction of Capital' - A Response to the Criticisms of Professor Noriko Maehata -"(St. Andrew's University Economic and Business Review, Vol. 43, No. 4, March 2002). In answer to my response, Professor Maehata published a second paper entitled, "Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall and Crisis - Regarding 'Actual Overproduction of Capital'"(Keizaigaku Kenkyu(Hokkaido University), Vol. 56, No. 2, November 2006). This second criticism more clearly delineated the differences in our two views. Specifically, the problems contained in Professor Maehata's understanding of "actual overproduction of capital" became very clear. The purpose of this present paper is to examine the problems in Professor Maehata's understanding of "actual overproduction of capital." In her second paper, Professor Maehata explained the mechanism of the occurrence of "actual overproduction of capital" in the form of the following causal nexus: "increased producing powers of labor → advancement of the organic composition of capital → fall in profit rate and increased mass of profit → 'concurrence among capitals("small split capitals" and "fresh branches of capital")' → rapid absorption of relative overpopulation and 'reduction' in relative overpopulation (but not its 'exhaustion')→ rise in wages → diminished degree of exploitation of labor → rapid decrease in profit rate → occurrence of 'actual overproduction of capital' → 'concurrence among capitals' → 'exhaustion' of relative overpopulation → occurrence of 'absolute overproduction of capital'." I cannot agree with Professor Maehata's explanation that "actual overproduction of capital" occurs as a result of the causal nexus: "rapid absorption of relative overpopulation → rise in wages → decrease in mass of profit → rapid decrease in profit rate." My disagreement is based on the following expositions of "actual overproduction of capital" contained in the manuscripts of Volume III of Das Kapital.(1)"Actual overproduction of capital" is the "overproduction of means of production which may serve to exploit labor at a given degree of exploitation." "A fall in the intensity of exploitation below a certain point... calls forth disturbances and stoppages in the capitalist production process, and the destruction of capital."(2)"Overproduction of capital is accompanied by more or less considerable relative overpopulation."(3)The rate of profit is lowered through the process of "increased producing powers of labor → accumulation of capital." This process simultaneously creates relative overpopulation.(4)Relative overpopulation is not employed by the surplus-capital. Even if employed, relative overpopulation would be employed at a "low degree of exploitation," which would "call forth disturbances and stoppages in the capitalist production process, and the destruction of capital." Professor Maehata makes the following argument. "Faced with a declining rate of profit, 'small split capitals' and 'fresh branches of capital' are used as capital(that is, these capitals are combined with relative overpopulation), which gives rise to 'concurrence among capitals.' In the process of 'concurrence among capitals,' overpopulation is used by capital newly trying to become independent and additions to existing capital. As a result, overpopulation is reduced." However, this is not the thinking of Marx. Marx's assertion is as follows.<" The rate of profit will fall as increased producing powers and accumulation of capital advances. However, at the same time, the mass of profit will increase. While the "increase in the mass of profit compensates for the decline in the rate of profit," this "compensation" applies "only to the total social capitals and to the big, firmly placed capitalists. The new additional capital operating independently does not enjoy any such compensating conditions. It must still win them." If they cannot "win them" through competitive struggle, these capitals become excess capital. If concurrence among capitals becomes intensified, an even greater number of "small split capitals" and "fresh branches of capital"(in other words, capital newly trying to become independent and additions to existing capital)that are unable to "exploit labor at the 'intensity of exploitation' necessary for the 'sound' and 'normal' development of the capitalist production process"(Maehata)become excess capital. At the same time, the excess population employed by excess capital will continue to increase.>
著者
黒木 亮 Ryo Kurogi 獨協大学経済学部
雑誌
経済学史研究 = The history of economic thought (ISSN:18803164)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.53, no.1, pp.21-43, 2011-07-25

One of the most distinguished features of Frank Knight's liberal thought seems to be his economic, political, and ethical criticisms both of the case for and against the free-enterprise competitive system. Through this multi-level, polyangular analysis and on a resignation that the system appears as the best or "least worst" as possible human beings build on earth, Knight continued to identify many defects in the system, and disclose many absurdities in the way of thinking on which we rest unwittingly. For "men's errors," he believed, "mostly lie in their premises, not in bad logic." In this paper, I select the following five topics through which Knight repeatedly discussed our premises: (1) uneconomic aspect of competition, (2) normative and conservative character of positive economics, (3) imaginary nature of the idea of natural rights, (4) self-deconstructive tendency of business and the power game, and (5) plural meanings of love in liberal society. This paper proposes that Knight's radical yet constructive criticisms aimed to refine, rather than advocate, the free-enterprise competitive system and warn against the fallacy of "absolutism: holding that a statement must be either true or false and that, if false, antithesis must be true." So this essay not only destructs the image of Knight as a neo-classical economist, but also clarifies the differences and similarities between him and later Chicagoans. That is, it illuminates the contrary directions of their perspectives and the identical iconoclastic propensity for disclosing implicit postulates.