Joan Robinson on Exploitation - Dictionary of Arguments

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Exploitation: In economics, exploitation refers to the unfair use of labor where workers receive less compensation than the value they produce. In Marxist theory, it describes capitalists profiting by paying workers only a fraction of their labor’s worth. More broadly, it can refer to unequal trade, unfair wages, or resource exploitation in economic relationships. See also Labour, Capitalism, Work, Jobs, Economy. _____________ Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

> Robinson, Joan	> Exploitation	Joan Robinson on Exploitation - Dictionary of Arguments Harcourt I 231 Exploitation/Robinson/Harcourt: Joan Robinson^(1),(2) has placed considerable emphasis on the rate of exploitation - the ratio of net profits to wages - in her explanations of distributive shares in the short run and the rate of profits in the long run. The latest statement of her views is in Robinson [1971]⁽²⁾, also Robinson [1970b]⁽³⁾, p. 315 and Robinson [1970c]⁽⁴⁾. Thus, in a modern capitalist economy with strongly unionized workers, oligopolistic industries and near full-employment conditions (for Report from Iron Mountain reasons rather than for neo-neoclassical or Kaldorian ones though), mark-ups in different trades tend to become conventionalized.* >Trade Unions, >Full employment, >Wages, >Labour, >Unemployment, >Neoclassicals, >N. Kaldor. This occurs both because stable mark-ups allow firms to have certain retention ratios and because, in a rough-and-ready way, firms find from experience that their conventional mark-ups earn them certain realized rates of profits. Wage: Wages overall therefore tend to rise as fast as overall productivity (sometimes lagging for a while as, for example, in the United States over 1961-5, when the workers were conned into doing their bit to cure inflation while the profit-receivers took advantage of this to lengthen their profit margins: see Evans [1969]⁽⁵⁾, pp. 540-1, Robinson [1969e]⁽⁶⁾). Relative prices: Relative prices may then be treated as if they were determined by technical conditions (which change over time with technical progress,'deepening' and scales of operation) and a uniform structure of rates of profits (or, alternatively, a given real wage at any moment of time). Exploitation/Rate of profit: If, finally, the rate of profits, whether determining or determined, fluctuates around a level of g/s_c, because these parameters are related to why the rate-of -exploitation (which in turn reflects the businessmen's ability to realize their investment plans) is what it is in the first place, g being related (via the expected rate of profits) to investment expenditure, sc being related to saving levels from company profits, we have, in outline, a short-run and a long-run theory of distributive shares and prices. The rate of profits would, of course, be considerably greater than the rate of interest, because we have brought back risk and uncertainty. >Entrepreneurship, >Investments, >Business, >Economy. Harcourt I 232 Rate of interest/Harcourt: However, with Davidson's and Joan Robinson's help, plus references to Marshall, Wicksell, Fisher and Keynes, the determination of the rate of interest could also be sketched in >A. Marshall, >K. Wicksell, >F. M. Fisher, >J.M. Keynes. That this may seem slimming fare after the rich diets to which we have become accustomed is unquestioned; but that it is also healthy fare, fitting us for developments in the right direction, seems to me at least a working hypothesis. For „Presumably, no one would deny that there is more hope of understanding what is going on in the world when we recognize that the wage bargain is made in terms of money; that the level of prices is influenced by effective demand and the degree of imperfection of competition; that accumulation is controlled by the policy of firms and governments, not by the propensity to consume of private citizens, and that today is an ever moving break in time between an irrevocable past and an uncertain future. To understand is not easy, but at least we could try.“ (Robinson [1965b]⁽¹⁾, p. 68.) * Clearly, this hypothesis is related to Kalecki's degree of monopoly theories. Riach [1971]⁽⁷⁾ has written an excellent paper in which he shows that the charge that Kalecki's statements are tautological is unfounded and that, in fact, Kalecki has provided a behavioural relationship which leads to a testable set of hypotheses. 1. Robinson, Joan [1965b], Collected Economic Papers, Vol. Ill (Oxford: Basil Blackwell). pp. 173-81, 2. Robinson, Joan [1971] Economic Heresies: Some Old-fashioned Questions in Economic Theory (New York: Basic Books). 3. Robinson, Joan, [1970b] 'Review of C. E. Ferguson, The Neoclassical Theory of Production and Distribution, 1969', Economic Journal, LXXX, pp. 336-9. 4. Robinson, Jaon [1970c] 'Harrod after Twenty-one Years', Economic Journal, LXXX, pp. 731-7. 23. Champernowne, D. G. [1958] 'Capital Accumulation and the Maintenance of Full Employment'. Economic Journal, Lxvin, pp. 211-44 5. Evans, Michael K. [1969] Macroeconomic Activity. Theory, Forecasting, and Control.An Econometric Approach (New York: Harper and Row). 6. Robinson, Joan [1969e] 'The Theory of Value Reconsidered', Australian Economic Papers, vm, pp. 13-19. 7. Riach, P. A. [1971] 'Kalecki's "Degree of Monopoly" Reconsidered', Australian Economic Papers, x, pp. 50-60. _____________ Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.	EconRobin I James A. Robinson James A. Acemoglu Why nations fail. The origins of power, prosperity, and poverty New York 2012 Robinson I Jan Robinson An Essay on Marxian Economics London 1947 Harcourt I Geoffrey C. Harcourt Some Cambridge controversies in the theory of capital Cambridge 1972

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