IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/elg/rokejn/v3y2015i2p143-157.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is a Marxist explanation of the current crisis possible?

Author

Listed:
  • Claudio Sardoni

    (Sapienza University of Rome, Italy)

Abstract

The object of the paper is to explore whether, or to what extent, a Marxian explanation of the current capitalist crisis is possible. The answer is that, although Marx's theory offers important insights to understanding the ultimate causes of capitalist crises, it is not able to provide a fully satisfactory explanation of typical crises of contemporary capitalism. In particular, Marx's analysis cannot account for the long periods of stagnation following the eruption of financial and economic crises. In Marx's analytical context, crises are followed by recovery and growth in a relatively short span of time. It is argued that the main reason for Marx's inability to explain crises of contemporary capitalism is that he developed his analysis by considering free-competitive economies, whereas modern economies are characterized by monopolistic competition. A more satisfactory explanation of the current crisis requires going beyond Marx's original contributions.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudio Sardoni, 2015. "Is a Marxist explanation of the current crisis possible?," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 3(2), pages 143-157, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:rokejn:v:3:y:2015:i:2:p143-157
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.elgaronline.com/view/journals/roke/3-2/roke.2015.02.01.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Claudio Sardoni, 1998. "Marx’s Theory of Money and Interest: A Reconsideration in the Light of Robertson and Keynes," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Riccardo Bellofiore (ed.), Marxian Economics: A Reappraisal, chapter 16, pages 271-285, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Claudio Sardoni, 2011. "Unemployment, Recession and Effective Demand," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13837.
    3. A. Asimakopulos, 1977. "Profits and Investment: A Kaleckian Approach," International Economic Association Series, in: G. C. Harcourt (ed.), The Microeconomic Foundations of Macroeconomics, chapter 10, pages 328-353, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Richard Kahn, 1989. "The Economics of the Short Period," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-09817-0, October.
    5. Paul J. McNulty, 1968. "Economic Theory and the Meaning of Competition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 82(4), pages 639-656.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Claudio Sardoni, 2011. "Unemployment, Recession and Effective Demand," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13837.
    2. Kim, Jongwook & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2008. "A Strategic Theory of the Firm as a Nexus of Incomplete Contracts: A Property Rights Approach," Working Papers 08-0108, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    3. Jochen Hartwig, 2006. "Explaining the aggregate price level with Keynes's principle of effective demand," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(4), pages 469-492.
    4. Massimo Cingolani, 2015. "Sylos Labini su Marx: implicazioni per la politica economica (Sylos Labini on Marx: economic policy implications)," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 68(269), pages 81-147.
    5. Octavian-Dragomir Jora & Gheorghe Hurduzeu & Mihaela Iacob & Georgiana-Camelia Cre?an, 2017. "“Dialectical Contradictions” in the Neoclassical Theory and Policy Regarding Market Competition: The Consumer and His Continuos Burden of Crisis," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(45), pages 544-544, May.
    6. Colin von Negenborn, 2023. "The more the merrier? On the optimality of market size restrictions," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 27(3), pages 603-634, September.
    7. Stephen Martin, 2012. "Market Structure and Market Performance," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 40(2), pages 87-108, March.
    8. Jack High, 1984. "Bork'S Paradox: Static Vs. Dynamic Efficiency In Antitrust Analysis," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 3(2), pages 21-34, December.
    9. Geoffrey Harcourt & Peter Kriesler, 2012. "Introduction [to Handbook of Post-Keynesian Economics: Oxford University Press: USA]," Discussion Papers 2012-33, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    10. Cook, Paul, 2002. "Competition Policy, Market Power and Collusion in Developing Countries," Centre on Regulation and Competition (CRC) Working papers 30681, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    11. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6520 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Eckhard Hein, 2019. "Karl Marx: an early post-Keynesian? A comparison of Marx's economics with the contributions by Sraffa, Keynes, Kalecki and Minsky," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 16(2), pages 238-259, September.
    13. Antonio D'Agata, 2017. "Differential profit rates in long period analysis: The nonlinear case," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 1019-1024, November.
    14. Brown, Paul M., 1998. "Experimental evidence on the importance of competing for profits on forecasting accuracy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 259-269, January.
    15. William Corcoran, 1984. "Long-run equilibrium and total expenditures in rent-seeking," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 89-94, January.
    16. Richard E. Wagner, 2015. "Welfare Economics and Second-Best Theory: Filling Imaginary Economic Boxes," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 35(1), pages 133-146, Winter.
    17. Geoff Harcourt, 2011. "On the Concept of Period and Run in Economic Theory," Discussion Papers 2011-11, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    18. Fabrizio Patriarca & Claudio Sardoni, 2014. "Growth with Unused Capacity and Endogenous Depreciation," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_795, Levy Economics Institute.
    19. Lefteris Tsoulfidis, 2015. "Contending Conceptions of Competition and the Role of Regulating Capital," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 62(1), pages 15-31, March.
    20. M. S. Addleson, 1984. "General Equilibrium and ‘Competition’: On Competition as Strategy," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 52(2), pages 104-113, June.
    21. Doan, Tinh & Stevens, Philip, 2012. "Evolution of competition in Vietnam industries over the recent economic transition," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-24.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Marx; crises; contemporary capitalism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B51 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Socialist; Marxian; Sraffian
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:rokejn:v:3:y:2015:i:2:p143-157. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Phillip Thompson (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elgaronline.com/roke .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.