Robinson, Joan

Commenting on the unfinished state of the second (and third) volumes of Capital, Joan Robinson warned, The waters are dark and it may be that whoever peers in them sees his own face (Robinson 1968 111). From these murky waters, a host of different models and perspectives have emerged. In the absence of any clear statement of the purpose of the reproduction tables, there is no agreement as to what they are for, how they relate to the rest of Capital, volume 2, and how they relate to Capital as a whole. For Tsuru (1994 191), Participants in the discussion...concretized the original simple tableau of Marx in whatever way most suited for their respective conclusions. ... 

This contradiction bears a close resemblance to Luxemburg s posing of the question of how new capital goods can be produced in the absence of sufficient demand to satisfy the new capacity. Sufficient demand, to meet the requirements of a balanced growth in capacity, is unlikely to be forthcoming from within the Domar model, from within the reproduction schema. Joan Robinson s interpretation of Luxemburg has some resonance with the Domar definition of the problem ... 

As Yaffe (1972 24), a follower of Grossmann, argued, It is quite amazing that critics of Marx such as Joan Robinson can say that Marx s theory rests on the assumption of a constant rate of exploitation. For Yaffe the key question is whether the rate of surplus value can rise sufficiently to enable the combination of a sustained fall in the rate of profit and an increasing mass of surplus value. Yaffe (1972 26) argues that for this combination to be sustained the rate of surplus value must increase at an accelerated rate. 

The authors would like to express sincere appreciation to the following individuals for their invaluable comments and suggestions Dr. Steven Vaughn and Dr. Joan Gotthardt (general manuscript review) Dr. Mark Robinson (human food safety) Dr. Margaret Oeller (veterinary pharmaceuticals for minor uses and minor species) and Dr. Richard Ellis (international harmonization efforts). 

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