Elements for a Study of the Profit Rate: France, 1896–2019

Abstract

Considering that the rate of profit constitutes a key indicator for the analysis of the evolution of capitalist economies, this chapter proposes to study the case of France from 1896 to 2019, that is, over 124 years in total. From a series of stock of productive capital reconstructed for the occasion, a rate of profit is calculated at the macroeconomic level within a conceptual framework faithful to Marx. Over this period of more than a century, three successive long waves are identified, as parts of a secular trend toward the fall in the French rate of profit. The latter, however, recovered several times during these three subperiods, but finally reoriented downwards, with fluctuations of an amplitude tending to decrease more and more and a deployment in a decreasing spiral of French capitalism. This long-term downward trend is mainly due to the rise in the organic composition of capital.

Citation

Ding, W., Long, Z. and Herrera, R. (2023), "Elements for a Study of the Profit Rate: France, 1896–2019", Herrera, R. (Ed.) Value, Money, Profit, and Capital Today (Research in Political Economy, Vol. 39), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 189-195. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0161-723020230000039011