Testing Marx's General Law of Underproduction: The Case of Oil

• In Event: 121 - Section on Marxist Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04. Marxism and Crisis (Political, Economic, and Cultural)

Abstract

Marx argued that shifts in commodity prices would create crises for capital accumulation. Situated within a world ecological perspective, in this paper we examine the historical impact of energy prices on accumulation across a panel of countries. The data is split into four historical periods for oil prices: 1960-73, 73-82, 83-2002, 03-present. We find that the relationship varies by level of development - with higher income countries increasing/decreasing accumulation during periods of low/high prices and lower income countries experiencing the inverse. We also examine the impact of rising production costs on output. The data reveals support for Marx's "general law of underproduction."

Authors

• Kirk S. Lawrence, St. Joseph's College, New York

• Jason W. Moore, University of California, Berkeley