October 21, 2011

Matter matters: productivity, profit, and non-marginal factor prices {21}

Working paper at SSRN

Abstract  Tastes and technology are the ultimate givens of standard economics. Their interaction is mediated by the marginal principle. This approach is unsuitable to explain the nature and magnitude of overall profit and its distribution within the business sector. The present paper, therefore, takes a quite different analytical route. The standard behavioral axioms are replaced by objective structural axioms and the standard production function is replaced by a sequential production function. From this new formal basis two exemplary factor prices, the product price, and the real wage are derived under the conditions of market clearing and equal profit ratios.

October 12, 2011

The Propensity Function as general formalization of Economic Man/Woman {20}

Working paper at SSRN

Abstract  The present paper demonstrates how the interaction of the structural axiomatic core and the behavioral propensity function produces dynamically stable outcomes in the product market. The propensity function is a compact formal expression of random, semi-random, and deterministic behavioral assumptions. Its two components are direction and magnitude of the rate of change of an elementary axiomatic variable. A type-C propensity function is the formal container for a familiar conception that is known as qualitative prediction. In a random environment, two type-C functions are sufficient to produce stochastic stability and optimality in the product market. The propensity function is truly general.

For the complete set of foundational equations — structural axioms, definitions, and behavioral propensity function — see Wikimedia AXEC61

October 7, 2011

The wine maker's business and the logical origin of interest in the monetary economy {19}

Working paper at SSRN

Abstract  Any serious alternative to the standard approach requires a distinct axiomatic foundation. The crucial point is not axiomatization per se but the real-world content of axioms. The purpose of the present paper is to make the implications of the objective structural axiom set concerning the relation of profit, money, the nominal/real rate of interest, and the time structure of production explicit and to contrast them with the familiar conceptions.