Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Historical Materialism, İstanbul, Türkiye, 5 - 07 Nisan 2024, ss.35
Baver Yeşilyurt, Volkan Ahıskalı, Ekin Bal Competition-Technical Change-Profit Rates Nexus: A Critical RealistMarxian-Oriented Simulation
This study proposes an Agent-Based Model (ABM) within the framework of Critical Realist ontology to navigate the core elements of capitalism -competition, technical change, and profit rates. This research aims to reconcile the coexistence of autonomous agency and universal mechanisms. Critiquing Monopoly Capital Theory, which ignores the existence of universal mechanisms, we advocate for integrating universal laws of motion with autonomous agency in a comprehensive model. Similarly, our proposal challenges Regulation Theory for implying the absence of universal mechanisms and seeks to bridge the gap between universal laws and agent-driven autonomy. Real Competition Theory, while acknowledging universal mechanisms, is critiqued for excluding autonomous strategies of agents. Our proposal aims to rectify this omission by integrating universal laws with a thorough examination of agents' strategies. The paramount goal is to pioneer an ABM that considers both universally valid mechanisms and relatively autonomous strategies, revealing how these coexist in the dynamics of capitalism. In that sense, the ABM in this study acknowledges the fact that universal mechanisms of laws of motion of capital forces firms within a given sector to cut their unit cost; with the result that capturing larger markets necessitates price cutting behaviour. In addition, the differential rate of profit between sectors forces capital to flow among sectors. However, particular strategies discovered by agents (i.e. firms) are not fully determined by these laws of motion of capital. These strategies are to be discovered by autonomous agents. Integrated into the Transformational Model of Social Activity (TMSA), this ABM stands as a potent analytical tool. TMSA uniquely admits the autonomous co-existence of universal mechanisms and agents’ autonomous strategies. This research, positioned at the crossroads of Marxist and Critical Realist thought, offers a methodological breakthrough for understanding the intricate dynamics of laws of motion of capital.