[lbo-talk] US profitability

[Doug Henwood]

By my measure (dividing NIPA profits by the Fed's estimates of the 
capital stock, from the flow of funds accounts), which purists 
dismiss as vulgar, profitability peaked in 1997 and declined into 
2001. It's since recovered strongly, though I'll be interested to see 
what it looks like when the new FoF numbers come out in early Jan.

Doug

kjkhoo at pro.SoftHome.net wrote:


>Recently, it was said that there was a decline in US profitability 
>in the later 1990s.
>
>I came across the ff abstract. Is it wrong?
>
>kj khoo
>
>
>Cambridge Journal of Economics 27:479-499 (2003)
>
>What's behind the rise in profitability in the US in the 1980s and 1990s?
>Edward N. Wolff
>
>Abstract
>
>Profitability in the US has been rising since the early 1980s and by 
>1997 was at its highest level since its post-World War II peak in 
>the mid-1960s, and the profit share, by one definition, at its 
>highest point. In this paper, I examine the role of the change in 
>the profit share and capital intensity, as well as structural 
>change, on movements in the rate of profit between 1947 and 1997. 
>Its recent recovery is traced to a rise in the profit share in 
>national income, a slowdown in capital-labour growth at the industry 
>level, and employment shifts to relatively labour-intensive 
>industries.
>
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