Brenner on Competition

Abstract

This paper criticizes Brenner's emphasis on competition within Manufacturing in his analysis of the falling profit rate, and the subsequent extension of this fall to the entire economy. His assumptions concerning price competition appear arbitrary and proofs are deficient. Brenner cannot escape the reliance on the rise of wages, contrary to what he contends in his criticism of profit-squeeze theory. Several basic theoretical issues, such as adjustment by prices (as in neoclassical models) or by quantities produced (as in Keynesian models), partial or general analysis are not treated properly. For Marx, the decline of the profit rate causes competitive wars; the inverse relationship is posited by Brenner.