Political Economy Quarterly

 

Latest Issue

  • An Analysis of Empirical Research on the Labor Theory of Value Using Input-Output Tables

    TAO Weiqun;Jiangsu Branch,The People's Bank of China;

    For the empirical research on the labor theory of value using input-output tables, this paper conducts a relatively systematic and comprehensive study, aiming to basically form a logicalclosed loop so as to deepen and enrich the empirical research on the theory. The value magnitude defined in Marx's labor theory of value—the socially necessary labor time is a unity of the “first meaning” and the “second meaning”. The socially necessary labor time of the “second meaning” can only be established through the realization of social reproduction. Therefore, the empirical research on the labor theory of value must be integrated with the realization of social reproduction to be complete. Such empirical research cannot bypass Marx's social reproduction theory on the composition of the product value of the means of production and the means of consumption in the context of realizing the social reproduction with two major categories. Such empirical research by use of the input-output table is necessary and possible to expand the scope of the two major categories of goods, namely means of production and means of consumption, to include service goods, and it should be in the context of social reproduction with fixed capital occupation and depreciation in reality. Under the value system and the price system, the realization of social reproduction will make social reproduction “productive”. Therefore, if the assumption that “the total amount of surplus value is equal to the total amount of profit” is followed, a theoretical relationship between the value and price of two commodities of means of production and means of consumption is obtained, which is namely “the price of a unit commodity of means of production and means of consumption is equal to its value”. The paper introduces the concept of joint production and uses the value-based input-output tables to calculate the price composition of products of means of production and means of consumption, so as to map the input-occupation-output of each industrial sector to produce the two “pure products” of means of production and means of consumption. This approach can be regarded as corresponding to the preparation of input-output tables using the indirect derivation method—UV table method. By respectively applying the sector technology assumption and the product technology assumption, a certain linear transformation is carried out on the broad input, that is, the price composition of the output of each industrial sector, converting it into the price composition of the two “pure products” of means of production and means of consumption. Given that the conclusion can be reached that “the price of a unit commodity of means of production and means of consumption is equal to its value”, the different calculation results of the product price composition of the two “pure products” obtained under the two technical assumptions using input-output tables can all be regarded as the empirical research results of the labor theory of value.

    2026 02 v.5;No.15 [Abstract][OnlineView][Download 1179K]

  • Political Economy Analysis of Patient Capital: Essential Attributes, Practical Challenges, and Cultivation Pathways

    ZHOU Weijie;School of Marxism,Nankai University;

    “Patient capital”, as a critical pillar for developing new quality productive forces, demands deeper theoretical exploration. Current scholarship predominantly focuses on its instrumental functions while inadequately examining its capital nature from a political economy perspective. Patient capital does not alter capital's fundamental pursuit of surplus value; its “patience” merely represents a strategic adaptation to high-tech, long-cycle industries for sustained value appreciation. In essence, it constitutes a historical form of capital that must be harnessed during the primary stage of socialism to liberate and develop productive forces, yet remains bound by historical limitations and intrinsic risks. Presently, China's patient capital development confronts practical challenges including: capital's inherent short-term profit-seeking tendencies, financial structures prioritizing short-term gains, short-term-oriented performance evaluation systems, and the ensuing “involutionary” market competition. To systematically cultivate and regulate patient capital, three foundational principles rooted in China's socialist economic system must be upheld: maintaining public ownership as the dominant form to orient its trajectory, ensuring distribution according to labor and shared benefits to define its purpose, and strengthening the Party's comprehensive leadership to guarantee its governance. Only thus can capital's dynamics be effectively channeled to serve the grand objectives of Chinese modernization.

    2026 02 v.5;No.15 [Abstract][OnlineView][Download 1133K]

  • How Does the Organic Composition of Capital in Manufacturing Enterprises Affect Supply Chain Resilience: Evidence from Chinese A-Share Listed Companies

    WANG Yaxuan;HU Xinyue;School of Economics,Anhui University;Institute of Economic and Social Development,Nankai University;

    In the context of the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry and the reshaping of the global supply chain pattern, how to enhance the resilience of the supply chain by optimizing capital allocation has become a core issue related to industrial security and high-quality sustainable development. Based on the large-scale standardized production mode of China's manufacturing industry in the 21st century, this paper constructs an analysis framework of the mechanism transmission dimension including capital flow and organizational form and the adjustment dimension of value distribution and labor-capital interaction. Using the micro-enterprise data of China's manufacturing industry, this paper systematically tests the nonlinear influence of organic composition of capital on supply chain resilience and its mechanism. The study finds that there is a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between the organic composition of capital and the resilience of supply chain, which reveals the conversion boundary of the double effect of “productivity promotion”and“production relationship restriction” in the process of the change of the organic composition of capital. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this relationship is not obvious in state-owned, STAR Market-listed company and large-scale enterprises. The research conclusions of this paper show that the resilience construction of China's manufacturing supply chain needs to be alert to the structural contradictions caused by over-capitalization, focus on the coordinated promotion of capital allocation efficiency, labor relationship coordination and institutional environment support, and explore a steady, safe and sustainable industrial development path in a turbulent global environment. This paper not only provides an empirical basis for the theoretical discussion of the relationship between capital and resilience in the Chinese context, but also provides a decision-making reference for policy formulation and enterprise practice on how to optimize the capital allocation structure.

    2026 02 v.5;No.15 [Abstract][OnlineView][Download 1407K]

  • Population Reproduction Crisis in Contemporary Capitalism: A Political Economy Perspective

    LI Yile;School of Economics,Southwestern University of Finance and Economics;

    This paper focuses on a series of crisis phenomena of population reproduction in contemporary capitalism, including low fertility rates, rising health risks, declining willingness of care, and increasing social movements centered on population reproduction, gives an explanation from a political economy perspective. Drawing on Marx, Polanyi, and Marxist feminism, it traces how population reproduction has been gradually subsumed under capitalist production. The instrumental demands of capital accumulation for labor quantity and quality persistently clash with the affective, non-efficiency-driven logic of reproductive activities, eroding society's care capacities and fueling radical struggles in the reproductive sphere. State coordinating institutions, inherently incapable of reconciling the contradictory nature of production and reproduction, tend toward further dysfunction amid sluggish growth and rising precarious employment. In light of technological shifts and reproductive dilemmas, overcoming this crisis requires a profound transformation of production relations, reorienting technological development to serve human needs, and rebuilding collective support systems for population reproduction.

    2026 02 v.5;No.15 [Abstract][OnlineView][Download 1325K]

  • The Internal Logic and Implications of Uno Economics Integrating the Critique of Political Economy and Historical Materialism

    GUO Menghua;School of Marxism,Chang'an University;

    The integration of the critique of political economy and historical materialism has been an important theoretical issue in Marxist scholarship. Kozo Uno's three-stage(sandankairon)theory attempts to provide an answer to this question. He separates economics from the materialist conception of history, treating economics as an external economic foundation to provide scientific justification for the materialist conception of history. With this understanding, he separates value from use-value at the level of the principles of economics, reconstructs the logic of capital—that is, revealing its intrinsic logic through the affirmative dialectic of capital—and thereby progressively substantiating the materialist conception of history. The outcome of this theoretical framework is that Uno's economics is materialist yet ahistorical, and historical yet lacking materialism. Its essence lies in the dismemberment of historical materialism within the critique of political economy. This demonstrates that the intrinsic integration of the critique of political economy with historical materialism must first entail the demonstration of historical materialism as an indivisible whole within the critique of political economy. That is to say, within the logic of capital, materialism and historical dialectics must be united as one. Only thus can the intrinsic critique of capital possess not only a social foundation but also the social impetus for the historical negation of capital.

    2026 02 v.5;No.15 [Abstract][OnlineView][Download 1010K]

  • Lenin's Research on American Agricultural Capitalism and Its Contemporary Significance

    LYU Jiayi;WANG Yubin;School of Marxism,Nanjing University of Science and Technology;School of Marxism,Nankai University;

    “New Materials on the Laws of Capitalist Development in Agriculture” written in 1915—1916 is Lenin's monograph on the development of capitalism in American agriculture. In this work, Lenin deeply analyzed the agricultural “new materials” disclosed by the United States, the most advanced capitalist country. He refuted the misreading of these materials by bourgeois economists and summarized some general laws regarding the development of capitalism in agriculture. This book not only develops and deepens Lenin's early views on agricultural capitalism, but also develops Marxist political economy in multiple aspects, such as the development laws of agricultural capitalism, the economic laws of the imperialist era, the economic crisis caused by the uneven development of industry and agriculture, land rent theory, smallholder theory, etc. The current capitalist agriculture has already developed from a domestic monopoly to an international monopoly stage. The opening of the agricultural market under the guidance of neoliberal ideological trends and policies has made the global food industry increasingly concentrated, forming a monopoly of global agriculture by transnational capital. Global agricultural production under oligopoly has laid hidden dangers for the food security of sovereign countries, especially developing countries. Therefore, only by limiting and transcending the logic of capital can global agricultural resources be rationally allocated and global food security issues solved.

    2026 02 v.5;No.15 [Abstract][OnlineView][Download 1088K]

  • Government Guidance, Industrial Integration and Endogenous Development: A Study of the “Government-Enterprise-Farmer Collaborative Model” in Hongchuan Village, Ningxia

    LI Xiaoyun;Party School of the CPC Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Committee (Ningxia Academy of Governance);

    Taking Hongchuan Village in Hongsibu District of Ningxia as the research case, this paper systematically analyzes its exploration of a rural industrial integration and localized development path with western characteristics against the backdrop of weak industrial foundations, difficulties in increasing farmers' income, and underdeveloped market conditions.Relying on the collaborative mechanism of government planning and guidance, project-driven integration, enterprise operational empowerment, farmer participation and benefit sharing, the village has blazed a distinctive development path.The study finds that local governments have played a pivotal bridging and catalytic role in industrial development. By accurately identifying local resource endowments, scientifically defining and fostering leading industries, coordinating infrastructure and public services, and targeting the introduction of market entities, local governments have established an institutionalized collaboration mechanism featuring clear rights and responsibilities, risk sharing and benefit sharing among the government, market players and village collectives. This has realized a virtuous cycle of village collective income growth, resident employment expansion and industrial advancement.This practice has not only formed a government-enterprise-farmer collaborative model that integrates exogenous guidance and endogenous activation but also facilitated the vertical industrial chain integration and spatial industrial convergence of Hongchuan Village. The model also embodies the governance characteristic of overall planning-oriented industrial operation. It provides empirical evidence for understanding the interactive relationship between government role positioning, market embedding and rural endogenous development and offers reference implications for similar regions to advance rural revitalization by leveraging institutional advantages.

    2026 02 v.5;No.15 [Abstract][OnlineView][Download 2025K]