The profit rate movement and mundialization of capital: the export of productive capital in the dynamics of imperfect valorization

Abstract

The article explores the relationship between the dynamics of profitability and the process of capital exportation, especially productive capital in the form of Foreign Direct Investment. This task is accomplished in its theoretical and empirical aspects. The studies of Henryk Grossman are resumed, who, starting from Marx, exposes the movement of international expansion of capital as an exit to the idle capital that is formed with the fall in the rate of profit. In this sense, it is argued that although the formation of the world market is contained in the logic of capital, its most recent manifestation is closely linked to the problems of profitability, especially in advanced capitalist countries. The formation of idle capital is understood with an even more fundamental element than the international differentials of profitability, for this movement. The empirical analysis is performed for the US, both by the greater availability of data and by its position in the world economy.

Key words:
profit rate; idle capital; capital export; mundialization of capital