A note on Esteban Maito's calculation of the secular profit rate in Germany
This paper is a note on Esteban Maito's calculations of the profit rate in Germany since the mid-19th century. Our assessment is straightforward:
(1) Maito's estimates are not reliable due the incoherent treatment of the various components of profits and capital.
(2) The required corrections has large consequences. The average profit rate during the 1870s and 1880s in Maito's calculation is 28 percent. The average profit rate during the same decades is, in our calculation, 6.3 percent.
(3) In any instance, beginning with such low profit rates during the second half of the 19th century, no calculation of profit rates for the early 21th century could support the thesis of a downward trend.
G. Duménil, D. Lévy, "A note on Esteban Maito's calculation of the secular profit rate in Germany", 2016, EconomiX, PSE : Paris.
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