Organic composition of capital

The organic composition of capital (OCC) is a concept created by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy and used in Marxian economics as a theoretical alternative to neo-classical concepts of factors of production, production functions, capital productivity and capital-output ratios. It is normally defined as the ratio of constant capital (capital invested in plant, equipment and materials) to variable capital (sum total of wages). The concept does not apply to all capital assets, only to capital invested in production (i.e. production capital). The neoclassical concept most similar to the increasing organic composition of capital is capital deepening.In this chapter we consider the influence of the growth of capital on the lot of the labouring class. The most important factor in this inquiry is the composition of capital and the changes it undergoes in the course of the process of accumulation. The composition of capital is to be understood in a two-fold sense. On the side of value, it is determined by the proportion in which it is divided into constant capital or value of the means of production, and variable capital or value of labour-power, the sum total of wages. On the side of material, as it functions in the process of production, all capital is divided into means of production and living labour-power. This latter composition is determined by the relation between the mass of the means of production employed, on the one hand, and the mass of labour necessary for their employment on the other. I call the former the value-composition, the latter the technical composition of capital. Between the two there is a strict correlation. To express this, I call the value-composition of capital, in so far as it is determined by its technical composition and mirrors the changes of the latter, the organic composition of capital. The organic composition of capital (OCC) is a concept created by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy and used in Marxian economics as a theoretical alternative to neo-classical concepts of factors of production, production functions, capital productivity and capital-output ratios. It is normally defined as the ratio of constant capital (capital invested in plant, equipment and materials) to variable capital (sum total of wages). The concept does not apply to all capital assets, only to capital invested in production (i.e. production capital). The neoclassical concept most similar to the increasing organic composition of capital is capital deepening. Marx first referred to the idea in 1847and discussed it in detail in Capital Vol. 1, chapter 25 ('The General law of Capitalist Accumulation'). In Capital Vol. 3 Marx demonstrates that the organic composition of capital decisively influences industrial profitability. According to Marx, the OCC expresses the specific form which the capitalist mode of production gives to the relationship between means of production and labor power, determining the productivity of labor and the creation of a surplus product. This relationship has both technical and social aspects, reflecting the fact that simultaneously consumable use values and commercial exchange-values are being produced.