The Representational Theory of Capital: Property Rights and the Reification of Capital

Cover
The Representational Theory of Capital
The Representational Theory of Capital: Property Rights and the Reification of Capital
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
	Figures
	Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I
Chapter 1
Introduction
	The Structure of the First Two Chapters
	The Social Relevance of Capital Theory
	On Whether Economic Growth Can or Should Be a Policy Goal
	The Baleful Consequences of Robert Skidelsky’s Keynesianism
	Inequality of Income and Redistribution
	Can Capital Theory Be Abolished?
	The Hybrid Nature of the Monetary System: Historical Origins, and Implications for Capital Theory
	Three Banking Variables, and How Comparing Them Plays Out in Capital Theory
	Monetary Theory Leads to Capital Theory—or at Least It Should
	Some Heuristic Considerations Relevant for This Work
	Epistemological Limitations
	Joan Robinson, the Production Function, and the Theory of Capital
	More Cambridge Controversies in the Theory of Capital
	Fictitious Capital and Property in Marx
	Notes
Chapter 2
Austrian Capital Theory, Legal Rights, and Capital Representation
	Carl Menger on Capital Theory
	Böhm-Bawerk on Legal Rights, Relationships, and Economic Goods
	Hayek and the Pure Theory of Capital
	Lachmann and the Capital Structure
	Notes
Part II
Chapter 3
The Reification of Capital, the Representational Theory of Capital and Its Model
	An Exercise in Abstraction
	From What Starting Point?
	A “Property Rights” Theory of Capital
	The Inheritance from Roman Law
	The Model
	Two Simple Examples
	What Do Stocks and Flows of Financial Instruments Actually Represent?
	Monetary Disequilibrium and Capital Theory
	A Theory of Capital As a Particular Sort of Property Claim
	Is There a Relationship Between Certain Goods and Certain Financial Instruments?
	If Not All Goods Are Represented by Financial Instruments, Are There Financial Instruments that Represent No Goods?
	Putting These Issues in the Context of Modern Asset Pricing
	Notes
Chapter 4
The Epistemological Problem of Capital
	The Market Is Not a Phenomenon Open to Cartesian Analysis
	Price Elasticity’s Implications for Money and Banking Arrangements, Bad and Good
	Notes
Part III
Chapter 5
The Real Side
	A Continuum of Use
	A Reasonable Interpretation of Lachmann’s Concept of Capital
	Capital Goods Have Different Levels of “Permutability”
	Capital Goods Are Heterogeneous
	Capital Goods Are Complementary
	Notes
Chapter 6
The Spatial Dimension of Capital
	Notes
Part IV
Chapter 7
The Abstract Side
	Equity Claims and Their Derivatives
	Things Owned by Political Entities
	Notes
Chapter 8
Financial Instruments
	Further Refinements, Including the Financial Instruments Issued by Sovereign Entities
	What Would “the Treasury View” of Libra Be?
	The Relation between Capital Goods and Financial Instruments
	Notes
Chapter 9
A Dynamic Model
	On the Importance of Time
	Note
Chapter 10
The Relation between Money and the Structure of Production
	Business Cycles and the Equilibrating Role of Interest Rates
	The Keynesian Perspective on the Real and the Abstract Economy: A Critique
	Inflation and the Structure of Production: Comparing the Austrian and the Monetary Disequilibrium Approaches
	The “Suprasecular” Decline of Real Interest Rates
	Notes
Part V
Chapter 11
Conclusion
	Jacques Rueff's Theory of False Rights
	Conclusion
	Notes
Epilogue
	The Consequences of the Chinese Coronavirus Pandemic
	Note
Glossary
Glossary of Terms in the Model
Bibliography
Index
About the Author