Cooperation And Increasing Returns

The dissertation firstly focuses on the theories about division of labor of several former economists, which is necessary to help comprehend the thought of division of labor from different aspects. Then, the dissertation aims at trying to build an analytic system about the division of labor, which is on the paradigm of Marx's political economy, for the research of the political economy is based on the practice of social labor of human being, and the division of labor is just the concept used to describe this social activity. The result shows that there are natural compatible between the theoretical system of Marx's political economy and the concept of division of labor, which proves that the division of labor is fit for pursue further development about the political economy's theory as well as is the base of its research. Finally, according to the theory of division of labor, some discussions are carried out about the problems that have emerged during the growth of the socialism market economy.This dissertation is divided into there parts:Chapter one is the study and refinery about the thought of former economists.As the founder of the classical economics, Adam Smith emphasized the relationship between productivity and division of labor on the research of economics. He worked out how division of labor promotes productivity by saving time and space, so as to exploit the crucial path to discover the reason of increasing returns from economic organization. My research also shows that in Smithian view: division labor depends on the extent of market,"extent of market"is not only a geological notion, but a notion describing the purchasing power that finally rests with productivity, which means it would not be successful if one confined his idea only in the filed of market exchange during study the problem about division of labor and economic organization.Karl Marx is the founder of Marx's political economy, from the practice of social production, and he built the theory of labor value as the base of the political economy. Marx's system is historicism. In his system he pointed out that cooperation power from division of labor is the source of capacity or increasing returns as well as studied the evolving law of division of labor. In Marx's political economy, division of labor also is classified into two types, one is called social division of labor, and the other is called division of labor during the process of production. These two types are separately corresponding with the two kinds of economic organization: market and firm. In addition, Marx studied the division of labor under the specific mode of production, and he showed that the division of labor under the capitalism social formation is subjected to the power of capital. Compared with the other economists, Marx paid attention to the relationship among the people based on the benefits, which is caused by division of labor and this relationship is also the origin of the state, class and dissimilation of the human-being. In addition, Marx had the theory of international division of labor, which is also important.Alfred Marshall is the originator of neo-classical economics, and he stressed the importance of economic organization based on the division of labor, which is out of most people's imagination. Alfred Marshall got positive result: his notions of"external economy"and"internal economy"covered by"scale economy"essentially showed that he regarded the evolvement of economic organization as the everlasting motivation of increasing returns and economic development. In Marshall's theory,"external economy"is about the active impact that economic organization of inter-industry imposes on the productivity, and"internal economy"is about the active impact that the economic structure of inter-firm impose on the productivity. Finally, his view about the function of machine for the development of industries is enlightening to the further study about the modern industrial organization.Ally Young is the representative of neo-classical economist who valued the division of labor in research of the economics. My study shows that Yong carried out his study systematically and dynamically, all of these are similar to the methodology of materialist dialectics, the profound result gained by Young is mostly due to this analytic method. Young developed Smithian view as that division of labor generally depends on division of labor, and his famous contribution is that described the new characteristic of division of labor in modern capitalism society as"roundabout production". In conclusion, Young's though is compatible with Marx's theory, as well as is in agreement with the results of Smith and Marshall, which is seldom in neo-classical economist's research and also means how crucial the method of study is to the vitality of its outcome.R·H·Coarse is one of the exchange-cost economists, although his theory about firm is famous, the introspection about it by other exchange economists themselves have being continued, which indicates that there is basic pitfall to study firm from point of view about neo-classical and pure market exchange. By further introspecting to these discussions, I found that it is hardly for exchange-cost economists to shake off the complex of market exchange, which makes them ignore the firm's function of production, while attach importance to the function of market collection, and this leads its firm theory hardly to be expanded.Chapter two is building an analytic system about division of labor on the ground of Marx's political economy.In this system, the basic concept is division of labor and its movement or cooperation. This system's methodology is historicism and materialist dialectics, and its foundation is theory of labor value. The system is unfolded according to theoretical logic of Marx's political economy, such as forces--mode of production--relations of production, and also involve the higher logical level such as economic base--superstructure.Firstly, from the aspect of production, the importance of division of labor is organizing the coordination to bring about the joint forces of production. Coordination includes two types: one type is of time sequence, and another type is of horizontal structure. Knowledge and information is coagulum of coordination, so they contain the social productivity, and the way to release this power is using the knowledge or information to the practice of production.There is feedback mechanism of accumulating causality between division of labor and capacity. The promotion of capacity will stimulate the size of market, and then the extent of market will foster the specialization and the division of labor, which means the evolvement of coordination and gaining the increasing returns. The roundabout production of the capitalism industrialization brought about the crisscross coordination, so it developed enormous social cooperation, and pushed the feedback mechanism between division of labor and capacity to go in big steps. Economic organization is a coordinating carrier in the division of labor, and there are corresponding relationship strongly between the level of capacity and the specific economic organization.As far as markets and firms are concerned, a market has a function of collecting the social resources, while a firm has a function of producing products. Both of them are all the same as a carrier of coordination, meanwhile, markets operate in the range of social division of labor, and firms operate in the range of division of labor during the process of production, so they are complementary, not substituting from each other. The coordinating efficiency of firm (the increase of labor amount) can transfer into the coordinating content of market (creation of new product and specialization), and in turn, the coordinating efficiency of market (the save of time for labor) can provide the potential opportunity for the coordination of firm (wording procedure becoming delicate and new technology be created). So there are energy transformation between markets and firms, and in this sense, the boundary of markets and firms are changing, which accompanied by the increase of energy of capacity. The boundary of Individual firm depends on the relative efficiency of coordination between firms.In conclusion, the train of though in the aspect of the capacity about the division of labor is below: from feedback mechanism between capacity and cooperation to the change of mode of production caused by the development of capacity, and in turn, induce the development of the mechanism by the change of form of capacity. All of the process is a spiral upward way.Secondly, from aspect of mode of production: as a social form of combination of means of production and labor power, mode of production depends on the level of capacity, so it is the result of the feedback mechanism between capacity and cooperation.Thirdly, from aspect of relations of production: division of labor is root of property. Mode of production is subjected to the labor power's controller in the practice of social production, meanwhile, the corresponding relations of production be created.Fourthly, from aspect of superstructure: division of labor leads to the contradiction of private benefits and mutual benefits, which is the cause of alienation and also the basic economic condition of state's coming into being, and state is the necessary result of that the contradiction be coordinated.Finally, about the globalization: expansion of capitalized system of division of labor has brought along the capitalization around the world, which on the one hand, has been accelerating the growth of the global economy, and on the other hand, has been raising the global expansion of capitalism relations of production, and in this way, the innate contradiction of labor and capital has been drawn into the process of all world production.Chapter three is about the link between the theory and the practice.Applying the principle about division of labor and increasing returns to analyze the practical problems emerged during nowadays development of the socialism market economy, such as of agriculture, distribution and globalization.