La relazione tra saggio di profitto e tasso d’interesse e il ruolo della profittabilità bancaria : The relation between the profit rate and the interest rate, and the role of bank profitability

The paper focuses on theoretical aspects of the relationship between the profit rate and the interest rate. Two roughly opposite approaches emerge in the literature: in a first one, the interest rate determines the profit rate, and therefore income distribution; in a second one, the profit rate regulates the interest rate, once distribution is already determined. The introduction of the condition that bank capital receives a profit rate at least equal to the general one makes it possible to conceptualize the interest rate as the endogenously determined price of the commodity ‘loan’, and the central bank rate as the price of a ‘bank input’.   JEL codes:  E11, E43, G21 Keywords:  Interest rate, Rate of profit, Bank profitability, Marx, Monetary policy