Marx's Theory of Ground-Rent : A Suggested Reformulation

This paper develops a simple theoretical model to analyze Marx’s theory of ground rent. Using the model, I demonstrate two important results. First, if we take capital as exogenous, then total ground-rent can be decomposed into the three components: differential rent of the first variety (DRI), differential rent of the second variety (DRII), and absolute rent (AR). Second, if we endogenize capital outlays using profit-maximizing behaviour of capitalist farmers, then absolute rent becomes zero. Thus, under reasonable behavioural assumptions about landlords and capitalist farmers, there will be no absolute rent in a capitalist economy