Abstract
Economic activity is classified according to sector in national accounts (with sectors referring
to mining, manufacturing, and so on). Over and above being a way of classifying economic
activities, in certain heterodox economics traditions – notably the structuralist and Kaldorian
traditions – sectoral structure is thought to matter for growth. Sectoral structure is, however,
not integral to Marxian economics, which tends to analyse economic activity in dimensions
other than sectors. It is not clear a priori to what extent and in what ways sectoral structure
matters in a Marxian schema. This paper thus investigates the meaning and implications of
sectoral structure and the sector specificity of growth from a Marxian theoretical perspective,
and hence how to think through changes in sectoral structure.