Structural Dynamics and Economic Growth

by Arena, Richard; Porta, Pier Luigi

• ISBN13: 9781107015968
• ISBN10: 1107015960
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-30
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Ever since Adam Smith, economists have been preoccupied with the puzzle of economic growth. The mainstream neo-classical models of growth that have largely dominated modern growth theory are based around assumptions of diminishing returns on extra capital with technological innovation and appropriate institutions being seen as key to economic growth. An alternative model of economic growth emerged from the Cambridge school of Keynesian economists in the 1950s and 1960s. This model emphasizes the importance of demand and the dynamics of the growth of industrial systems. The scholar most associated with this approach to economic growth is Luigi Pasinetti whose book Structural Change and Economic Growth (Cambridge University Press, 1981) has been hugely influential to a generation of post-Keynesian economists. This collection evaluates the achievements of Pasinetti's structural dynamics, with contributions from both post-Keynesian economists, including Pasinetti, and from some distinguished and critical neo-classical economists, including Nobel laureate Robert Solow.

Table of Contents

List of figures

List of tables

List of contributors

Introduction: structural economic dynamics and contemporary growth theory

Structural Dynamics: Past and Present

Structural change: some historical aspects with special reference to classical economics

Structural dynamics in an historical perspective

Two approaches to the study of structural change and economic development: Kuznets and Pasinetti

Analyzing knowledge flows by means of vertical integration

Growth: towards a structural endogenous macro-model

Structural Dynamics: The Cambridge Keynesian Perspective

Luigi Pasinetti: the senior living heir of the Cambridge school of economics and the last of the great system-builders

Toward a synthesis in post-Keynesian economics in Luigi Pasinetti's contribution

Growth theory, structural dynamics and the analysis of consumption

Luigi Pasinetti's structural economic dynamics and the employment consequences of new technologies

The concept of 'natural economic system': a tool for structural analysis and an instrument for policy design

Structural change and invariable standards

Epilogue: Structural dynamics as part of the 'unfinished revolution': on Pasinetti and the unfinished Keynesian revolution

First afterword: Pasinetti on structural dynamics

Growth and structural change: perspectives for the future

Second afterword: the significance of structural economic dynamics

Index

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