A Theory Of Income Distribution

This book brings together the work of scholars who have written for it independent essays in their areas of particular expertise in the general field of income distribution. The first eight chapters provide a review of the major theories of income distribution, while the final two are con cerned with problems of empirical estimates and inferences. One of these chapters presents estimates of factor shares in national income in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, while the other ex amines how relationships between the size distribution of income and economic development are being investigated. A convenient way of conveying an understanding of how economic theorists have dealt with the distribution of income is to examine separ ately each major approach to this subject. Each contributor was thus assigned a particular approach, or a major theorist. No attempt was made to avoid the apparent duplication that occurs when the same references are examined by different contributors. The reader gains by seeing how the same material can be treated by those looking at it from different perspectives. A chapter each has been devoted to Marx and Marshall.

This is a well-grounded restatement, defense, and development of the theory of income distribution in both its micro- and macroeconomic aspects. The author, an authority in the field who has spent many years developing the ideas in this book, balances neoclassical theories with Keynesian and ""radical"" approaches. He considers income distribution theory in terms of ideology, statistics, micro- and macroeconomics, income policies, and the poverty problem. The result is a distinctive and comprehensive treatment of a subject that has polarized many economists over many decades. Bronfenbrenner reacts against conventional theories that concentrate on output markets, virtually ignoring input prices. He also opposes the brand of institutionalism that regards ""democratic business unionism"" as an American institution that can do no wrong. Overall, Bronfenbrenner presents an eclectic defense of a ""traditional"" theory of economics that has been under attack from rival viewpoints with insufficient rebuttal, and that proves to be a powerful tool of analysis in dealing with this subject. The book is organized into three main parts: an ideological and statistical personal introduction to income distribution, microeconomic distribution theory, and macroeconomic distribution theory. A final chapter considers incomes policies, with a rather skeptical view of the prospects for political control of income distribution within a basically free economy. The manuscript has been widely used and class tested over the past thirty-five years. The book will be useful to professional economists. It may be used as a basic text in courses on income distribution and as a supplementary text in microeconomic theory.

Structuralist macroeconomics has emerged recently as the only viable theoretical alternative for economists and practitioners in developing countries. Lance Taylor's innovative work represents a landmark in this field. It codifies a new generation of structuralist macroeconomic models that incorporate the economic power relationships of key institutions and groups, integrates both finance and real macroeconomics, and covers a diverse range of experience in the developing world over the past three decades. In an introduction Taylor explains his methodology, describes assumptions underlying the models used, and reviews theories that relate economic growth and the role of financial assets. He then takes up basic structuralist models of a closed economy and moves on to consider the open economy cases. He incorporates the latest developments in the field (inflation, financial crisis, exchange rate management, increasing returns, and the like) in a treatment that departs substantially from economic orthodoxy. Taylor first addresses the question of how to specify "closure" or define the causal structure of macro models. He also considers how income redistribution influences growth and output and how income redistribution interacts with inflation. Next, an investment-driven non-full employment growth model draws on ideas introduced earlier to illustrate how different sorts of macroeconomic policies affect short-run adjustment and growth prospects over time. Taylor then turns to the problems proposed by economic openness in a stylized semi-industrialized country, starting with international trade. A fix-price/flex-price model is developed, and additional models demonstrate cases of policy relevance as well as interactions between class conflict and growth.