Structural Economic Dynamics

This book is a theoretical investigation of the influence of human learning on the development through time of a 'pure labour' economy. The theory proposed is a simple one, but aims to grasp the essential features of all industrial economies. Economists have long known that two basic phenomena lie at the root of long-term economic movements in industrial societies: capital accumulation and technical progress. Attention has been concentrated on the former. In this book, by contrast, technical progress is assigned the central role. Within a multi-sector framework, the author examines the structural dynamics of prices, production and employment (implied by differentiated rates of productivity growth and expansion of demand) against a background of 'natural' relations. He also considers a number of institutional problems. Institutional and social learning, know-how, and the diffusion of knowledge emerge as the decisive factors accounting for the success and failure of industrial societies.

New approach to the economic theory of resources, showing the positive role that scarcities can play in triggering economic growth.

Ever since Adam Smith, economists have been preoccupied with the puzzle of economic growth. The standard mainstream models of economic growth were and often still are based either on assumptions of diminishing returns on capital with technological innovation or on endogenous dynamics combined with a corresponding technological and institutional setting. An alternative model of economic growth emerged from the Cambridge School of Keynesian economists in the 1950s and 1960s. This model - developed mainly by Luigi Pasinetti - emphasizes the importance of demand, human learning and the growth dynamics of industrial systems. Finally, in the past decade, new mainstream models have emerged incorporating technology or demand-based structural change and extending the notion of balanced growth. This collection of essays reassesses Pasinetti's theory of structural dynamics in the context of these recent developments, with contributions from economists writing in both the mainstream and the Cambridge Keynesian traditions and including Luigi Pasinetti, William Baumol, Geoffrey Harcourt and Nobel laureate Robert Solow.

This wide-ranging 1991 inquiry into the general field of structural economic analysis provides a thorough appraisal of the method of economic dynamics.

This book presents an original theoretical treatment of the problems of maintaining full employment in a multisector economic system

This interdisciplinary book argues that the economy has an underlying non-linear structure and that business cycles are endogenous, which allows a greater explanatory power with respect to the traditional assumption that dynamics are stochastic and shocks are exogenous. The first part of this work is formal-methodological and provides the mathematical background needed for the remainder, while the second part presents the view that signal processing involves construction and deconstruction of information and that the efficacy of this process can be measured. The third part focuses on economics and provides the related background and literature on economic dynamics and the fourth part is devoted to new perspectives in understanding nonlinearities in economic dynamics: growth and cycles. By pursuing this approach, the book seeks to (1) determine whether, and if so where, common features exist, (2) discover some hidden features of economic dynamics, and (3) highlight specific indicators of structural changes in time series. Accordingly, it is a must read for everyone interested in a better understanding of economic dynamics, business cycles, econometrics and complex systems, as well as non-linear dynamics and chaos theory.

This volume gathers together key new contributions on the subject of the relationship, both empirical and theoretical, between economic oscillations, growth and structural change. Employing a sophisticated level of mathematical modelling, the collection contains articles from, amongst others, William Baumol, Katsuhito Iwai and William Brock.

The new science of chaos was discovered in the analysis of weather. According to the author, economics is equally unpredictable. This book explores the way in which chaos may be used for economic analysis. The author applies the new insights of chaotic dynamics to economics. Given the unpredictable behaviour of economies, this new discipline promises much enlightenment. It has always been assumed that the highly irregular behaviour of economic time series was the consequence of extra-economic disturbances such as political decisions, trade unions, the weather, and foreign trade. Now it has become clear that there can be patterns which explain this confusing behaviour. - ;Capitalism as creative, chaotic evolution by structural change; Classical dynamics: the corn economy; The von Neumann model as a chaotic attractor; Growing in short and long waves; The structural and dynamical instability of the modern economy; An analysis of high and low growth rates; Irregular waves of growth from structural innovation; Dynamical control of economic waves by fiscal policy; A fresh look at traditional cycle models; Chaotic aperiodic behaviour from forced oscillators; Further reading; Index -