2019 marked the 40th anniversary of the publication of Anthony P. Thirlwall’s classic paper that laid out what became known as Thirlwall’s law. This article introduced and provided empirical evidence in favor of the proposition that the long-run rate of growth of an economy compatible with balance-of-payments equilibrium can be approximated by the simple rule of the ratio of the growth of exports to the income elasticity of demand for imports.
. . . this volume is a very good and important addition to economic growth and development. On the basis of authority, the selection is well-balanced. . . This book should be a mandatory textbook for graduate students in development economics, and essential reading for all policy-makers. Voxi Heinrich Amavilah, Progress in Development Studies This valuable and engaging new book bears eloquent testimony to A.P. Thirlwall s substantial contribution to economics over the last 40 years. The volume does not attempt to provide a comprehensive review of such a prolific figure, but rather demonstrates the considerable influence that his work on economic theory has had on his contemporaries, and the profession as a whole. From his early pioneering research in regional and labour economics to his more recent exploration of growth and development economics, leading experts in the field bear witness to the significant role he has played in the evolution of the discipline. In addressing some of the most pivotal aspects of his career, the contributors cover a range of topics including Thirlwall s Law , the application of Keynesian macroeconomic approaches, the General Theory within open economies, the connection between short-run cycles and long-run growth, endogenous growth theory, the Stability and Growth Pact, as well as broader development issues and problems. In championing Thirlwall s challenging work, this volume provides a lively and comprehensive account of some of the most important areas of economics today. This book will prove an essential read for academics and policy makers alike who are interested in trade, growth and development economics.
Do dynamic externalities, in the form of technology creation, adoption and spatial agglomeration shape the pattern of regional growth in Europe? This study provides an alternative view on regional convergence. A model is developed which attributes club-convergence to existing differences with respect to the degree of technology adoption. In the first instance, empirical results suggest that the NUTS-2 regions of the EU-27 converge at a very slow rate. Further tests, however, indicate that convergence is restricted to a specific subset of regions. Such conclusions are tested further, using an alternative model of club-convergence, which incorporates the impact of spatial interaction, agglomeration externalities and technology. This shows that the convergence-club in Europe follows a certain geographical pattern and all members share similar characteristics regarding technology creation and adoption, and agglomeration externalities.
Presenting an in-depth overview of the foundations and developments of post-Keynesian macroeconomics since Kalecki and Keynes, this timely book develops a comprehensive post-Keynesian macroeconomic model with the respective macroeconomic policy mix for achieving non-inflationary full employment. Linking the short-run model to long-run distribution and growth theories, the theoretical approach is also applied to current research on macroeconomic regimes in finance-dominated capitalism and on the macroeconomic challenges of the socio-ecological transformation.
Business Cycles in Economic Thought underlines how, over the time span of two centuries, economic thought interacted with cycles in a continuous renewal of theories and rethinking of policies, whilst economic actions embedded themselves into past economic thought. This book argues that studying crises and periods of growth in different European countries will help to understand how different national, political and cultural traditions influenced the complex interaction of economic cycles and economic theorizing. The editors of this great volume bring together expert contributors consisting of economists, historians of economic thought and historians of economics, to analyse crises and theories of the nineteenth and the twentieth century. This is alongside a comprehensive outlook on the most relevant advances of economic theory in France, Germany and Italy, as well as coverage of non-European countries, such as the United States. Several of the highly prestigious Villa Vigoni Trilateral Conferences formed the background for the discussions in this book. This volume is of great interest to students and academics who study history of economic thought, political economy and macroeconomics.
This book focuses on the interrelationship between nature and the human economy. Building upon his decades of research into classical and Keynesian economics, Tony Aspromourgos here turns his attention to the interrelationship between nature and the human economy. The result is a tightly argued, concise but comprehensive interpretation of that vital issue, undertaken in the framework of a Classical-Keynesian synthesis. The classical dimension is utilization of a surplus approach to production and distribution, and the Keynesian dimension, incorporation of demand-side determination of economic activity levels and growth. In this conception the human economy is understood as a circular flow but an incompletely circular system: crucially dependent upon nature both as a source of finite non-renewable and exhaustible resources for human production and consumption and as the destination or ‘sink’, also finite, for the waste and pollution from that production and consumption. This is an introductory account of the subject, providing maximum accessibility by presupposing only basic knowledge of economic analysis and only elementary algebra, but including a wide-ranging guide to further and more advanced relevant literature. Part I provides a comprehensive overview of the Classical-Keynesian approach, in the usual manner of economic analysis, without systematic incorporation of nature. Part II then incorporates the various dimensions of the natureeconomy interrelationship. This book will be of great interest to readers of economic theory, economics and the environment, and heterodox economics.
This book extends Thirlwall's model and adapts its implications to the current problems facing developed and emerging economies. In this context, this book combines theoretical models and empirical applications, unveiling new results and highlighting the importance of the balance of payments as a constraint to growth.
It is commonplace to assume that the twentieth-century British economy has failed, falling from the world's richest industrial country in 1900 to one of the poorest nations of Western Europe in 2000. Manufacturing is inevitably the centre of this failure: British industrial managers cannot organise the proverbial 'knees-up' in a brewery; British workers are idle and greedy; its financial system is uniquely geared to the short term interests of the City rather than of manufacturing; its economic policies areperverse for industry; and its culture is fundamentally anti-industrial. There is a grain of truth in each of these statements, but only a grain. In this book, Alan Booth notes that Britain's living standards have definitely been overtaken, but evidence that Britain has fallen continuously further and further behindits major competitors is thin indeed. Although British manufacturing has been much criticised, it has performed comparatively better than the service sector. The British Economy in the Twentieth Century combines narrative with a conceptual and analytic approach to review British economic performance during the twentieth century in a controlled comparative framework. It looks at key themes, including economic growth and welfare, the working of the labour market, and the performance of entrepreneurs and managers. Alan Booth argues that a careful, balanced assessment (which must embrace the whole century rather than simply the post-war years) does not support the loud and persistent case for systematic failure in British management, labour, institutions, culture and economic policy. Relative decline has been much more modest, patchy and inevitable than commonly believed.
Hassan Bougrine, Louis-Philippe Rochon and the expert contributors to this book explore issues of economic growth and full employment; presenting a clear explanation to stagnation, recessions and crises, including the latest Global Financial Crisis of 2007-8. With a central focus on the role played by government spending, deficits and debt as well as the setting of interest rates, the chapters propose alternative policies that can be used by central banks and fiscal authorities to deal with problems of income inequality, unemployment and slow productivity.
