Optimality and Decentralization in Infinite Horizon Economies

The problem of economic growth was a major preoccupation of Joan Robinson. She was a major contributor to the post-Keynesian theory of economic growth that followed the publication of Harrod’s seminal dynamic model. She wrote extensively and critically on the foundations of neoclassical growth theory; her concern for logically sound argument lay behind her extensive writings questioning the validity of an aggregate capital concept and the corresponding notion of an aggregate production function. Her critique of neoclassical theory placed her at the forefront of the still raging ‘Cambridge controversy’ in capital theory. Joan Robinson’s work on capital and growth also showed a real concern that economic dynamics be studied as a process in real time. The dynamics of the stationary state might be a useful starting point, but the more serious concerns were the relationship between the short- and long-run periods in the process of accumulation and growth. She also stressed the importance of understanding the evolution of economies outside equilibrium positions.