IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/kyklos/v33y1980i3p383-419.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Long Waves In The Development Of Capitalism?

Author

Listed:
  • Klas Eklund

Abstract

This paper is a survey of the most important contributions to the development of a theory of ‘long waves’ in capitalist development. From the early forerunners of the discussion, via Kondratieff and Schumpeter, to the economists of today, the debate on the long‐wave phenomenon is being surveyed and assessed. The result is rather negative. No one has been able to empirically verify the existence of the long waves. Secular wave‐like fluctuations in prices and certain related time series have been found ‐ but these are quite compatible with explanations based exclusively on exogenous factors. In physical time series of production or other time series that are not directly correlated with prices, there has been no evidence of long waves. Nor has anyone been able to give a satisfying explanation of why the secular rate of growth or level of economic activity would fluctuate in a self‐generating cyclical pattern. Therefore, we must draw the conclusion that those turning‐points and successive trend periods which undeniably exist in the development of capitalism cannot be regarded as manifestations of some kind of long wave or cycle; instead, they are specific, historical occurrences, each one characterized by its own specific features. The task of the social scientist is, thus, to study the actual historical dynamics of the economic system ‐ without trying to squeeze it into a general pattern of secular cyclical swings.

Suggested Citation

  • Klas Eklund, 1980. "Long Waves In The Development Of Capitalism?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 383-419, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:33:y:1980:i:3:p:383-419
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6435.1980.tb02641.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6435.1980.tb02641.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-6435.1980.tb02641.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eirini Ozouni & Constantinos Katrakylidis & Grigoris Zarotiadis, 2015. "Investigating the Long Cycles of Capitalism With Spectral and Cross-Spectral Analysis," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 13(1), pages 7-30.
    2. Ledenyov, Dimitri O. & Ledenyov, Viktor O., 2015. "Wave function method to forecast foreign currencies exchange rates at ultra high frequency electronic trading in foreign currencies exchange markets," MPRA Paper 67470, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Karen Rasler & William R. Thompson, 1991. "Technological Innovation, Capability Positional Shifts, and Systemic War," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 35(3), pages 412-442, September.
    4. Shams, Rasul, 2002. "Is It Time for a World Currency?," Discussion Paper Series 26292, Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
    5. Shams, Rasul, 2002. "Is it time for a world currency?," HWWA Discussion Papers 167, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).
    6. Dimitri O. Ledenyov & Viktor O. Ledenyov, 2013. "On the accurate characterization of business cycles in nonlinear dynamic financial and economic systems," Papers 1304.4807, arXiv.org.
    7. R Barras, 1983. "A Simple Theoretical Model of the Office-Development Cycle," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 15(10), pages 1381-1394, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:33:y:1980:i:3:p:383-419. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0023-5962 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.