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Uncertainty and Contradiction: An Essay on the Business Cycle

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  • Michalis Nikiforos

Abstract

The paper develops a model of economic fluctuations in the medium run and their relation with the short-run macroeconomic equilibrium. The business cycle is the result of two separate forces. On the one hand, there is Harrodian instability. On the other hand, this instability is contained by the inherent contradictions of capitalism. I focus on two of these contradictions: the profit-squeeze that results from the tightening of the labor market as employment and utilization increase, and the financial instability hypothesis as formulated by Hyman Minsky. With the inclusion of overhead labor, the model can explain the U-shaped behavior of the wage share along the business cycle (wage share decreases for low levels of utilization and increases for higher levels) that prevailed in most of the post-WWII period, as well as the decrease in the wage share as utilization increases that has been observed in the most recent cycles.

Suggested Citation

  • Michalis Nikiforos, 2017. "Uncertainty and Contradiction: An Essay on the Business Cycle," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 49(2), pages 247-264, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:49:y:2017:i:2:p:247-264
    DOI: 10.1177/0486613415621748
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    Cited by:

    1. Michaelis Nikiforos, 2018. "Distribution-led growth through methodological lenses," FMM Working Paper 24-2018, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    2. Won Jun Nah & Lavoie, Marc, 2018. "Overhead labour costs in a neo-Kaleckian growth model with autonomous expenditures," IPE Working Papers 111/2018, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    cycles; Harrod; oscillations; distribution; Minsky;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B22 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Macroeconomics
    • E11 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Marxian; Sraffian; Kaleckian
    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory

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