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Economic Growth in Historical Perspective

In: Economic Growth in Theory and Practice

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  • R. M. Sundrum

Abstract

The classical economists, who developed the first systematic theory of growth in the context of an agricultural economy, were so impressed with the force of diminishing returns in that sector that they predicted a steady decline of the rate of growth, due to the steady rise of the pressure of a growing population on a limited area of land. Later, in the early post-war years, neo-classical economists produced an alternative theory, referring mainly to an industrial economy, in which the main factor of production was fixed capital. The principal conclusion of this theory was that there would be a steady rate of growth of national income, with an endogenous rate of capital accumulation converging to a steady, exogenously given, rate of population growth. This theory of balanced growth was an attempt to explain what was assumed to be a stylised fact of the experience of the developed industrial countries over a long period of time.

Suggested Citation

  • R. M. Sundrum, 1990. "Economic Growth in Historical Perspective," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Economic Growth in Theory and Practice, chapter 2, pages 15-26, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-37681-6_2
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230376816_2
    as

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