IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-02372975.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Demographic growth, Harrodian (in)stability and the supermultiplier

Author

Listed:
  • Olivier Allain

    (UPD5 Droit - Université Paris Descartes - Faculté de droit - UPD5 - Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

A basic Kaleckian model is enriched by three simple, intuitive assumptions. First, there is a redistributive system of the wage bill between employed and unemployed workers, the latter receiving subsistence income. Second, only individuals with an income above the subsistence level build savings. The combination of these two assumptions gives rise to an autonomous consumption component whose rate of growth depends on population growth. Consequently, the rate of capital accumulation spontaneously converges towards the rate of population growth (the supermultiplier effect), a dynamic that offers a solution to one of the two Harrodian instability problems. The third assumption corresponds to entrepreneurs' attempts to adjust investments to restore the normal rate of capacity utilisation. Although this assumption usually generates knife-edge instability, we show here that the stabilising properties of the supermultiplier, provided that the accelerator effect is not overly strong, help overcome this instability and realise the normal rate of capacity utilisation. Therefore, the model may offer a simple, simultaneous solution to the two Harrodian instability problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier Allain, 2019. "Demographic growth, Harrodian (in)stability and the supermultiplier," Post-Print halshs-02372975, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02372975
    DOI: 10.1093/cje/bex082
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Nomaler, Önder & Spinola, Danilo & Verspagen, Bart, 2021. "R&D-based economic growth in a supermultiplier model," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-19.
    2. Eckhard Hein & Ryan Woodgate, 2021. "Stability issues in Kaleckian models driven by autonomous demand growth—Harrodian instability and debt dynamics," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(2), pages 388-404, May.
    3. Gahn, Santiago José, 2021. "On the adjustment of capacity utilisation to aggregate demand: Revisiting an old Sraffian critique to the Neo-Kaleckian model," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 325-360.
    4. Lídia Brochier & Antonio Carlos, 2019. "A supermultiplier Stock-Flow Consistent model: the “return” of the paradoxes of thrift and costs in the long run?," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 43(2), pages 413-442.
    5. Allain, Olivier, 2022. "A supermultiplier model with two non-capacity-generating semi-autonomous demand components," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 91-103.
    6. Lídia Brochier, 2020. "Conflicting‐claims and labour market concerns in a supermultiplier SFC model," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(3), pages 566-603, July.
    7. José A. Pérez‐Montiel & Carles Manera, 2022. "Is autonomous demand really autonomous in the United States? An asymmetric frequency‐domain Granger causality approach," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 78-92, February.
    8. Dávila-Fernández, Marwil & Oreiro, José, 2021. "A song of ice and fire: Competitiveness in an export-led growing economy," MPRA Paper 109821, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Peter Skott, 2019. "Autonomous demand, Harrodian instability and the supply side," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(2), pages 233-246, May.
    10. Santiago José Gahn & Alejandro González, 2022. "On the empirical content of the convergence debate: Cross‐country evidence on growth and capacity utilisation," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(3), pages 825-855, July.
    11. Eckhard Hein, 2019. "Harrodian instability in Kaleckian models and Steindlian solutions," FMM Working Paper 46-2019, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    12. Steven M Fazzari & Piero Ferri & Anna Maria Variato, 2020. "Demand-led growth and accommodating supply," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 44(3), pages 583-605.
    13. Nomaler, Önder & Spinola, Danilo & Verspagen, Bart, 2020. "Schumpeter and Keynes: Economic growth in a super-multiplier model," MERIT Working Papers 2020-049, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    14. Takashi Ohno, 2022. "Capital-labor conflict in the Harrodian model," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 301-317, April.
    15. Paulo Reis Mourao & Irina Alina Popescu, 2022. "Revisiting a Macroeconomic Controversy: The Case of the Multiplier–Accelerator Effect," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-15, October.
    16. Önder Nomaler & Danilo Spinola & Bart Verspagen, 2024. "Demand‐led industrialisation policy in a dual‐sector small open economy," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 339-376, July.
    17. Peter Skott & Júlio Fernando Costa Santos & José Luís da Costa Oreiro, 2022. "Supermultipliers, ‘endogenous autonomous demand’ and functional finance," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 220-244, February.
    18. Di Bucchianico, Stefano, 2021. "Inequality, household debt, ageing and bubbles: A model of demand-side Secular Stagnation," IPE Working Papers 160/2021, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).

    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:hal:journl:halshs-02372975. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.