IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/13950.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trevor Swan And The Neoclassical Growth Model

Author

Listed:
  • Robert W. Dimand
  • Barbara J. Spencer

Abstract

Trevor Swan independently developed the neoclassical growth model. Swan (1956) was published ten months later than Solow (1956), but included a more complete analysis of technical progress, which Solow treated separately in Solow (1957). Reference is sometimes made to the "Solow-Swan growth model", but more commonly reference is made only to the "Solow growth model". This paper examines the history of Swan's development of the growth model, the similarities and differences between the approaches of Swan and Solow and the reasons why Swan's contribution has been overshadowed. We draw on unpublished work to show that in 1950, Swan was working on a growth model in a verbal format. In 1956, Swan published only a simplified version of his model based on a Cobb-Douglas production function, but Swan's original model (circulated July 1956 and published posthumously in 2002) was much more general. Swan's reluctance to publish was consistent with his perhaps counterproductive modesty and perfectionism. His well known paper, "Longer run problems of the Balance of Payments" was circulated in 1955, eight years before publication in 1963. His pioneering work in 1945, developing the first macroeconomic model of the Australian economy, was published posthumously in 1989.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert W. Dimand & Barbara J. Spencer, 2008. "Trevor Swan And The Neoclassical Growth Model," NBER Working Papers 13950, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13950
    Note: EFG
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13950.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Dixon, 2003. "Trevor Swan on Equilibrium Growth with Technical Progress," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 79(247), pages 487-490, December.
    2. Nicholas Kaldor, 1955. "Alternative Theories of Distribution," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 23(2), pages 83-100.
    3. T. W. Swan, 1940. "Australian War Finance And Banking Policy," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 16(1), pages 50-67, June.
    4. J. v. Neumann, 1945. "A Model of General Economic Equilibrium," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9.
    5. W. E. G. Salter, 1959. "THE PRODUCTION FUNCTION and THE DURABILITY OF CAPITAL1," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 35(70), pages 47-66, April.
    6. repec:bla:ecorec:v:65:y:1989:i:191:p:378-98 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Robert M. Solow, 1955. "The Production function and the Theory of Capital," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 23(2), pages 101-108.
    8. T. W. Swan, 1956. "ECONOMIC GROWTH and CAPITAL ACCUMULATION," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 32(2), pages 334-361, November.
    9. T. W. Swan, 1950. "Progress Report On The Trade Cycle," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 26(51), pages 186-200, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Selwyn Cornish & Raghbendra Jha, 2017. "Trevor Swan and Indian Planning: The Lessons of 1958/59," History of Economics Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 67(1), pages 2-25, May.
    2. repec:eur:ejesjr:364 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:eur:ejesjr:361 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Voosholz, Frauke, 2014. "A survey on modeling economic growth. With special interest on natural resource use," CAWM Discussion Papers 69, University of Münster, Münster Center for Economic Policy (MEP).
    5. Doina Dragoi, 2019. "Synthetic Indicators Of Economic Growth Results In The Context Of Economic Policies," Management Strategies Journal, Constantin Brancoveanu University, vol. 45(3), pages 47-53.
    6. Kadigi, Reuben M.J. & Robinson, Elizabeth & Szabo, Sylvia & Kangile, Joseph & Mgeni, Charles P. & De Maria, Marcello & Tsusaka, Takuji & Nhau, Brighton, 2022. "Revisiting the Solow-Swan model of income convergence in the context of coffee producing and re-exporting countries in the world," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115636, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Laurent Cellarier & Richard Day, 2011. "Structural instability and alternative development scenarios," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(3), pages 1165-1180, July.
    8. Rainer Klump & Peter McAdam & Alpo Willman, 2012. "The Normalized Ces Production Function: Theory And Empirics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 769-799, December.
    9. Matheus Assaf, 2017. "Coast to Coast: How MIT's students linked the Solow model and optimal growth theory," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2017_20, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    10. Klona, Maria, 2021. "The Days After COVID-19: A Meta-Analysis on the Impact of Epidemics and Pandemics on Long-Term Macro-Economic Performance," American Business Review, Pompea College of Business, University of New Haven, vol. 24(1), pages 188-224, May.
    11. Edward B. Barbier, 2021. "Land expansion and growth in low‐ and middle‐income countries," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 65(1), pages 23-36, January.
    12. Paitoon Kraipornsak, 2020. "The Different Structure of Sources of Growth between the Developed and the Developing Asia and the Pacific Countries," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 10(1), pages 22-34, January.
    13. Shulong Li & Zhizhang Wang, 2023. "The Effects of Agricultural Technology Progress on Agricultural Carbon Emission and Carbon Sink in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-21, March.
    14. Ejiro U. Osiobe, 2019. "A Literature Review of Human Capital and Economic Growth," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 9(4), pages 179-196, December.
    15. Petar Kurecic & Filip Kokotovic, 2017. "Examining the "Natural Resource Curse" and the Impact of Various Forms of Capital in Small Tourism and Natural Resource-Dependent Economies," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-24, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luigi L. Pasinetti, 2000. "Critique of the neoclassical theory of growth and distribution," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 53(215), pages 383-431.
    2. Yashin, Pete, 2016. "Кризис И Рост Неравенства. Оптимальный Путь Экономического Роста [The crisis and increasing inequality. The best equilibrium growth path]," MPRA Paper 73544, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Luigi L. Pasinetti, 2000. "Critique of the neoclassical theory of growth and distribution," Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 53(215), pages 383-431.
    4. Heinz D. Kurz, 2011. "The Contributions of Two Eminent Japanese Scholars to the Development of Economic Theory: Michio Morishima and Takashi Negishi," Chapters, in: Heinz D. Kurz & Tamotsu Nishizawa & Keith Tribe (ed.), The Dissemination of Economic Ideas, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Voxi Heinrich S Amavilah & Richard T. Newcomb, 2004. "Economic Growth and the Financial Economics of Capital Accumulation under Shifting Technological Change," GE, Growth, Math methods 0404001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Voxi Heinrich Amavilah, 2005. "Solow and the Native Americans: Technological Residuals and the Economic Performance of U.S. Native American Economies," Development and Comp Systems 0505008, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Harilaos Mertzanis, 2000. "Capacity Utilization, Foreign Portfolio Investment and International Debts and Deficits," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 207-218.
    8. Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2019. "Trends and fads in macroeconomic dynamics," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 179-197, December.
    9. repec:bap:eebook:02 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. W. Erwin Diewert, 1980. "Aggregation Problems in the Measurement of Capital," NBER Chapters, in: The Measurement of Capital, pages 433-538, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Voxi Heinrich Amavilah, 2004. "Apparent Solow- and Solow-like Technological Residuals and the Economic Performance of U.S. Native American Economies," Development and Comp Systems 0406004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Agliari, Anna & Böhm, Volker & Pecora, Nicolò, 2020. "Endogenous cycles from income diversity, capital ownership, and differential savings," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    13. Roula INGLESI-LOTZ & Renee VAN EYDEN & Charlotte DU TOIT, 2014. "The evolution and contribution of technological progress to the South African economy: Growth accounting and Kalman filter application," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 14(1), pages 175-188.
    14. Hideyuki Kamiryo, 2014. "Earth Endogenous System: To Answer the Current Unsolved Economic Problems (Second Edition)," Earth Endogenous System: To Answer the Current Unsolved Economic Problems (Second Edition), Better Advances Press, Canada, edition 2, volume 2, number 01 edited by Dr. Yisheng Huang, May.
    15. Heinz D. Kurz & Tamotsu Nishizawa & Keith Tribe (ed.), 2011. "The Dissemination of Economic Ideas," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14521.
    16. Enrico Bellino & Christian Bidard & Saverio M. Fratini & G.C. Harcourt & Arrigo Opocher & Ian Steedman & Naoki Yoshihara & Heinz D. Kurz, 2017. "Symposium on Arrigo Opocher and Ian Steedman (," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 586-624, November.
    17. repec:bap:ees2th:01 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Javier López-Bernardo & Félix López-Martínez & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2016. "A Post-Keynesian Response to Piketty's ‘Fundamental Contradiction of Capitalism’," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 190-204, April.
    19. Hein, Eckhard, 2016. "The Bhaduri/Marglin post-Kaleckian model in the history of distribution and growth theories: An assessment by means of model closures," IPE Working Papers 66/2016, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    20. Avi J. Cohen, 2003. "Retrospectives: Whatever Happened to the Cambridge Capital Theory Controversies?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 199-214, Winter.
    21. Sergio Nistico & Giorgio Rodano, 2005. "Reflections on Sraffa's Legacy in Economics: A review essay," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 471-487.
    22. Yashin, Pete, 2017. "Optimal Equilibrium State in Two-Sector Growth Model," MPRA Paper 76524, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • B2 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925
    • B3 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals
    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:13950. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.