Shaikh et al on Harrod (was S=I)

[Paul_A <paul_a@xxxxxxx>]

I was there - you are right to ask about it as it was very stimulating.
Clearly they were raising issues that be on the agenda in the coming years.
 No papers were given out and I am only today beginning to find and go
through the relevant previous publications, so excuse my sketchiness.

Essentially, Shaikh and then Moudud are reviving Harrod's early questions
of cycle theory and medium term dynamic boundary effects that modify
short-term PKT considerations of effective demand and multipliers.  In the
medium term a Harrodian-like interaction between the 'actual' growth rate
vs the 'normal' (warranted) growth rate will offset short term relatively
faster adjustments between aggregate supply.  (This requires a
decomposition between fixed investment and working capital.) Moudud
presentation applies this to a critique of the 'Thirwall' effect, where
balance of payments are said to be the constraint on growth because of its
short period effects.

Some references are: Shaikh in Nell and Semler 'Nicolas Kaldor and
Mainstream Economics', 1989 and Moudud in his paper on the Jerome Levy
website (W.P. #316).  They both have some other papers on the website that
seem relevant.  A related paper on the reassessing of Harrod can be found
in the most recent CJE (January) by Besomi.

Lavoie made a presentation that might also be covered by a paper at Jerome
Levy (with Godley?).  It will be more familiar terrain to PKTers.  If I
heard him right, he also objected to Shaikh and Moudud's work based on the
specification of the investment function, but he didn't elaborate.  Nell
(speaking from the floor) questioned the advisability of having lag periods
in the Accelerator function of Moudud's empirical presentation.  No doubt
more will be heard on this.

I would love to hear from some others more familiar with this work.

Paul

P.S. Mat deserves a vote of thanks for organizing the Heilbroner session.


At 02:51 PM 2/28/01 -0600, you wrote:
......
>I came in late to the EEA session with Marc Lavoie, Ed Nell, Jamee Moudud,
>Duncan Foley, Anwar Shaikh discussing the "normal" capacity utilization issue
>that seems to separate Marxian and Sraffian models on the one side and
>Kaleckian
>and PK models on the other.  Can anyone summarize the issues at stake there?
>
>Mat