“THE MERCHANTS OF CADIZ AND LISBON”: PARSIMONY, THE RATE OF PROFIT, AND ACCUMULATION IN WEALTH OF NATIONS

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.M.C. WATERMAN
Keyword(s):  
Population Growth ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Causal Relation ◽  
High Income ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Wealth Of Nations ◽  
Rate Of Profit ◽  
Negative Growth

In Wealth of Nations, a high rate of profit is associated with sluggish or even negative growth, and vice versa. This is because capital accumulation (and therefore population growth) is driven by parsimony of the masters; and the incentive to self-denial is eroded by a high income too easily obtained. The causal relation between parsimony, the rate of profit, and accumulation is explicated in this article; Adam Smith’s observations concerning “the merchants of Cadiz and Lisbon” examined critically; and some conjectures offered as to why Smith’s successors should have rejected parsimony as a useful concept.

A Multiregion Model with Capital Accumulation and Endogenous Amenities

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (9) ◽  
pp. 2248-2270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Bin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Comparative Statics ◽  
The Other ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Unique Equilibrium ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Technological Differences ◽  
National Output ◽  
Simulation Results ◽  
Wage Disparities

The author develops a multiregional growth model with endogenous amenity and capital accumulation for any number of regions. The simulation results demonstrate that the national dynamics have a unique equilibrium. Comparative statics analysis shows that, if environmental improvement occurs in the technologically advanced (less advanced) region, the national output rises (falls). As a region improves its technology, the other two regions' aggregated output levels fall—not only in relative, but also in absolute, terms. This implies that if any region has a high rate of technological change and the other regions remain technologically stationary, then economic activities will tend to be concentrated in the technologically advancing region. It is also shown that technological differences appear to play only a small role in accounting for spatial wage disparities and endowments.

On the Effectiveness of Growth- Enhancing Policies in a Model of Growth Without Scale Effects

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lutz G. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Growth Rate ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Scale Effects ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Human Capital Accumulation ◽  
Accelerate Growth

Abstract Standard R&D growth models have two disturbing properties: the presence of scale effects (i.e., the prediction that larger economies grow faster) and the implication that there is a multitude of growth-enhancing policies. Recent models of growth without scale effects, such as Segerstrom's (1998), not only remove the counterfactual scale effect, but also imply that the growth rate does not react to any kind of economic policy. They share a different disturbing property, however: economic growth depends positively on population growth, and the economy cannot grow in the absence of population growth. The present paper integrates human capital accumulation into Segerstrom's (1998) model of growth without scale effects. Consistent with many empirical studies, growth is positively related not to population growth, but to investment in human capital. And there is one way to accelerate growth: subsidizing education.

scholarly journals A Review of Nanotechnology Application for Seawater Desalination Process. SOIJST Vol. 1 (1):155-179

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Reverse Osmosis ◽  
Human Population ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Seawater Desalination ◽  
Human Population Growth ◽  
Freshwater Resource ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness

As freshwater resource decreasing rapidly due to high rate of human population growth, many researchers have done studies to develop methods for producing freshwater supply. Seawater desalination is one of the method that has the credibility to be implemented. However, conventional seawater desalination processes suffer from a number of problems related to energy efficiency and cost. In spite of this, nanotechnology has been applied to the process. In this paper, we give an overview and explanations concerning the roles of nanotechnology in seawater desalination processes which consist of pretreatment, reverse osmosis (RO), and disinfection. In addition, the comparisons between conventional and nanotechnology-applied processes as related to its efficiency and effectiveness are also provided.

scholarly journals The Dynamics of a Spatial Economic Model with Bounded Population Growth

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Yue Zhong
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Growth Model ◽  
Explicit Solution ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Initial Distribution ◽  
Time Behavior ◽  
Continuous Space ◽  
Infinite Dimensional ◽  
Economic Growth Model

We investigate a spatial economic growth model with bounded population growth to obtain the asymptotic behavior of detrended capital in a continuous space. The formation of capital accumulation is expressed by a partial differential equation with corresponding boundary conditions. The capital accumulation interacts with the morphology to affect the optimal dynamics of economic growth. After redrafting the spatial growth model in the infinite dimensional Hilbert space, we identify the unique optimal control and value function when the bounded population growth is considered. With nonnegative initial distribution of capital, the explicit solution of the model is obtained. The time behavior of the explicit solution guarantees the convergence issue of the detrended capital level across space and time.

A Critical Analysis of Capitalism, Capital Accumulation and Crisis Theory in David Harvey

2020 ◽  
pp. 097674792095300
Author(s):  
Tanaya Majumder
Keyword(s):  
Business Cycles ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Capitalist Economy ◽  
Crisis Theory ◽  
Surplus Labour ◽  
The One ◽  
Rate Of Profit ◽  
Marxist Tradition

This article is a critical review of David Harvey’s essentialist theorisation of a capitalist economy and its crisis from a class focused Marxist perspective. The first part examines Harvey’s immense contribution to the understanding of space and spatiality of capitalism within the Marxist tradition. Capital accumulation in his theorisation serves as the impresario of space and spatiality and the harbinger of capitalist crisis in general. Expanding on a class focused approach, the second part provides a critique of Harvey’s methodology and crisis theory in which the law of capital accumulation reigns supreme. Specifically, using an anti-essentialist methodology of overdetermination with class process of surplus labour as the theoretical entry point, as developed by Resnick and Wolff, I argue that no correspondence of the rate of capital accumulation with those of rate of profit and rate of class distribution can be drawn. This unpredictability renders capitalism inherently unstable, prone to business cycles whose cause cannot be reduced to any chosen causal factor such as the one reducible to capital accumulation.

What’s Behind the WTO Crisis? A Marxist Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rémi Bachand
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
Wto Dispute Settlement ◽  
Marxist Analysis ◽  
Rate Of Profit

Abstract The main objective of this article is to explore the background of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) crisis using Marxist, neo-Marxist or, at least, Marxist-influenced theories of political economy and international relations. Its purpose is twofold. First, to propose an interpretation of the actual WTO crisis that will address alternative interpretations’ gaps. Second, to advance theoretical inputs founded on Marxist or Marxist-influenced writing in political economy, inputs which could be useful elsewhere in critical studies in international law. At the root of the crisis lies the functioning of neoliberalism (understood as the regime of accumulation promoted by US-dominant classes) and the institutions it uses to regulate itself, to deal with contradictions that hurt its capacity to produce profit, and to allow capital accumulation. One of the most important of these institutions, at the international level, is the WTO. We argue that neoliberalism’s incapacity to continuously provide, since the Asian crisis in 1997, a satisfying rate of profit to US capitalists (and to Western capitalists in general, even if our argument focuses on the former) lured it into a crisis. Since the WTO’s main function is to prevent neoliberalism from being hurt by contradictions that would limit its capacity to provide profits allowing capital accumulation, it was inevitable that one day or another, the struggle faced by the latter would also drag the former down in an institutional crisis.

A NOTE ON THE IMPLICATIONS OF AUTOMATION FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE LABOR SHARE

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 1294-1301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Prettner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Growth ◽  
Growth Rate ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Growth Rate ◽  
Labor Share ◽  
Long Run

We introduce automation into a standard model of capital accumulation and show that (i) there is the possibility of perpetual growth, even in the absence of technological progress; (ii) the long-run economic growth rate declines with population growth, which is consistent with the available empirical evidence; (iii) there is a unique share of savings diverted to automation that maximizes long-run growth; and (iv) automation explains around 14% of the observed decline of the labor share over the last decades in the United States.

scholarly journals Perkembangan Kawasan Permukiman Akibatnya Terhadap Ruang Terbuka di Kota Semarang

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 430
Author(s):  
Muhammad Ridha Azzaki ◽  
Sugiono Soetomo
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Capital City ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Projected Change ◽  
The City

Semarang is the capital city of Central Java Province, as a metropolitan city, Semarang has the capablity to support the rapid development of the city , one of the evident is the highly of activity on physical infrastucture, one of them is the construction of residential areas along the high rate of population growth. Settlement area development activities emerge the negatively impact to reduce the existence of open space area. This study uses a quantitative method through positivistic approach. Research data presented by the form of figures and the analysis using the statistics. This study was first carried out in 2006 and 2011 to analyze the spatial through digitized the image map of Semarang, and the results of the digitization of spatial land area of open space and a residential area, which is used to formulate some stage subsequent analysis: 1) Identification and analysis of the influence of the development of residential areas against the open space in the city, 2) Analysis of the acceleration of the projected change of land per year in Semarang in 2006-2020, 3) Analysis of the application of open space 30% (sample in District Tembalang). The result of this analysis showed the relationship between the relevant mutual influence. The rate of population growth and development of residential areas with a relationship of mutual influence supply and demand. Then, as the development of residential areas causes the reduction of open space. In additon, the background of this problem is how to formulate the recommendations to control the land use plan , in order to create an ideal city land use in the future.

Profitability and Distribution: The Origin of the Brazilian Economic and Political Crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-133
Author(s):  
Adalmir Antonio Marquetti ◽  
Cecilia Hoff ◽  
Alessandro Miebach
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Real Wage ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Private Capital ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
The Government ◽  
Negative Growth

The PT governments combined elements of developmentalism and neoliberalism in a contradictory construction, organizing a large political coalition of workers and capitalists that allowed expanding the real wage and reducing poverty and inequality while maintaining the gains of productive and financing capitals. The decline of profitability after the 2008 crisis broke the class coalition constructed during Lula’s administration. The Dilma Rousseff government adopted a series of fiscal stimuli for private capital accumulation with meager economic growth. After her reelection, the government implemented an austerity program that resulted in negative growth rates. With the deepening economic crisis and without political support, Rousseff was removed from power. Os governos do PT combinaram elementos de desenvolvimentismo e neoliberalismo em uma construção contraditória, organizando uma grande coalizão política de trabalhadores e capitalistas que permitiu expandir o salário real e reduzir a pobreza e a desigualdade, mantendo os ganhos dos capitais produtivos e financeiros. O declínio da lucratividade após a crise de 2008 quebrou a coalizão de classes construída durante o governo Lula. O governo Dilma Rousseff adotou uma série de estímulos fiscais para a acumulação de capital privado com escasso crescimento econômico. Após sua reeleição, o governo implementou um programa de austeridade que resultou em taxas de crescimento negativas. Com o aprofundamento da crise econômica e sem apoio político, Dilma foi afastada do poder.

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