Capital, Time and Transitional Dynamics

In the words of Robert M. Solow traverse analysis "is the easiest part of skiing, but the hardest part of economics". The aim of this volume is to assess the state and scope of modern traverse analysis as it had been initiated by John Hicks in his pioneering contribution Capital and Time (1973). The analysis of an economy which originally had been in a growth equilibrium which was disturbed by technical progress is one of the most challenging problems in economics. This book takes Hicks’ work as the point of departure for theoretical work on the macroeconomic theory of capital dynamics along transition non-steady state paths The original contributions in this volume explore the manifold theoretical roots of traverse analysis in classical and post-classical literature, its features as a specific method of economic dynamics, and its applications in a variety of fields from monetary economics to development and international economics. The essays thereby focus on the ways ahead from Capital and Time that have been suggested and actively pursued by a number of scholars in recent years. Its central theme is the role of capital structures as critical factors in determining the actual dynamics of any given economic system. This volume is inspired by the belief that this state of affairs is not a satisfactory one, and outlines a new agenda for capital theory. Contributors include Edwin Burmeister, Jean-Luc Gaffard and Heinz Kurz.

1. Edwin Burmeister: A Retrospective View of Hicks' Capital and Time: A Neo-Austrian Theory, 2. Christian Gehrke and Heinz D. Kurz: Hicks’s neo-Austrian Theory and Böhm-Bawerk’s Theory of Capital, 3. Walter Eltis: When the Consequences of Capital Deepening Investment are Benign, 4. Roberto Scazzieri: Vertical Integration, Horizontal Integration and Dynamic Analysis, 5. Harald Hagemann: Hicks’s Traverse Analysis: From Capital and Growth to Capital and Time, 6. Franco Nardini: From a Two-Sector to a Vertically Integrated Model: a New Perspective for an Old Problem, 7. Kazuhisa Taniguchi: Simulation of the Full Employment Traverse of Capital and Time, 8. Massimo Ricottilli: Division of Labour, Traverse and Evolving Structures, 9. Shin-Haing Kim: Hicks’s Traverse in a Small Open Economy, 10. Jean Magnan de Bornier: Micro-Macro Links and the Capital-is-time Paradigm, 11. Mario Amendola and Jean-Luc Gaffard: From Traverse to out-of-Equilibrium Processes of Change: the Role of Money, 12. Meghnad Desai: Traverse and Crisis, 13. Michael Landesmann: Traverse Analysis: Future Directions

Harald Hagemann is Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Hohenheim. He is the co-editor of Growth Theory and Growth Policy (2003), also published by Routledge. Roberto Scazzieri is Professor of Economic Analysis at the University of Bologna