LARS P. SYLL

Neo-Kaleckian growth with regime endogeneity

“The distinction between wage and profit-led growth is a major feature of neo-Kaleckian
growth theory. The essence of the distinction is that in a wage-led economy an increase
in the wage share (i.e. a decrease in the profit share) increases economic activity and
growth, whereas in a profit-led economy it has the reverse effects. This distinction has
important implications for policy, especially in the current environment of stagnation and high unemployment. If economies are wage-led, it suggests policy that increases the
wage share is a powerful means of raising growth and lowering unemployment. The
converse holds for economies that are profit-led …

These policy implications have triggered an extensive econometric literature that
aims to identify whether economies and economic regions are wage or profit-led. The
implicit fundamental assumption within that empirical literature is an economy’s or an
economic region’s character (i.e. whether it is wage or profit-led) is exogenously
determined by deep primitive parameters. The current paper questions that assumption
and explores the foundations of what determines whether an economy is wage or profitled …

The theoretical analysis gives rise to a Post-Keynesian analogue of the Lucas critique (Lucas, 1976). Lucas argued that the estimated econometric impact of policy was endogenous and depended on agents’ expectations of policy. In like vein, the current paper shows that whether an economy is wage or profit-led will depend on existing policies. Consequently, it is not possible to classify an economy as being intrinsically wage or profit-led. Instead, the econometrically identified character of the economy is contingent on policy and may change with changes in policy.

At the policy level, the paper shows that the growth–inequality trade-off posed by profit-led economies can be finessed by changing the distribution of the wage share. Consequently, it may be possible to have faster growth and less inequality in economies that appear profit-led. Even more significantly, if the wage distribution is changed sufficiently, the economy can flip from being profit-led to being wage-led.“

Thomas Palley

Economists Without Borders

Inspired by the work of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), I have recently started a project called Economists Without Borders (Economistes Sans Frontières). Its purpose is to inoculate the global economy against the virus of neoliberalism. Last week, I had two difficult “missions” to Vienna and Warsaw.

In Vienna, I confronted an outbreak of the neoliberal globalization – free trade strain of the virus. Without doubt, this is the most virulent and dangerous of all strains. People who get infected become blind to all evidence, deaf to all argument and prone to intellectual condescension. Massachusetts Avenue in Washington DC is a hot zone of infection. The bad news is that if you are over forty and infected it is doubtful you can be cured. However, younger patients have a chance of recovery. Here is the anti-viral I prescribed titled “The Theory of Global Imbalances: Mainstream Economics vs. Structural Keynesianism”.

In Warsaw, I confronted an outbreak of Milton Friedmanism which is one of the oldest strains of neoliberal virus. Friedmanism is a gateway virus that weakens defenses against other neoliberal strains and younger minds are particularly susceptible to it. The good news is that if diagnosed early there is a good chance of recovery. However, if treatment is delayed, intellectual ossification and closed-mindedness sets in. This ossification is almost always associated with inflation obsessive compulsive disorder and austerity fever. Here is the treatment I recommend titled “Milton Friedman’s Economics and Political Economy: An Old Keynesian Critique”.

Thomas Palley

Top 20 Heterodox Economics Books

• Karl Marx, Das Kapital (1867)
• Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)
• Joseph Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development (1911)
• Nikolai Kondratiev, The Major Economic Cycles (1925)
• Gunnar Myrdal, The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory (1930)
• John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory (1936)
• Paul Sweezy, Theory of Capitalist Development (1956)
• Joan Robinson, Accumulation of Capital (1956)
• John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society (1958)
• Piero Sraffa, Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities (1960)
• Johan Åkerman, Theory of Industrialism (1961)
• Axel Leijonhufvud, Keynes and the Classics (1969)
• Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, The Entropy Law and the Economic Process (1971)
• Michal Kalecki, Selected Essays on the Dynamics of the Capitalist Economy (1971)
• Paul Davidson, Money and the Real World (1972)
• Hyman Minsky, John Maynard Keynes (1975)
• Philip Mirowski, More Heat than Light (1989)
• Tony Lawson, Economics and Reality (1997)
• Steve Keen, Debunking Economics (2001)
• John Quiggin, Zombie Economics (2010)

Scandinavian asset bubbles

The Scandinavian economies top many polls on happiness and living standards. But they also have the worrying distinction of leading the developed world in household debt.

Denmark has the highest household debt-to-disposable income ratio among the world’s richest countries at 310 per cent. Norway and Sweden are not far behind with ratios of 200 and 170 per cent respectively, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Policy makers have taken different approaches in each country. In Denmark, officials seem relaxed , arguing that Danes have lots of assets and are able to withstand rising interest rates “The threat to financial stability from [household debt] is therefore not serious in the current situation,” Lars Rohde, governor of the central bank, told Bloomberg this year.

But the Riksbank in Sweden has long worried about rising house prices and household debt levels. The central bank sought (and failed) to gain control over macroprudential policy – measures designed to ensure financial stability, such as capping the amount home buyers can borrow for a mortgage. Instead, macroprudential policy was given to Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority, which is already tightening mortgage rules. Today, Swedes only have to repay the interest on mortgages, meaning some loans take as many as 140 years to repay.

The FSA this month proposed that new mortgage holders would have to pay down half of their loans.

The impact of such measures is hotly disputed. Distortions persist in the Swedish and Norwegian housing markets, where there is far greater demand than supply in the biggest cities. Borrowers in both countries are also able to claim tax relief on mortgage interest.

Some argue that reforming these distortions would be the most important change authorities could make. Christian Clausen, chief executive of Nordea, says politicians need to take responsibility for helping create asset bubbles.

On Sweden’s tax incentives to own a house, he adds: “You have a screwed system that wants to over-leverage in principle in an asset that you don’t want to over-leverage on.”

Richard Milne/FT