über die Theorie des Wirtschaftlichen Wachstums und Ihre Bedeutung

Abstract

The study is devoted to the theory of economic growth and its relevance to pure and applied theory. It is maintained that by trying to explain the development of the factors of production the theory of growth represents an important generalization of the static theory of general equilibrium. The main conceptual categories and specific methods of growth theory are shown to be the examination of the existence and stability of growth equilibrium and of comparative dynamics. As far as applied theory is concerned the principle conclusions are the following: economic models devised to explain a country's economic development should be based on the theory of growth rather than on an entirely Keynesian business cycle approach. This does not seem to be generally realised, since the majority of macro-economic models is of basically Keynesian nature. On the other hand the theory of growth needs to be supplemented by a theory of business cycles, because the actual economic development exhibits growth as well as fluctuations. Although great stress is laid on the essential role of the growth theory in any attempt to explain a country's economic development, it is doubted whether the theory can as yet be usefully applied to practical situations. There remain a number of unsolved problems (of measurement etc.) typically connected with the theory of economic growth. While this may, for the time being, prevent the theory from being put to practical use, it in no way affects its basic validity.