ALBERT

Notes: The study of economic history attempts to reveal the causes of the growing international economic disparity and to identify the strategic factors of economic change. The historical inductive method, analysed economic history in terms of stages of growth.The underlying idea of the concept of stages, found in List, Marx, the German historicists, and revived in a modern form by Rostow, is that every society passes several phases of economic growth, from infancy or primitive stage to maturity or highly industrialised society. However, the essence of stages in different concepts was not uniform, neither was the indispensability of each and everyone of the stages uncontested. Weber, in particular, opposed the monistic approach, and suggested the concept of ‘ideal types’ from which realities are necessary deviations.Marx's contribution to modern growth theory lies in his dynamising of the classical theory through his expanded reproduction function, envisaging both capital and labour, and their qualities, as the strategic factor of growth, rendering possible both a highly industrialised and an equalitarian society, while List's model can be considered the origin of A. G. B. Fisher's and C. Clark's primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Even in Schumpeter, stages and periodisation of growth can be easily traced, although they are chiefly explained in terms of technology, entrepreneurship and business cycles.Among the modern growth theorists, mainly Rostow revived the concept of stages and the notion of a ‘threshold’ rate of investment as the strategic factor of expanded reproduction and development, while W. G. Hoffmann with his shift from consumer- to capital-goods industries again calls to life Marxian transition as well as the three-sectors concept. Like his predecessors, List with industrialisation and Marx with the capitalist stage, also Rostow is mainly preoccupied with one particular, ‘take-off’ stage. Despite its flaws, Rostow's concept has become a useful tool of historical and positive analysis as well as a framework for normative models fervently looking for strategic factors of change, and some lessons of economic history. It also brought to the fore the rather paradoxical recent development in the economic camp, with ‘new economic historians’ employing purely quantitative methods of research, and growth theorists looking for help (and desirable quantification) to qualitative variables to explain past and present growth trends and to shape adequate growth models.

Notes: This paper provides a brief chronological summary of the main texts concerning education of leading economists from Adam Smith to Pigou. It shows that the classical economists have clearly and almost unanimously recognized education as (1) an investment in human beings; (2) a consumer durable par excellence; (3) a political good in that it preserves law and order; (4) a social good in that it contributes to the diminution of crimes and enhances social mobility; (5) a factor making for more equal income distribution; (6) a source of economic growth; (7) an item carrying large externalities of various kinds; (8) a peculiar commodity bought and sold in a peculiar market; (9) an item liable to be under-invested by private individuals; and (10) an area calling for State intervention.In fact, qualitatively they said everything that is to be said about the economics of education. But they left it to their successors to tackle the quantitative aspects when more statistics and refined methods of statistical analysis become available.

Notes: In recent years a number of investigators have suggested that many economic time series exhibit significant long-run variations about an upward trend as well as short-run business fluctuations. However, several recent studies in which spectrum-analytic techniques have been employed reach negative conclusions with respect to the significance of long swings in economic activity. This paper is concerned with some of the basic problems associated with the use of spectrum estimates to test the significance of low-frequency variation in economic time series. An examination of the problem of low-frequency resolution, inadequate trend removal, low-frequency bias due to least-squares trend elimination, and the variance of low-frequency estimates leads to a qualification of some of the earlier spectrum-analytic results. This study suggests that while there is some evidence of long swings in economic activity, the problems inherent in the analysis of low-frequency variation make it extremely difficult to ascertain the statistical signifiance of these long cycles.

Notes: The behavioural interpretation which Kaldor places on his famous identity between the investment-income ratio and the profit share, and which he attempts to justify by the erroneous claim that the investment-income ratio is an independent variable in the Keynesian system, rests crucially on a model of the firm's pricing behaviour. If an alternative pattern of pricing behaviour is postulated the direction of causation is reversed with the aggregate savings propensity, and hence aggregate demand, being dependent upon the distribution of income, and subsequently to Kaldor Cartter published a model in which both savings and investment are dependent upon the distribution of income. Both models centre upon the aggregate demand—income distribution relationship, but Cartter fails to incorporate any analysis of factor share determination and he does not show how a determinate level of income is achieved, whilst Kaldor's mechanism can only function in a full employment situation.In this paper the influences of marginal productivity and Kalecki's‘degree of monopoly’ are combined with Kaldor/Cartter-type propensities relating savings and investment to the distribution of income, thereby producing a model in which the level of income and the distribution of income are interdependent and involve the determination of a position of simultaneous equilibrium. It is argued that, by retaining the influence of marginal productivity and not being reliant on a full employment situation, the model is in fact more ‘Keynesian’ than Kaldor's so-called ‘Keynesian’ model.

Notes: Baerwald, Friedrigh: Economic Progress and Problems of Labor. Scranton, Pennsylvania 1967. International Textbook Company. 353 pp.Bechtel, H. : Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte Deutschlands. Wirtschaftsstile und Lebensformen von der Vorzeit bis zur Gegenwart. München 1967. Verlag Georg D. W. Callwey. 45 Karten, 8 Schaubilder, 573 S. DM 29.50Bernholz, Peter : Aussenpolitik und Internationale Wirtschqftsbeziehungen. (Frankfurter Wissenschaftliche Beiträge. Rechts- und wirt-schaftswissenschaftliche Reihe, Band 22.) Frankfurt am Main 1966. Vittorio Klostermann. 202 S.Bhagwati, Jagdish : The Theory and Practice of Commercial Policy: Departures from Unified Exchange Rates. Special Papers in International Economics, No. 8. International Finance Section, Department of Economics. Princeton 1968. 66 pp.Bihn, Willi R. : Die informationstheoretische Messung von Struktursystemen des internationalen Handels. Grundlagen und statistische Methoden. (Schriftenreihe des Instituts für international vergleichende Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistik an der Universität Heidelberg, Bd. 5.) Freiburg 1967. Rudolf Haufe Verlag. 176 S.Bristow, J. A., and Tait, A. A. (Eds.): Economic Policy in Ireland. Dublin 1968. Institute of Public Administration. 314 pp. 55 s.Buchanan, James M. : Public Finance in Democratic Process. Fiscal Institutions and Individual Choice. Chapel Hill 1967. The University of North Carolina Press. X, 307 pp.Conolly, Violet: Beyond the Urals. London 1967. Oxford University Press. XX, 420 pp. 75 s.Dehem, Roger: Initiation à l'économique. Paris 1967. Dunod. 273 p. Fr. 25.-Eder, Rudolf: Volkswirtschaftliche Theorie des technischen Fortschritts. (Volkswirtschaftliche Schriften, Heft 111.) Berlin 1967. Verlag Duncker & Humblot. 150 S.Goffin, Robert: L'autofinancement des entreprises. Paris 1968. Editions Sirey. 186 p.Gregg, Robert W. (Ed.): International Organization in the Western Hemisphere. Syracuse 1968. Syracuse University Press. VIII, 262 pp. $6.95Jansen, Paul GÜnter : Infrastrukturinvestitionen als Mittel der Regionalpolitik. (Beiträge zur Raumplanung, herausgegeben vom Zentralinstitut für Raumplanung an der Universität Münster, Band 3.) Bielefeld 1968. C. Bertelsmann Verlag. 158 S.King, John A. : Economic Development Projects and Their Appraisal. Cases and Principles from the Experience of the World Bank. Maryland 1967. The Johns Hopkins Press. XII, 530 pp. $15.-Klement, Dieter: Strukturwandlungen des Kapitalstocks nach Anlagearten in Deutschland sett der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Tübingen 1967. J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck). XIV, 98 S.Lorenz, Detlef : Dynamische Tkeorie der internationalen Arbeitsteilung. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie der weltwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung. (Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, hrsg. von Erich Kosiol und Andreas Paulsen, Heft 25.) Berlin 1967. Duncker & Humblot. 184 S. DM 24.80McCormick, B. J., and Smith, E. 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Introductory Lectures on Choices under Uncertainty. Reading (Mass.)/London 1968. Addison-Wesley. XXIII, 309 pp. 43 s. Recherches récentes sur la fonction de production. Namur 1968. Centre de recherches économiques et sociales du Ceruna, Université catholique de Namur. Collection ↞Economie mathématique et économétrie↠, N0 2. 242 p.DE Roover, Raymond : The Bruges Money Market around 1400, with a statistical supplement by Hyman Sardy. (Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgie, Klasse der Letteren, Jaargang XXX, 1968, No. 63.) Brüssel 1968. Paleis der Academien. 180 pp.Saint Marc, MichÈle : Commerce extérieur de dévelopement — Le cas de la Zone franc. Préface d'André Piatier. (Collection ↞Développement économique↠ sous la direction d'André Piatier, volume XIII.) Paris 1968. Sedes. 367 p.Scheib, Hans H. : Branchenbesonderheiten. Falsche undrichtige wirtschajtspolitische Argumente. 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Notes: The first to draw Soviet economists’ attention—in the early ‘sixties’—to the von Neumann model, hitherto unknown in, and indeed alien to Soviet economics, was Nemchinov. The subject was taken up by several writers: of particular interest is the impact of the construct on the model of'dynamic planning’ designed by Kantorovich and Makarov; this is the theme of the present article. MORTON and Zauberman start from a discussion of the von Neumann-type equilibrium in a long term economic plan. They then turn to several specific issues which have been for some time focal in Soviet planning thought and analyse the significance for them of the von Neumann model. These are in particular the nexus between the pace of the economy's growth and investment efficiency—traditionally recognized as central in the advance for Soviet economy; further the problems of efficiency and profit rates and in general the efficiency parameters (pricing). The authors also discuss the quest for an optimality criterion—from the angle of their theme. The article concludes with precepts for the planner as influenced by the VON Neumann ideas.