Kaldor et la théorie keynésienne de la répartition

Kaldor presents the analysis which he makes of the distribution as a Keynesian theory. His work is inspired, he says to us, by contributions of Keynes, in the Treatise on Money, and by Kalecki. However, while Keynes and Kalecki develop analyses of short period, Kaldor describes the characteristics of a long period equilibrium so that the mechanism on which the adjustment is based, the flexibility of profit margins, is inappropriate. Pasinetti, by suggesting that the article of Kaldor rests on a logical slip and that the correction of this error shows that the rate of profit — in long period equilibrium — depends only on the natural growth rate of the economy and on the capitalists' propensity to save, boosted the debate. However, his thesis seems debatable. On one hand, equilibrium that he describes is not unique and it is possible that, in certain circumstances, the economy aims towards another equilibrium the characteristics of which are determined by the wage-earners' propensity to save. On the other hand, the idea that the saving's function proposed by Kaldor is logically inconsistent is unfounded. Finally, the crucial hypothesis on which rests the reasoning of Pasinetti, the existence of a class of individuals who earn only profit appears to characterize hardly in a relevant way the economic systems which prevail in advanced economies.