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Solow meets Marx: Economic growth and the emergence of social class

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  • Heibø Modalsli, Jørgen

    () (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo)

Abstract

This paper reconciles neoclassical models of economic growth ("Solow") with the formation of social classes during economic transition ("Marx"). An environment with missing capital markets and no labor divisibility is shown to lead to a steady state with no aggregate inefficiencies, but a very polarized wealth distribution. When capital cannot be rented, people must choose between self-production, potentially including hiring workers, and wage employment. As the first path is more profitable for the rich than the poor, inequality increases. The model is calibrated to illustrate polarization and increasing inequality in early modern Europe, starting from a continuous pre-industrial wealth distribution. During the early industrializing period, when labor markets operate and capital markets do not, inequality increases and a distinct working class emerges. Even if capital markets later improve, the polarization is persistent. The mechanism also has relevance for modern developing countries, where capital market access is limited. If a substantial amount of capital is needed in order to earn the market return, the poor have few incentives to save.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Oslo University, Department of Economics in its series Memorandum with number 21/2011.

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Length: 52 pages
Date of creation: 14 Sep 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hhs:osloec:2011_021

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Postal: Department of Economics, University of Oslo, P.O Box 1095 Blindern, N-0317 Oslo, Norway
Phone: 22 85 51 27
Fax: 22 85 50 35
Email:
Web page: http://www.oekonomi.uio.no/indexe.html
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Related research

Keywords: Inequality; polarization; social class; economic growth; capital market frictions;

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References

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Citations

Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. Marx and Solow
    by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2011-10-07 13:30:00
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Cited by:
  1. Modalsli, Jørgen Heibø, 2011. "Polarization, Risk and Welfare in General Equilibrium," Memorandum 27/2011, Oslo University, Department of Economics.

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