IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mes/postke/v31y2009i4p707-727.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is there a growth imperative in capitalist economies? a circular flow perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Mathias Binswanger

Abstract

This paper postulates the existence of a growth imperative in capitalist economies. The argument is based on a simple circular flow model of a pure credit economy, where production takes time. In this economy, positive growth rates are necessary in the long run in order to enable firms to make profits in the aggregate. If the growth rate falls below a certain positive threshold level, firms will make losses. Under these circumstances, they will go out of business, which moves the whole economy into a downward spiral. According to the model presented, capitalist economies can either grow (at a sufficiently high rate) or shrink if the growth rate falls below the positive threshold level. Therefore, a zero growth economy is not feasible in the long run.

Suggested Citation

  • Mathias Binswanger, 2009. "Is there a growth imperative in capitalist economies? a circular flow perspective," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(4), pages 707-727, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:mes:postke:v:31:y:2009:i:4:p:707-727
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://mesharpe.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=M025558361146707
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tim Jackson & Peter Victor & Ali Asjad Naqvi, 2016. "Towards a Stock-Flow Consistent Ecological Macroeconomics. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 114," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 58788, April.
    2. Javier Lopez Bernardo, 2016. "A post-Keynesian theory for the yield on equity markets," Working Papers PKWP1613, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    3. Cahen-Fourot, Louison & Lavoie, Marc, 2016. "Ecological monetary economics: A post-Keynesian critique," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 163-168.
    4. Richters, Oliver & Siemoneit, Andreas, 2019. "Wachstumszwang – eine Übersicht," ZOE Discussion Papers 3, ZOE. institute for future-fit economies, Bonn.
    5. Barrett, Adam B., 2018. "Stability of Zero-growth Economics Analysed with a Minskyan Model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 228-239.
    6. Mihail Busu & Carmen Lenuta Trica, 2019. "Sustainability of Circular Economy Indicators and Their Impact on Economic Growth of the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-13, October.
    7. Richters, Oliver & Siemoneit, Andreas, 2017. "Fear of stagnation? A review on growth imperatives," VÖÖ Discussion Papers 6/2017, Vereinigung für Ökologische Ökonomie e.V. (VÖÖ).
    8. Adam B. Barrett, 2017. "Stability of zero-growth economics analysed with a Minskyan model," Papers 1704.08161, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2017.
    9. Giovanni Bernardo & Emanuele Campiglio, 2014. "A simple model of income, aggregate demand and the process of credit creation by private banks," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 381-405, August.
    10. Eckhard Hein & Valeria Jimenez, 2022. "The macroeconomic implications of zero growth: a post-Keynesian approach," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 19(1), pages 41-60, April.
    11. Sebastian Strunz & Bartosz Bartkowski & Harry Schindler, 2017. "Is there a monetary growth imperative?," Chapters, in: Peter A. Victor & Brett Dolter (ed.), Handbook on Growth and Sustainability, chapter 15, pages 326-355, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Wenzlaff, Ferdinand & Kimmich, Christian & Richters, Oliver, 2014. "Theoretische Zugänge eines Wachstumszwangs in der Geldwirtschaft," ZÖSS-Discussion Papers 45, University of Hamburg, Centre for Economic and Sociological Studies (CESS/ZÖSS).
    13. Steve Waddell & Sandra Waddock & Simone Martino & Jonny Norton, 2023. "Emerging Economic Operating Infrastructure to Support Wellbeing Economies," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 63-88, April.
    14. Jackson, Tim & Victor, Peter A., 2015. "Does credit create a ‘growth imperative’? A quasi-stationary economy with interest-bearing debt," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 32-48.
    15. Richters, Oliver & Siemoneit, Andreas, 2017. "Wachstumszwänge: Ressourcenverbrauch und Akkumulation als Wettbewerbsverzerrungen," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 169-182.
    16. Richters, Oliver & Siemoneit, Andreas, 2019. "Growth imperatives: Substantiating a contested concept," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 126-137.
    17. Urban Sušnik, 2016. "Janus Ante Portas," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 48(3), pages 417-437, September.
    18. Dittmer, Kristofer, 2015. "100 percent reserve banking: A critical review of green perspectives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 9-16.
    19. Richters, Oliver & Siemoneit, Andreas, 2017. "Consistency and stability analysis of models of a monetary growth imperative," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 114-125.
    20. Joe Ament, 2019. "Toward an Ecological Monetary Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-20, February.
    21. Richters, Oliver & Siemoneit, Andreas, 2019. "Marktwirtschaft reparieren: Entwurf einer freiheitlichen, gerechten und nachhaltigen Utopie," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 213814, July.
    22. Auerbach, Paul, 2019. "Productivity Panics – Polemics and Realities," Economics Discussion Papers 2019-3, School of Economics, Kingston University London.
    23. Richters, Oliver & Siemoneit, Andreas, 2020. "System change, not climate change? Marktwirtschaft zwischen Utopie und Wachstumszwang," ZOE Discussion Papers 5, ZOE. institute for future-fit economies, Bonn.
    24. Mair, Simon & Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2020. "A tale of two utopias: Work in a post-growth world," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    25. Oliver Richters & Andreas Siemoneit, 2018. "The contested concept of growth imperatives: Technology and the fear of stagnation," Working Papers V-414-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2018.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    bank money; credit; growth; profits;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mes:postke:v:31:y:2009:i:4:p:707-727. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/MPKE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.