Harrod’s Legacy: Pulling It All Together

Roy Harrod was one of the most prolific economists of the twentieth century. At the same time, he is also an underrated economist. Harrod’s wide-ranging contributions exhibit three common characteristics. First, they are part of a far-reaching and ambitious, albeit incomplete, project to establish the foundations for economic dynamics. Second, they reflect Harrod’s perennial concern with the practical applications and aspects of his theoretical contributions. Third, most of his writings include the international dimension, and they exemplify his preoccupation with the reform of the international economic architecture. Mainstream economists portray Harrod as having asked the right questions in business cycle (dynamics) and growth theory. But he is ultimately considered to have been unable to provide the foundation for their future developments. Keynesian and post-Keynesian economists highlight the contributions of Harrod to Marx’s schemes of reproduction, to the generalization of the Keynesian Revolution, the development of dynamics along non-mainstream lines, and the balance-of-payments constraint approach to economic growth.