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The rate of interest as a macroeconomic distribution parameter: Horizontalism and Post-Keynesian models of distribution of growth

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  • Hein, Eckhard

Abstract

We review the main arguments put forward against the horizontalist view of endogenous credit and money and an exogenous rate of interest under the control of monetary policies. We argue that the structuralist arguments put forward in favour of an endogenously increasing interest rate when investment and economic activity are rising, due to increasing indebtedness of the firm sector or decreasing liquidity in the commercial bank sector, raise major doubts from a macroeconomic perspective. This is shown by means of examining the effect of increasing capital accumulation on the debt-capital ratio of the firm sector in a simple Kaleckian distribution and growth model. In particular we show that rising (falling) capital accumulation may be associated with a falling (rising) debt-capital ratio for the economy as a whole and hence with the ‘paradox of debt’. Therefore, the treatment of the rate of interest as an exogenous macroeconomic distribution parameter in Post-Keynesian distribution and growth models seems to be well founded.

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  • Hein, Eckhard, 2010. "The rate of interest as a macroeconomic distribution parameter: Horizontalism and Post-Keynesian models of distribution of growth," MPRA Paper 23372, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:23372
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    Cited by:

    1. Eckhard Hein, 2017. "Post-Keynesian macroeconomics since the mid 1990s: main developments," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 14(2), pages 131-172, September.
    2. Alejandro Rodríguez Arana, 2015. "The share of wages in national income and its effects in the short and long run economic activity and growth," Working Papers 0215, Universidad Iberoamericana, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    interest rate; horizontalism; distribution; debt; capital accumulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E43 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Interest Rates: Determination, Term Structure, and Effects
    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers

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