STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The aim of this study is to analyse Pasinetti’s contribution in a historical perspective, the purpose being to compare it with the recent literature on endogenous growth. A few decades after its initial formulation, it is now possible to see how Pasinetti’s inquiry is part of a wider research programme which aims to establish the conditions and possibilities of dynamic macroeconomics. From this point of view, his model can be considered a fundamental stage in the evolution of a research programme which we can define as “linear dynamic macroeconomics”. From the analytical point of view, the essential characteristic of this approach to macroeconomic dynamics consists in assuming a linear relation between the accumulated factor and the product, therefore abandoning the neoclassical viewpoint of scarcity. This line of reflection began with Von Neumann’s study of 1937, but was given decisive impetus by the Keynesian revolution via Harrod’s model. Pasinetti’s endeavour was to extend these two important models in an original direction. Recently, this research programme has received new impulse within the theory of endogenous growth (Romer 1986, Lucas 1988), since one of its distinctive features is the abandonment of the traditional assumption of the decreasing marginal productivity of the accumulated factor. It is therefore interesting to analyse how Pasinetti’s work can be considered in the light of the latest developments, in order to bring out the similarities but also the substantial differences that still remain.