The acceleration principle is normally attributed
to Aftalion (Les crises périodiques de
surproduction, Paris 1913, vol. 2, pp. 35670),
JM Clark (Business Acceleration and the Law of
Demand: A Technical Factor in Economic Cycles,
Journal of Political Economy, 25, March 1917, pp.
217-235) and C.F. Bickerdicke (A non-monetary
cause of fluctuations in employment, Economic
Journal 24 (1914) , September, pp. 35770)
Harrod picked it up late in 1934 from the
exposition in a draft of Haberler's Prosperity
and Depression titled "Systematic analysis of the
theories of the business cycle" (mimeo, August
1934). For an account see my own The making of
Harrod's dynamics, Macmillan 1999, section 3.1
(in the remainder of the chapter I relate how he
gathered the other pieces of his mechanism and joined them together).
On JM Clark on this issue, see L. Fiorito, An
Institutionalist's Journey into the Years of High
Theory: John Maurice Clark on the
Accelerator-Multiplier Interaction, Journal of
the History of Economic Thought, December 2007, v. 29, iss. 4, pp. 437-52
Daniele Besomi
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