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Date:
Fri Mar 31 17:19:05 2006
Message-ID:
<v02110101abdfb1fefad1@[148.187.3.18]>
Subject:
From:
[log in to unmask] (Daniele Besomi)
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Dear HES-ers, 
        I have recently concluded the first draft of a monograph on "The 
Making of Harrod's Dynamics", which is now in print in a working papers 
series in order to circulate it. I have printed a few copies in excess to 
the number of readers I know to be interested in my essay, so that if any 
HES-er could care to read it, I would be glad to send him/her a copy, and 
would really be grateful to anyone who could let me have his/her comments. 
        In order to give you a rough idea as to the subject matter, here 
follows the table of contents; however, I will be glad to provide any 
additional information. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 
Foreword and Acknowledgements   vii 
Preface         viii 
 
INTRODUCTION: the story of a failure    1 
1. Harrod's dynamics and its canonical interpretations  1 
2. The prize to be won: the pertinence of the approach  5 
3. A case study 9 
4. Harrod's dynamics in its making      14 
5. The cultural memory  20 
6. A guided visit through a decade of debates   31 
Part One - Prolegomena 
 
Ch. I       Imperfect Competition and the Possibility of Trade Cycle 
Theorising             32 
1. Towards a general theory of value    34 
2. Imperfect competition and the phenomenology of the trade cycle       38 
3. Increasing returns, instability, and the possibility of a dynamic theory 
41 
4. Imperfect competition and economic dynamics  44 
 
Ch. II      Money, Prices and Productivity in a Progressive Society: 
Activities, 1932-34    49 
1. Price fluctuations and the trade cycle: 1925-27      50 
1.1. Prices and distribution    50 
1.2. Prices and production      52 
2. Cheap money and budget deficit       53 
3. Unemployment and the trade cycle     60 
4. The advancing community      76 
5. Harrod's dynamics in 1934    84 
 
Ch. III     Harrod on Saving and Investment, 1934-35        86 
1. Harrod on Hayek's forced saving process      87 
2. Robertson and the 'Grand monetary tautology' 94 
3. Haberler on saving, hoarding and velocity of circulation     98 
4. Kahn and the 'simple minded' definition of saving    100 
5. The simultaneous identity between saving and investment      105 
6. An ex-ante/ex-post interpretation of the debate      111 
7. Harrod's trade cycle analysis before the General Theory      112 
 
Ch. IV      Towards The Trade Cycle 114 
1. The accelerator      115 
2. Saving, investment and the General Theory    120 
3. The review of Durbin's Problem of Credit Policy      122 
4. Prices and finance   124 
5. Chronology           127 
 
Part Two - Developments 
 
Ch. V       Statics and Dynamics in The Trade Cycle 133 
1. The Trade Cycle      135 
2. Static and dynamic forces, and equilibrium   140 
3. Statics versus dynamics      147 
4. The link between static and dynamic laws     158 
 
Ch. VI      Arguing out The Trade Cycle     163 
1. Real and monetary analysis.  164 
1.1. Money and prices   164 
1.2. Velocity of circulation as a link between statics and dynamics     168 
1.3. Harrod on Keynes on prices and money       175 
2. The rate of interest and investment decisions        182 
2.1. The rate of interest in The Trade Cycle    182 
2.2. Saving, investment, and the rate of change of the interest rate    186 
2.3. Harrod and the Oxford Economists' Research Group on the rate of 
interest           188 
3. The hidden face of investment: deepening     193 
3.1. Investment and capital intensity   194 
3.2. The classification of inventions   201 
3.3. Interest, wages and round-aboutness        207 
4. The return of saving and investment  210 
 
Ch. VII     Interlude: Harrod on Method     217 
1. Axioms and basic empirical laws      218 
2. Harrod and Keynes on models and 'the external world' 229 
3. Instantaneous and sequential analysis: Harrod and the econometricians 
234 
 
Ch. VIII    From a Dynamics of Causes to a Dynamics of Effects: The "Essay 
in Dynamic Theory"       240 
1. Chronology           241 
2. Basics of the model  244 
3. The fundamental equation     245 
4. The Accelerator: actual, normal and equilibrium values       248 
5. The topic Harrod and Keynes actually discussed: the validity clause for 
the fundamental equation     254 
6. The topic Harrod and Keynes ought to have discussed: instantaneous 
analysis  259 
7. Ex-ante and ex-post: more about the accelerator      264 
8. The case of a failure        267 
 
Ch. IX      Beyond the Traditional Economics        273 
1. Years of high criticism      274 
2. Sraffa's criticism and Harrod's imperfect competition        276 
3. Harrod and Keynes on saving, investment, and the rate of interest    278 
4. Statics as a generalisation of traditional theory    282 
5. Dynamics as a complement to statics: a further generalisation        285 
6. Instability as a premise of Harrod's dynamics        290 
7. Beyond traditional theory    294 
 
References              303 
1. Unpublished sources  303 
1.1. Correspondence with Harrod 303 
1.2. Other correspondence       308 
1.3. Unpublished papers and other materials     308 
2. Published sources    310 
 
For any additional information, please contact me privately at the 
following address: 
 
Daniele Besomi 
c.p. 6 
6953 Lugaggia 
Switzerland 
Tel. & fax: +41 91 913635 
 
 
 

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