On the Malthusian Theory of Long Swings

A. M. C. Waterman

Canadian Journal of Economics, 1987, vol. 20, issue 2, 257-70

Abstract: In Robert Malthus's Essay on Population economic growth consists of alternating surges of population (during which real wages fall and the rate of profit rises) and capital (during which the reverse occurs). A series of temporary equilibria exists at which wages are maximal, the rate of profit minimal, and fully-employed work force in technically-determined relation to fixed capital stock. Between these equilibria occur episodes of excess labor, below-maximum wages, above minimum profit rate and capital accumulation. Malthus's "ratios" presuppose a logarithmic production function which implies that the full-employment real wage will fall to subsistence, and that the full-employment "wages fund" is constant.

Date: 1987
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