 Post-growth transition, working time reduction, and the question of profitsBasil Oberholzer Ecological Economics, 2023, vol. 206, issue C Abstract: The ecological macroeconomics literature has developed models, which outline the transition from today's growth-dependent economies to post-growth systems where output can be stabilized to limit resource consumption while good living conditions and high employment are ensured. Working time reduction plays a pivotal role in those transitional strategies to relax the trade-off between economic growth and unemployment. This analysis contributes to the research by developing a macroeconomic model where, in contrast to the existing models, a sufficient profit rate is the precondition of any private-sector economic activity. It is shown that under such assumptions working time reduction is not enough to stabilize output but is a threat to macroeconomic stability. To make the post-growth transition successful, working time reduction must go along with supporting economic policies and macroeconomic governance including public investment, which controls the private-sector profit rate to avoid instability and unemployment. Keywords: Economic growth; Post-growth; Working time reduction; Profits (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:206:y:2023:i:c:s0921800923000113 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2023.107748 Access Statistics for this article Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier |
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