The fund-flow approach. A critical survey

Giuseppe Vittucci Marzetti

No 1019, Department of Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia

Abstract: The fund-flow approach to production theory was first proposed by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen almost half a century ago. Since then, from time to time it has received attention, but, probably because of its analytical complexity and difficulty to deliver sound "operational conclusions", it is now almost abandoned. The approach has been also recently criticized for its instrumental assumption of constant efficiency of funds, by emphasizing its limitations in addressing issues related to fixed capital depreciation. The paper critically surveys Georgescu-Roegen's original model, together with the later developments and modifications. It also discusses the recent criticisms. The conclusion is that, despite its drawbacks, the fund-flow approach has a "competitive advantage" in the actual description of production as a process unfolding in time and entailing a temporal coordination between different elements. In this respect, it seems that most of its fruitful applications have yet to come.

Keywords: Fund-flow model; Georgescu-Roegen; Production theory; Returns to scale; Technical coefficients (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B29 B59 C67 D24 L23 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.unitn.it/files/download/8303/19_10.vittucci.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
Journal Article: THE FUND-FLOW APPROACH: A CRITICAL SURVEY (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:trn:utwpde:1019

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Department of Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Luciano Andreozzi ().