A Model of Economic Growth and Long Cycles

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to derive an endogenous growth and cycles model that integrates the general law of capital accumulation, the reserve army of labor, technological change, devaluation of capital, and the law of the tendential fall in the rate of profit. The phase space of this model is analyzed by estimating its equilibrium solutions and exploring its economically meaningful stability properties. The so-derived endogenous growth-and-cycles model is then simulated with realistic parameter values. The solutions of our model display periodicity, which may be treated as long cycles like attractors conditioned by the long-run movement of profitability. The salient feature of our model is the growth of the rate of surplus value, which becomes the regulating variable of our system for it explains the deviations from equilibrium and at the same time provides a realistic solution to Harrodian instability.