This article presents a classical-Marxian model of catching up wherein the leader
country employs a technique with higher labor productivity and lower capital
productivity than the follower’s technique. The follower’s
higher profit rate allows for faster capital accumulation than the
leader’s. During the catching up phase, labor productivity rises while
capital productivity and profit rate decline in the follower country. In
addition, we discuss some stylized facts of catching up in China, Japan, and
India in relation to the United States between 1980 and 2014. Catching up
occurred when capital accumulation was higher in the followers. However, a high
capital accumulation in the follower country can reduce capital productivity and
profit rate to a level lower than the leader’s, putting the process at
risk.
AbramovitzMoses. 1986. Catching up, forging ahead,
and falling behind. Journal of Economic
History66 (2):
385–406.
2.
AmsdenAlice H.2001. The Rise of “The Rest”: Challenges to
the West from Late-Industrializing Economies.
Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
3.
BasuDeepankarDasDebarshi. 2018. Profitability in
India’s organized manufacturing sector: The role of technology,
distribution and demand. Cambridge Journal of
Economics42 (1): 137–53.
DuménilGérardLévyDominique. 1995. A stochastic model of
technical change, application to the US Economy
(1869–1989). Metroeconomica46 (3): 213–45.
6.
DuménilGérardLévyDominique. 2010. The classical Marxian
evolutionary model of technical change. In Handbook
of Alternative Theories of Economic Growth, ed. SetterfieldMark, 243–76. Aldershot:
Edward Elgar.
7.
DuménilGérardLévyDominique. 2016. Technology and distribution
in managerial capitalism: The chain of historical trajectories à la
Marx and countertendential traverses. Science and
Society80: 530–49.
8.
FeenstraRobert C.InklaarRobertTimmerMarcel P. 2015. The next generation of the
Penn World Table. American Economic Review105 (10): 3150–82.
9.
FoleyDuncan K.MichlThomas R. 1999. Growth and Distribution.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
10.
FoleyDuncan K.MichlThomas R.TavaniDaniele. 2018. Growth and Distribution,
2nd edition.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press.
11.
GerschenkronAlexander. 1962. Economic Backwardness in Historical
Perspective. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
12.
HultonCharles R.WycoffFrank C. 1981. The measurement of economic
depreciation. In Depreciation, Inflation, and the
Taxation of Income from Capital, ed. HultenCharles, 81–125.
Washington, DC: Urban
Institute Books.
13.
KaldorNicholas. 1970. The case for regional
policies. Scottish Journal of Political
Economy17 (3): 337–48.
14.
KennedyCharles. 1964. Induced bias in innovation
and the theory of distribution. Economic
Journal74 (295): 541–47.
15.
LavoieMarc. 2006. Introduction to Post-Keynesian
Economics. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan.
16.
LiKaiYueHengZhaoLongkai. 2009. Ownership, institutions, and
capital structure: Evidence from China. Journal of
Comparative Economics37 (3): 471–90.
17.
LiMinqi. 2017. Profit, accumulation, and
crisis: Long-term movement of the profit rate in China, Japan, and the
United States. The Chinese Economy50 (6):
381–404.
18.
LibmanEmilianoMontecinoJuan A.RazmiArslan. 2017. Sustained Investment
Surges. Working Paper No. 2017-09, Department of
Economics. Amherst, MA: University of
Massachusetts. Accessed at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/econ_workingpaper/225/
19.
LoayzaNormanSchmidt-HebbelKlausServénLuis. 2000. Saving in developing
countries: An overview. World Bank Economic
Review14 (3):
393–414.
20.
MaddisonAngus. 1995a. Explaining the Economic Performance
of Nations: Essays in Time and Space.
Aldershot: Edward
Elgar.
21.
MaddisonAngus. 1995b. Monitoring the World Economy
1820–1992. Paris:
OECD Development Centre.
22.
MarglinStephen. 1986. Growth, Distribution, and
Prices. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
23.
MarquettiAdalmir A.2003. Analyzing historical and regional patterns of
technical change from a classical-Marxian perspective.
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization52 (2):
191–202.
24.
MarquettiAdalmir A. 2017. Extended Penn World Tables version
6. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:
Departamento de Economia,
PUCRS.
25.
MarquettiAdalmir A.PorsseMelody. 2017. Padrões de
mudança técnica nas economias Latino-Americanas:
1963–2008 [Patterns of technical change in Latin American economies:
1963–2008]. Economia e. Sociedade26 (2): 459–82.
26.
MarxKarl. 1981. Capital: A Critique of Political
Economy, Vol. 3. London:
Penguin.
27.
McCombieJohn S.ThirlwallAnthony P. 1994. Economic Growth and the
Balance-of-Payments Constraint. New
York: St Martin’s
Press.
28.
McQuinnKieranWhelanKarl. 2007. Conditional convergence and
the dynamics of the capital–output ratio.
Journal of Economic Growth12 (2): 159–84.
29.
PerezCarlota. 2003. Technological Revolutions and
Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages.
Cheltenham: Edward
Elgar.
30.
PerezCarlotaSoeteLuc. 1988. Catching up in technology:
Entry barriers and windows of opportunity. In
Technical Change and Economic Theory, eds. DosiGiovanniFreemanChristopherNelsonRichardSoeteLuc, 458–79. London:
Francis Pinter.
31.
PritchettLant. 1997. Divergence, big
time. Journal of Economic Perspectives11 (3):
3–17.
32.
RibeiroRafael S. M.McCombieJohnLimaGilberto T. 2016. Exchange rate, income
distribution and technical change in a balance-of-payments constrained
growth model. Review of Political Economy28 (4): 545–65.
33.
RicardoDavid. 1911. The Principles of Political Economy
and Taxation. London:
J.M. Dent & Sons.
34.
SolowRobert. 1956. A contribution to the theory
of economic growth. Quarterly Journal of
Economics70 (1):
65–94.
35.
SraffaPiero. 1960. Production of Commodities by Means
of Commodities: Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory.
Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
36.
SzirmaiAdam. 2012. Industrialization as an
engine of growth in developing countries, 1950–2005.
Structural Change and Economic Dynamics23 (4): 406–20.
37.
TavaniDanieleZamparelliLuca. 2017. Endogenous technical change
in alternative theories of growth and income distribution.
Journal of Economic Surveys31 (5):
1272–1303.
