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2015 | Buch

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Growth, Employment, Inequality, and the Environment

Unity of Knowledge in Economics: Volume II

verfasst von: Adolfo Figueroa

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" , Springer Professional "Technik"

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Über dieses Buch

Growth, Employment, Inequality, and the Environment deals with the fundamental economic problems of our time: employment, inequality, the environment, and quality of life. These exciting new volumes are the first of their kind in which these problems are analyzed using a unified theory framework.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

The Long Run: Growth and Distribution

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Toward a Unified Theory of Capitalism

Abstract

The principal aim of this book is to understand the production and distribution process in the countries of the First World and the Third World, which constitute the capitalist system, considered separately first, and then as a whole. To that end, this study presents three partial theories of capitalism: epsilon, omega, and sigma, which are discussed in volume 1 of this book in chapters 4–7. The partial theories when considered separately do in fact explain the basic short-run features of the First World and Third World.

Adolfo Figueroa

Chapter 2. Education and Human Capital Formation

Abstract

Human capital refers to production skills embodied in workers. According to standard economics, human capital plays an important role in the economic process; on the one hand, human capital is as important as machines and technology in the production process; on the other hand, higher human capital implies higher labor productivity and higher incomes for workers; higher human capital also requires higher schooling years, which give workers the basic capacity to learn skills.

Adolfo Figueroa

Chapter 3. The Epsilon Society: A Dynamic Model

Abstract

This chapter will start with the study of growth and distribution in the capitalist system. Long-run dynamic models for each type of society will be constructed. Environmental interactions with the economic process will be ignored in these models. We discuss the epsilon dynamic model in this chapter.

Adolfo Figueroa

Chapter 4. The Omega Society: A Dynamic Model

Abstract

Omega is an overpopulated and socially homogenous capitalist society. As shown in chapter 5 (volume 1), the marginal productivity of the total labor supply is near zero. Thus, the Walrasian real wage rate would be near zero, which is socially unviable. The labor market cannot operate as Walrasian and thus it will be non-Walrasian. The economic structure of the omega model includes a capitalist sector together with a subsistence sector. Part of the labor force is employed in the capitalist sector and receive wages; the rest, the excess labor supply, is unemployed or self-employed in the subsistence sector.

Adolfo Figueroa

Chapter 5. The Sigma Society: A Dynamic Model

Abstract

As developed in chapter 6 (volume 1), sigma society is an overpopulated and socially heterogeneous capitalist society. People are endowed with unequal amounts of economic assets and also unequal entitlements of political assets. Capitalists own the entire capital stock of society. Workers are endowed with unequal levels of human capital: high and low. Those who have low levels of education are also second-rate citizens; they are called Z-workers. The rest are called X-workers.

Adolfo Figueroa

Chapter 6. Unified Theory of Capitalism: A Growth and Distribution Model

Abstract

The economic growth process has been explained for epsilon, omega, and sigma societies, taken separately. Three partial theories have been presented using particular dynamic models. The question now is whether we have a unified theory that can explain growth and distribution in the capitalist system, taken as a whole.

Adolfo Figueroa

The Very Long Run: Economic Growth and the Environment

Frontmatter

Chapter 7. Economic Growth under Environmental Stress

Abstract

In the economic growth process shown in previous chapters, dynamic equilibrium implied continuous output per worker increasing over time in each type of capitalist society. The economic process was seen as a mechanical one, for economic growth could proceed forever. There were no limits to economic growth. For one thing, the dynamic models ignored the interactions between the economic process and the biophysical environment.

Adolfo Figueroa

Chapter 8. Land Resources and Food Supply

Abstract

Could the limit to economic growth come from food supply? In light of the evolutionary theory of economic growth presented in the last chapter, the answer depends upon whether land resources that are required to produce food are renewable or nonrenewable. This chapter will address this question through an entropic theoretical model and submit its empirical predictions to the falsification process.

Adolfo Figueroa

Chapter 9. Economic Growth and Quality of Society

Abstract

The unified theory of capitalism has so far shown that output per capita over time is not the only outcome of the economic growth process. The other endogenous variables include output distribution among social groups in society and the degree of degradation of the biophysical environment. Hence, in the economic growth process, the same exogenous variables of the theory determine the values of these three endogenous variables.

Adolfo Figueroa

The Political Economy of the Unified Theory

Frontmatter

Chapter 10. Science-Based Public Policies

Abstract

Public policies need positive and normative sciences. Positive science is what this study has presented so far. It is another name for factual sciences. Normative science is a formal science and studies the logical system underlying ethics, values, and norms. In short, while positive science seeks to answer the question of how the world is, normative science seeks to answer how the world ought to be.

Adolfo Figueroa

Backmatter

Titel: Growth, Employment, Inequality, and the Environment
verfasst von: Adolfo Figueroa
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan US
Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-50697-9
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-70106-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137506979