Conflict and Effective Demand in Economic Growth

All capitalist economies experience fluctuations in employment and economic activity around a long term growth rate. This book provides an explanation for this cyclical pattern of growth. The author considers whether the causes of fluctuations in output and employment are to be found outside the system or within it, and whether the long term growth rate corresponds to the growth of the labor force. Important Marxian and Keynesian insights into the growth process are confirmed within a rigorous framework of analysis that does not exclude the traditional neoclassical mechanisms.

All capitalist economies experience fluctuations in employment and economic activity around a long-term growth rate. How is this cyclical pattern of growth to be explained? Are the causes of fluctuations in output and employment to be found outside the system or are they intrinsic to the system? Will the long-term growth rate correspond to the growth of the labour force? It is the search for answers to these questions which motivates Peter Skott's analysis.