KALDOR (Nicholas).
Essays on Value and Distribution. [with:] Essays on Economic Stability and Growth.
The first two volumes of Kaldor’s voluminous collected economic essays, published simultaneously in 1960, which would reach nine volumes by 1978.
‘Kaldor’s original theory of income distribution made profits the cause of the expenditure of entrepreneurs. This led to the Pasinetti paradox and subsequently to an extensive debate between the two Cambridges of England and of Massachusetts. Kaldor then summarized the basic facts to be explained in growth theory – the now famous ‘stylized facts’ – and sought to explain them without recourse to the artificial and exogenous forces used by the neoclassicals. This task led him increasingly to focus upon manufacturing and to increasing returns as fundamental facts of capitalism. The perceived importance of increasing returns also led Kaldor to question and then to object to the stifling role played by equilibrium conditions. Kaldor formulated three ‘growth laws’ that stress the role of cumulative processes and emphasize how success breeds success’ (An Encyclopedia of Keynesian Economics).
From the library of the distinguished American demographer and historian of economic thought Joseph J. Spengler (1902-1991), with his ownership inscriptions to front pastedowns of both volumes.
