The reflections in this article stem from Andreatta’s 1958 analysis on Income distribution and
capital accumulation, in the form of a stylized interpretation of his thought as a political economist.
His theoretical analyses are reinterpreted with particular attention to the effects of innovation on income
distribution and prices in relation to different types of markets. After the 1958 monograph Andreatta
elaborates and publishes various writings with a focus on three main themes.
The first theme regards how the choice of methods and the related inter-sectoral aspects of technology
adopted in one sector influence the development of other sectors. The second theme, planning,
is viewed especially in relation to developing countries. The third theme concerns that of the
economics of research aimed at identifying new development strategies. From this analysis emerges
an authoritative economist with a very eclectic post-Keynesian approach and without a priori preclusions
of other theoretical approaches.
Key words: Income distribution; Growth; Development Strategies; Technological Changes; Planning;
post-Keynesian approach.
JEL Classification: C61; E12; E25; E64; O11; O33; O41.
The present work contributes to the debate on the theory of the firm. We focus our attention on three aspects: the role of the entrepreneur, the importance of co-ordination mechanisms within and outside the firm, and the fact that the growth of the firm may be governed by stochastic processes. The emphasis on the entrepreneur is justified by the fact that the latter has been often forgotten by the theory. The attention to co-ordination is important in pointing out that firms are not islands closely organised inside and are not connected with other firms and consumers only by pure market relations; here we recall various analyses concerned with business groups. Finally, we refer to Gibrat’s Law as a possible explanation of firms’ growth processes, together with other explanations. Key words: Entrepreneur, Firm size, Firm growth. JEL Classification: L25, L26, M21.
This paper shows that Pigou’s theory of unemployment, contrary to what Keynes thought, does
not assume states of full employment only, but offers an analysis of situations of persistent underemployment
which are not necessarily associated with labour market supply factors. Indeed, Pigou’s
«classical theory» assigns a significant role to aggregate demand in the determination of mass unemployment,
although Pigou was very cautious as regards the feasibility of demand policies as a means
for achieving full employment. The modern theory of the natural rate of unemployment, as empirically
developed in the context of the NAIRU approach, claims to provide an explanation of equilibrium
unemployment based on labour market supply factors. After showing the weak operational
content of the modern NAIRU approach, this paper emphasises the theoretical distance between
models developed within this approach and Pigou’s «classical theory» of unemployment
Key words: Unemployment, Keynesian theory, Pigou, NAIRU.
JEL Classification: B30, J01.
By focusing on the relationship between fiscal policy and the trade account this study will attempt
to provide an insight into the empirical merits of the relationship between government expenditures
and imports. To this aim an ARDL cointegration approach has been applied for the first time
to a dataset spanning the Greek economy from 1970 to 2007 . The results obtained provide valuable
insights into the direct effect of changes in government expenditure on import demand.
Key words: government expenditure, trade account, ARDL, cointegration.
JEL Classification: F32, E62.
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