1st Edition

Unequal Development and Capitalism Catching Up and Falling Behind in the Global Economy

186 Pages 54 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

186 Pages 54 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Unequal development has been a defining characteristic of capitalism. Throughout history, countries and regions have exhibited differences in labor productivity growth – a key determinant in poverty reduction and development – and although some nations may catch up with the productivity levels or well-being of developed economies at times, others fall behind. This book explores these processes of... Read more

Introduction: capitalist transformations and unequal development   

 Economic thinking

 Capitalist transformation

 Profit rate and capital accumulation

 Environment crisis, population, and personal income distribution 

The book's structure and how to navigate it 

                   
Chapter 1

Measuring technical change, catching up, and falling behind globally       

Measuring growth and distribution

Representing technical change

The dataset

Distribution, growth, and technical change worldwide: a first look 

Stylized facts 

 

Chapter 2

A growth model in the classical-Marxian tradition

The standard classical-Marxian model

The classical-Marxian model of catching up and falling behind

Summary and extensions of the model

 

Chapter 3

The US economy from the demise of the Golden Age to the crisis of neoliberalism

From the Golden Age to the crisis of neoliberalism   

Technical change and distribution

Capital accumulation, profits, neoliberalism and growth

Hegemony, neoliberalism and capital accumulation

 

Chapter 4

Running fast: catching up in Asia

A brief historical perspective of modern Asia

Economic growth in Modern Asia

Technical change and profit rate: industrialization, institutional change, oil rent, and conflicts  

The links between profitability, capital accumulation and catch up      
Dilemmas of catching up, profitability, neoliberalism and environmental sustainability

 

Chapter 5

From hope to frustration: falling behind in Latin America

Neoliberalism in Latin America: a brief account
Technical change, profit rate and premature deindustrialization

Profit rate, capital accumulation and neoliberalism

Whither Latin America: leaving neoliberalism? 

 

Chapter 6

Restarting capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe

From breakdown to peripheral capitalism

Technical change and profit rate before and after the fall

Capital accumulation in the Central and Eastern European countries

Restarting capitalism and unequal development: winners and losers

 

Chapter 7

The forgotten continent: falling behind in Africa

A brief history of African countries after independence

Technical regress and the profit rate in African countries 

Natural resources, profit rate, and accumulation

The new frontier in the making

 

Conclusion: worldwide lessons for catching-up

The necessary conditions for catching up

Is (re)industrialization synonymous with catching up and reducing backwardness?

Neoliberal capitalism and uneven development

A new world ahead

Biography

Adalmir Antonio Marquetti is Professor of Economics at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Alessandro Miebach is Associate Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Henrique Morrone is Associate Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.