Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Economics 3 15
and in the long run, and because identical or nearly identical standards of living
can be attained with different patterns of consumption or by the use of different
production techniques. Production techniques may be chosen with a view to
ensuring full employment which constitutes, with the possibilities of increased
consumption afforded, one of the social objectives of a socialist State, and one
of the purposes of State intervention in a capitalist economy.
The rate of growth of the economy can, as we have seen, also be approxi-
mately expressed as the arithmetic sum of the rates of growth of employment
and productivity.57
Consequently, the aim, as far as labour productivity in new enterprises is
concerned, should be optimization, and not maximization of average labour
productivity in the economy (which is what the economist should have in mind
in determining the optimum capital output ratio in new plants). A clear-cut
distinction should be made between technological progress (which means less
labour outlays and/or less capital per unit of product), and the question of choos-
ing one among many ‘efficient’ techniques which differ one from the other by
different rates of substitution of capital and lab0ur.5~ Shifting on the ‘production
curve’ from less to more capital-intensive techniques is not tantamount to ‘pro-
gress’ and, in given circumstances, may cause harm by aggravating the under-
utilization of labour resources.
In short, growth theory should help the planner in selecting the rateof growth,
its trends, the pattern of consumption and the production techniques; for we
are concerned not only with the final result at the end of a particular period59
but with consumption and accumulation and their trends through the years.
These various choices are obviously closely inter-related.
The exposition of growth theories made here is largely inspired by Kalecki’s
work, chosen from many possible examples because of the close connexions be-
tween his theoretical work and his experience in actual macro-economic plan-
ning.60 The purpose is not to review what has been achieved by growth theory
research, but to give examples of the methods used and show the nature of the
economist’s ‘workshop’. Certain features of growth theories may now be noted:
a. The use of deductive methods is combined with the introduction of ern-
pirical data into the models as parameters, The use of models implies a full a-
wareness of the successive stages of abstraction from reality to theory and from
theory to the model, and the linking back of results and conclusions to the par-
ticular circumstances and factors included in the model. If the reality is complex,
special precautions must be taken and results carefully modified by successively
discarding simplified initial assumptions.
b. Growth theories have moved away from the stationary economy (in which
the only dynamics considered are the oscillations round a state of equilibrium)
towards the concept of balanced growth,61 understood as a rule as growth with-
out social waste, i.e. growth consistent with the principle of economic ration-
ality.
c. The emphasis on optimization, i.e. the search for solutions that satisfy the
principle of economic rationality. The fact that these solutions areZelative and
partial, and socio-historically conditioned, is fully recognized. An attempt is also