Finance, Monetary Policy and Investment

In this paper we attempt to develop some basic lines of a political economy perspective of the impact of finance and monetary policy on investment. We argue that the structure of capital, particularly the type of the relation between the industrial and the financial sector determines, to an extent, the way that finance affects investment. The domain in which this effect takes place is the distribution of income. Hence, this perspective integrates financial and real variables and argues that their interaction, which is institutionally and historically defined, acts as a main source of influence on investment and industrial accumulation in capitalism. Yet, we econometrically estimate some of our fundamental hypotheses, using data from the USA.