This essay works out the implications of a neglected asymmetry in a capitalist economy between the capitalist’s separability from capital and the laborer’s inseparability from his working capacities. Capitalists organize production because they own capital; if they lack the skills or...

This paper proposes three tasks. It briefly delineates the character of the civilizing mission and the interests it served, especially the colonization of Asia and Africa. In addition, the claims of the civilizing mission and the neoclassical theory of trade are tested empirically by comparing...

We test the structuralist hypothesis that industrialization is growth enhancing due to inherent dynamic efficiences of externalities. We used four data sets ranging over different country samples and in all cases found industry’s contribution to economic growth significantly exceeded its share...

This paper tests Hirschman's hypothesis which suggests that relative labour productivity in LDCs vis a vis DCs may be higher in process-centered than in product-centered industries. This test makes allowances for comparisons to be made and similar wages in LDCs and DCs. The results do not...

This paper seeks to test Arthur Lewis' hypothesis of the dependence in the first stage of development, of the savings rate on the relative share of the capitalist sector. Using industry as a proxy for the capitalist sector, the results of our cross-country analysis provide strong confirmation of...

The development literature has long argued that industrialization generates dynamic efficiencies which result in cost-reduction and acceleration in savings or investment. This paper presents results which suggest that the level of industrial activity, as well as the growth rate, contribute to...

A review of the literature on historical comparisons of levels of development suggests that disparities between now and advanced and lagging countries around 1760 were most likely quite small and, if extreme observations at both ends are excluded, probably nonexistent. When purchasing power...

This paper works out some of the basic properties of an economy where energy is the driving force behind all economic activities. The economy now consists of streams of energy conversions that direct energy to the production of goods and services. The focus on energy generates a variety of...

Constant returns to scale (CRS) is one of the corner-stones of the competitive general equilibrium paradigm of neoclassical economics. This note argues that the equilibrium solutions of this paradigm are not compatible with CRS. CRS implies that all producers (whatever their scale of production)...