Demand-Led Growth Theory: An Historical Approach

Abstract

This paper develops upon the Keynesian theory of demand-led growth in order to provide an analytical framework conducive to explaining economic growth and development in concrete terms consistent with the fundamental idea that growth in output and employment is determined by the growth in aggregate demand. The framework employs an historical approach to identify the main factors and their role in explaining demand-led growth and the accumulation process. The theoretical model developed abandons steady-state conditions by proposing that capacity utilization varies in the long run as well as in the short run to ensure output has the elasticity to accommodate levels of autonomous demand free of any capacity saving constraint. On the basis of our analytical framework, the paper considers the main factors which explain the growth in aggregate demand: first, by examining the variables that determine the ‘super-multiplier’ and what social, institutional and technical conditions can cause its value to change over time; second, by identifying the components of autonomous demand and the main forces explaining their growth; and third, by considering the manner in which technical progress promotes demand-led growth.