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SUMMARY S olow's famous contribution to the theory of economic growth is based on the assumption that the savings proportions are the same for all income earners. In this study this restrictive premise is replaced by the assumption that the savings proportions vary according to the different groups of income earners. This paper sets out to analyse the resultant consequences for the long-run equilibrium growth. One essential result is that both the overall savings proportion and the capital-output-ratio are flexible. Their steady-state solutions are, in contrast to the respective solutions in S olow's original paper, dependent on the form of the production function. Moreover, there can be derived certain conditions for the special long-run equilibrium of the Neo-Classical Theorem, which are implying no specific restrictions on the savings proportions of the various groups. Besides, there is shown that on these conditions not only a maximum of total consumption per man is achieved but also an equal distribution of consumption among all groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the consequences of the introduction of the life-cycle hypothesis into an economic growth model with two classes of savers (profits earners and wage earners). Our analysis shows that the determination of the equilibrium interest rate is more flexible than in the corresponding model with constant propensities to save: the results obtained are however basically similar to those obtained in the traditional KALDOR/PASINETTI model. As a matter of fact, the rate of interest turns out to be (a) higher than the natural rate of growth, (b) determined by the behavioural parameters of the profits earners only, and (c) independent of the form of the production function. Looking at the long term properties of the model we show that interest uncertainty may have a stabilizing effect on the equilibrium growth rate of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY A balance of payments adjustment mechanism should be defined as 'any balance of payments disturbance which can be deliberately initiated in order to correct some other disturbance'. The traditional mechanisms, based on changes in exchange rates, prices and incomes, can no longer be applied effectively because they are domestically impalatable. Consequently, governments have come to rely on new ways of initiating countervailing disturbances, among them (a) pressures on surplus countries; (b) changes in foreign tastes; (c) stimulating economic growth; and (d) forming or joining a customs union. In the present disequilibrium system, new adjustment mechanisms like these are being widely used, and are in fact becoming the only effective means for maintaining international equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]