Kondratieff Waves in the World System Perspective

This chapter analyzes long economic cycles (or waves) known as “Kondratieff waves” (or “K-waves”). It is shown that the analysis of them allows us to understand long-term world-system dynamics, to develop forecasts, to explain crises of the past, as well as the current global economic crisis. This chapter offers a sketch of the history of research on K-waves; it analyzes the nature of Kondratieff waves. It offers a historical and theoretical analysis of K-wave dynamics in the World System framework; and in particular, it studies the influence of the long wave dynamics on the changes of the world GDP growth rates during the last two centuries.