Capitalism's growth imperative
研究竞争市场中资本主义企业面临增长强制,因为不增长政策下利润不确定性导致企业前景不佳,长期破产几乎必然。通过模拟评估破产概率和资本预期值,并发现增长政策虽可能实现增长但无法解决破产问题。
A capitalist firm operating in a competitive market is subject to a growth imperative, because uncertainty about the profit rate under a no-growth policy makes the firm's prospects highly unattractive in finite time and bankruptcy practically certain in the long run. A no-growth policy determines consumption and investment so that they and capital would remain constant over time if the latter's expected return were realised with certainty. Simulation is used to arrive at the probability of bankruptcy by the end of t periods and the expected values of capital and money, for relevant combinations of time and uncertainty under successively more realistic models of a no-growth firm in a competitive market. The sensitivity of the results to variation in the parameters in each of the models is evaluated. Finally, we establish that a plausible growth policy may achieve growth, but the problem of bankruptcy is not resolved. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.