Die Entwicklung des österreichischen Volkseinkommens und seiner Hauptkomponenten 1956 bis 1973

Summary

The study ist based on the work of M. Kalecki who anticipated the main elements of the Keynesian theory by constructing a dynamic modell of business cycles. Kalecki's theory includes i.a. a theory of profits, saving, income distribution and investment decisions. Until he died in 1970 Kalecki never ceased in his endeavour to adapt his intuition to the new questions posed by the postwar developments in the industrialised capitalist countries. This led him to develop a theory of growth that incorporated the problems of effective demand; he succeeded in making his theory operational in the field of empirical economic analysis.

The authors of the study apply Kalecki's method to data on the Austrian GNP and its main components during 1955–1973. (Mr. Szeworski, while being one of Kalecki's assistants in the sixties, applied the analytical method to an investigation of the economic development in some of the most important capitalist economies together with Kalecki.)

Chapter 1. represents an introduction into the analytical method and its foundation in Kalecki's work. At first we show how to distinguish that part of production which is subject to the laws of motion of a capitalist economy more precisely than is usual from the part which is not. This serves to open the way to a better understanding of the influences of government activities. With the same intention taxes are divided into consumption-diminishing and accumulation-absorbing taxes. All this results in a modified concept of GNP, in volume as well as in arrangement.

Chapter 2. investigates the long-term development of the Austrian economy; it makes evident its chief characteristics and discusses possible reasons emphasizing the importance of foreign trade. An examination of the changes in the main components of GNP leads us to observe an increase in the importance of governmental intervention. Finally, income distribution is shown to tend towards ‘increasing polarisation’ — which means increasing shares of corporate profits and income of employees in the national income.