Growth, income distribution and autonomous public expenditures

Abstract

This article presents a Kaleckian model which is enriched by introducing autonomous public expenditures growing at an exogenous rate. We show that the usual properties are not affected in the short run: an increase in the profit share thus causes a decrease in the rate of capital accumulation (growth is wage-led). But long run properties are strongly affected: public expenditures play a role of automatic stabilizer such that accumulation rate converges toward the growth rate of public expenditures. The effect of a change in income distribution on the growth rate is then only transient. However, the impacts on the variables in level (output, capital stock, labor...) remain permanent.