Within the demand-led approach to growth, the long-period tendencies of quantities cannot be effectively studied through theoretical positions entailing normal utilization of capacity. Whether in the form of constant or of average normal utilization, this assumption contradicts the supposed autonomy of aggregate demand. Analysis of the operation of the adjustment of capacity to demand suggests that potentially offsetting forces make fully adjusted positions irrelevant. As quantities cannot be assumed to gravitate towards such positions, the relations between quantity variables determined on the normal utilization hypothesis provide a poor guide to the analysis of reality.Growth, Capacity Utilization, Keynesian Long-period Analysis, Accumulation,

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This paper moves in a theoretical context in which the level of economic activity is dependent on aggregate demand in both the long and the short period. It shows that given two simple hypotheses, the economy will exhibit a tendency to grow independently of any increase in the average level of ongoing investment (or any other type of ‘autonomous’ demand) over time. The two hypotheses are (a) that investment oscillates over time and (b) that the community’s marginal propensity to consume is lower when income contracts in slumps than when it increases in booms. This points to a source of growth that is as endogenous to the system, as trade cycles are

In advanced capitalist economies, the asymmetry of aggregate consumption, which decreases to a lesser extent during recessions than it increases during expansions, implies an endogenous source of growth and accumulation. This thesis, put forward in a previous paper co-authored with Pierangelo Garegnani, is here scrutinized in detail and developed in terms of more general assumptions. The connection with similar assumptions on consumption to be found in the literature is also examined and some implications of the hypothesis are drawn regarding the significance of the savings rate